“Transmission will start in five seconds from now. Five, four, three, two, one.”
{Announcer - The General}
It’s all very well telling the students that the Professor’s
lecture will start in five seconds. But there is a flaw to Speedlearn. Yes it
transmits information which is imprinted on the cortex of the brain through the
iris, and that with occasional boosts it’s virtually indelible. And every
student may well be word perfect, exactly the same words perfect, so that you
end up with a row of knowledgeable cabbages. It may well be argued that the
flaw in the educational experiment known as Speedlearn has already been listed,
but not the flaw I’m thinking of. To have the three year history course
indelibly imprinted on the students brains, they must first be seated in front of
a television screen. Without the student doing that, he or she will remain
unaffected by Speedlearn, and remain in ignorance, and quite right too! Up the
Professor, and down with Speedlearn, that’s what I say. Mind you, if I’d have
had a dose of Speedlearn when I was at school I might have passed my maths exam.
Unlike Number 6 I had no head for figures!
Be seeing you
Friday, 20 November 2015
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Bureau of Visual Record
The study of ‘6 Private’ had been duplicated right down to the tiniest detail, nothing was overlooked. There’s even the fireplace, which is just for show of course. Number 6 screwed up his copy of The Tally Ho and threw it into the grate of the fireplace. Just as well he didn’t want to burn it, or start a fire, because there’s nowhere for the smoke to go. The fireplace is false, just for show, besides the cottage has no chimney. That could be a bit awkward in the autumn when the chilly nights start to draw in, more so in the winter when it really gets cold. Because in having no working fireplace, ‘6 Private’ doesn’t appear to have any central heating either, there are no radiators to be seen anywhere in the cottage. What’s more there’s no hot water boiler to provide hot water. I suppose the cottage could have under floor central heating, but the hot water would have to be piped into the cottage from a central hot water reservoir I suppose, but it would take a super conductive water heater to provide hot water for every cottage in The Village. Unless it was super heated coolant from a nuclear power station. Well the electricity has to be provided from somewhere!
Be seeing you
Village Life!
Life in The Village will never be quite the same again! I know Number 1 is supposed to be aboard that rocket, but I cannot help but see a missile carrying a nuclear warhead. The Village has gone ballistic! If either the Russians, the Americans, and yes, even the British, had learned of the launching of this ballistic missile via their monitoring stations, either side would think that the other side had launched a pre-emptive strike. Then they would automatically retaliate, and then the fallout would be far reaching.
The rocket was a Blue Streak rocket superimposed on the film, which was once to have been Britain’s nuclear missile programme. But that was changed, and the Blue Streak was turned over to launching satellites just before the programme was cancelled altogether in 1968. How or even why, should The Village wish to acquire a Blue Streak rocket? But seeing as how they had, The Village Administration would be in need of a scientist to oversee the missile project. So who better than Professor Schnipps, a German scientist who could have worked on the VI and VII rockets during the second World War. Possibly even on the NAZI New York rocket programme.
Be seeing you
The Therapy Zone
ZM73,
according to Janet Portland, had been away a year. In fact the last time she
saw her fiancé was at the final fitting of a dress for her birthday party, one
of yellow silk. She hadn’t seen him since that day. And now this chap, the
Colonel, turns up, living in her fiancés house and driving his car!
In the guise of the Colonel, ZM73 eventually goes to see his former employer, and one time future father-in-law Sir Charles Portland, claiming to be ZM73.
"You claim to be ZM-Seventy-three” says Sir Charles
What follows is ZM73 trying to prove to Sir Charles Portland that he is who he claims to be. But it may well be wondered, as I wonder, why Sir Charles didn't ask "If you are who you claim to be, that of ZM-Seventy-three, where have you been for the past year?" But then it’s quite probable that Sir Charles knew exactly where his once future son-in-law had been, that it might well have been on his word that ZM73 had been abducted to The Village in the first place. And he wouldn’t have been out of The Village then if it hadn’t been for the fact that Sir Charles needed ZM73 to go and find Professor Seltzman!
Be seeing you
In the guise of the Colonel, ZM73 eventually goes to see his former employer, and one time future father-in-law Sir Charles Portland, claiming to be ZM73.
"You claim to be ZM-Seventy-three” says Sir Charles
What follows is ZM73 trying to prove to Sir Charles Portland that he is who he claims to be. But it may well be wondered, as I wonder, why Sir Charles didn't ask "If you are who you claim to be, that of ZM-Seventy-three, where have you been for the past year?" But then it’s quite probable that Sir Charles knew exactly where his once future son-in-law had been, that it might well have been on his word that ZM73 had been abducted to The Village in the first place. And he wouldn’t have been out of The Village then if it hadn’t been for the fact that Sir Charles needed ZM73 to go and find Professor Seltzman!
