Code Breaking!

    ZM73 goes to Walters World Cameras shop on the Victoria Colonnade in London, where he collects a number of slides which have been made up from a roll of photographic negatives. He returns home, sets up a slide projector, and screen, then closed the blinds. Taking a red coloured pen from his jacket pocket he writes down the letters of Setlzman on a large pad.

    5     20

S  E  L  T

   13     14

Z  M  A  N

The original script has the professor’s name was Saltzman, however that would not have been right when it comes to the code because then there would have been 2 A’s, but then what difference would that have made? None really, because the A being 1 is not used, so they could equally have used the first A being 1 instead of E5. But perhaps that would have made it too easy for ZM73 to calculate, he wouldn’t have had to count the letter A of the alphabet on the finger of one hand, as he does the other three letters. But then again even if they had Saltzman’s name this way, they have to use the ‘A’ in the code, they could equally have used the ‘S’ ‘L’ or ‘N,’ even the ‘Z’ what difference would it have made? It wouldn’t have made any difference what letters were used, the television viewer would never have known!

I’m surprised at No.6, I shouldn’t have thought a man like him would have needed to count the numbers of the alphabet, I would have expected he would know them automatically, seeing as he was adept at using codes which he demonstrated in ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’ Hands up those of you reading this who know the numbers of the alphabet without having to count them out as ZM73 does? And who would need to be able to do so? Code breakers for one, people like those who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII for example.
   After attributing a slide to each of the four numbers he turns on the projector, then one at a time he inserts the fours slides into the slide mount of the projector one after the other. I didn’t think this was possible, that you could only fit one slide at a time into the slide mount, but apparently it is because ZM 73 did it. As he places the slides into the projector at one point he takes his spectacles from the breast pocket of his blazer, and covers the lenses with two different coloured lenses {those of the type which at the time were used to turn ordinary spectacles into sunglasses} these enable ZM73 to discern the message on the screen. Those spectacles are not those belonging to No.6…….just a minute, just a minute…….No.6 doesn’t wear spectacles, and even in his guise of the Colonel ZM73 would not need to wear spectacles his eyes sight would have remained the same wouldn’t it, like his handwriting. So why the sudden need, and where did he get them? And later in the episode, when ZM73 goes to collect the transparencies from the camera shop he’s changed his clothes. No longer dressed in charcoal grey two-piece suit and black polo shirt, he’s in white shirt, tie, grey flannel trousers and double-breasted blazer. Just like the time in ‘Fall Out’ when No.6 was given a change of clothes, the supervisor suggesting to No.6 that they felt he’d feel happier as himself, Nigel Stock changed his clothes as he felt happier as himself, and less uncomfortable as Patrick McGoohan!

Be seeing you