Be seeing you
Thought For The Day
As an
invited speaker, that’s the former Number 6, a man now held in high regard, was
asked to address the delegates of the Assembly. To make a speech by him, but
for them. But as you will recall the former Number 6 may have started that
speech, but he never completed it. Because although he made several attempts,
each time he began, the delegates shouted him down, refusing to allow him to
speak, and refusing to listen to one single word he uttered. So much shouting
came from the delegates that the man making the speech could not be heard.
I was reliably informed some time ago, how in the 1960's when someone of high ranking, power and position, was asked to speak at the Students union, at any University, the radical section of the Students Union wouldn't let the speaker be heard. They would shout the speaker down, and generally make so much noise that the speaker could not be heard. An interesting parallel don’t you think?
Be seeing you
I was reliably informed some time ago, how in the 1960's when someone of high ranking, power and position, was asked to speak at the Students union, at any University, the radical section of the Students Union wouldn't let the speaker be heard. They would shout the speaker down, and generally make so much noise that the speaker could not be heard. An interesting parallel don’t you think?
Be seeing you
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Science Can Be Perverted!
It appears that
The Prisoner, during his former life, believed in Doctor Jacob Seltzman and his
mind transference experiments. It might well be that he understood the medical
application such a technique would have, under certain conditions of course. So
much so, that ZM73 took it upon himself to lose Professor Seltzman to both
sides. It may never have crossed his mind that one day that very same mind
transference would be used on him. Such was the desire for either side, indeed
both sides, to find Professor Seltzman. And seeing as ZM73 was the last person
to see Professor Seltzman…………
Number 2 explained to the Colonel in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ about how the mind transference works, commencing with the Amnesia room.
“We call this our amnesia room, rather proud of it. With it we can erase the memory to any point in time we choose. This man you see was extremely co-operative, he told all we wanted to know in three days, with hardly any persuasion. So now we wipe out any unhappy memories of The Village, then put him back into circulation to gather more information. And this is the Seltzman machine, let me give you a dummy run.”
You see it’s as Number 6 said, oh no not him the other one, “The trouble with science is, it can be perverted.” And all in the name of information gathering. And what makes information so important? Information is power!
That’s why ZM73 was so keen to keep Professor Seltzman’s whereabouts a secret. He didn’t want either side getting their hands on a Seltzman machine. And yet they were able to obtain one anyway! It’s a little like the way Bo-Peep described at his trial, how the Prisoner had obtained a radio in ‘Dance of The Dead.’ “He had no radio of his own, there’s no radio he could have borrowed, so when acquiring one…….”
I know in the end Number 6 was pleased with himself that Professor Seltzman had managed to escape The Village in a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonels, and that he was then free to conduct his experiments in peace. But The Village administration still had a Seltzman machine, and were also in possession of the reversal process, even though they didn’t seem to be aware of it. So they were able to carry on with their need to acquire more and more information, from any source they desire, even to the point of breaking the security of any nation of their choosing.
Be seeing you
Number 2 explained to the Colonel in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ about how the mind transference works, commencing with the Amnesia room.
“We call this our amnesia room, rather proud of it. With it we can erase the memory to any point in time we choose. This man you see was extremely co-operative, he told all we wanted to know in three days, with hardly any persuasion. So now we wipe out any unhappy memories of The Village, then put him back into circulation to gather more information. And this is the Seltzman machine, let me give you a dummy run.”
You see it’s as Number 6 said, oh no not him the other one, “The trouble with science is, it can be perverted.” And all in the name of information gathering. And what makes information so important? Information is power!
That’s why ZM73 was so keen to keep Professor Seltzman’s whereabouts a secret. He didn’t want either side getting their hands on a Seltzman machine. And yet they were able to obtain one anyway! It’s a little like the way Bo-Peep described at his trial, how the Prisoner had obtained a radio in ‘Dance of The Dead.’ “He had no radio of his own, there’s no radio he could have borrowed, so when acquiring one…….”
I know in the end Number 6 was pleased with himself that Professor Seltzman had managed to escape The Village in a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonels, and that he was then free to conduct his experiments in peace. But The Village administration still had a Seltzman machine, and were also in possession of the reversal process, even though they didn’t seem to be aware of it. So they were able to carry on with their need to acquire more and more information, from any source they desire, even to the point of breaking the security of any nation of their choosing.
Be seeing you
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