THEPRIS6NER

Lava Lamps - Just That Or Something More Malevolent?

   Here it is, the Astro Lamp or Lava Lamp produced by the Mathmos Company, first developed by Mister Edward Cravern-Walker, after seeing one on display in a country public house. He became fascinated by the contraption, purchased it immediately, and expanded upon it around 1963. The Astro or Lava Lamp became an iconic symbol of the 1960's, which is still popular today.   The Village also has the Lava Lamp. No.6 has two in his cottage. No.2 in Arrival also has two Lava Lamps in his office, but one placed on top of the other. However these are removed by the time of The Chimes of Big Ben. Instead you can see the Lava Lamp effect shown on the large wall screen in No.2's office. And in many other buidlings and offices around the Village, there is the Lava Lamp, even in the Medical Examination Room in the Hospital!  Why? Okay, once switched on and heated up, the almost perpetual movement of the wax in the oil can be very relaxing to watch, even theraputic, certainly decorative. But having the Lava Lamp in the Village, could it not take on a more sinister and symbolic meaning? Could it's presence in the Village be symbolic of that membranic creature, the Village Guardian, that patrols the Village, bringing to heel anyone who attempts to escape, rendering it's victim unconscious by suffocation - or worse. We have seen how it is contained in a containment area somewhere at the bottom of the sea, and have observed how a segment of the Village Guardian is released. In fact, could not the Lava Lamp be a smaller containment for a segment of the Village Guardian placed in the homes, buildings, and offices as a daily reminder of what is waiting out there for anyone who goes off the rails, and attempts to escape? Watch the Lava Lamp as it heats up, the wax growing and expanding, almost alive, malevolent almost, as though it would do you harm if only it could escape its confines! Is that not the way it might appear to citizens in the Village? And one way of controlling this membranic creature would be to  simply ...............switch it off!     I'll be seeing you                                                                                   

Thought For The Day

    During Dance of the Dead, No.6 finds a dead body on the sea shore, and going through the dead man's pockets he finds a wallet, and a transistor readio in a black leather pouch - the radio still works. Later, No.6 is seen on the outlook above the cliffs, listening to the radio and the following transmission.........

       Nowhere is there more beauty than here.
Tonight when the moon rises the whole world will turn to silver.
Do you understand, it is importnat that you understand.
I have a message for you, you must listen.
The appoinment cannot be fulfilled.
Other things must be done tonight.
If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored, we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain, can tomorrow be assured.

    Now what may we make of that message? Certainly I don't think it was meant for No.6 - probably for the dead man No.6 found on the beach! Perhaps he was a plant in the Village, and someone from somewhere was supposed to have come and extract this man from the Village, to liberate the Village even.
   Yet there is another point of view - and that the radio transmission, picked up and listened to by No.6 was not transmitted from out in the free world, but from somewhere within the Village itself! Well just read the first line again Nowhere is there more beauty than here, that line suggests the Village, although it can also suggest the world that No.6 dreams about - his world. And of course there is the question of liberty - whose liberty? That of the dead man? Well its too late for him. Perhaps the message alludes to the liberty of the citizens of the Village. Because there is the question of the voice of the radio transmission. I've watched Dance of the Dead dozens and dozens of times over the years, and the more I listen to that radio message, the more I have become convinced that it is the voice of No.2 of Free For All, that of Eric Portman!    I'll be seeing you.

Caught On Camera

   Partick McGoohan was flown over from Hollywood to endorse the Prisoner special edition at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1990. He was presented with the keys to this very car, chassis number 6 of the special edition, echoing his name in the TV series - 'Number 6.'

    Patrick McGoohan's "I am not a number" speech has long since passed into cult status. As a free man in the Prisoner TV series, he drove a Seven. From 1989, so could anyone, with the Prisoner special edition, pictured in 'The Village' {Portmeirion, in North Wales}.

    BCNU

Arts And Crafts

  Perhaps the Prisoner was feeling the heat - is that why he resigned?

                                           BCNU

THEPRIS6NER

These Arn't All They Might Be You Know!

     At the outset of The Chimes of Big Ben, the General said of his chess set to No.6, that they are not all they might be. I think I'll make myself a chess set!

   And here the General is, exhibiting his hand-crafted chess set at the Exhibition of Arts & Crafts.



     Hand-crafted yes, but not by the General I suspect. As these are hand-crafted copies of original hand-crafted Isle of Lewis Chess Men, such as these pictured below.

The only hand-crafted Chessman of the General's chess set is that of the amended 'King,' whose face has been forged in the image of No.2 for the episode. Of course if you don't know about the Isle of Lewis chessmen, then you would have no idea that the Generals chess pieces were not hand-crafted by him, or at least by a member of the Properties department on the production of the Prisoner, as I did at the time.

                    

When the King of the original set looks like this.

And if you wish to know more about the Isle of Lewis Chessmen, then please to read the following.

I myself have a reproduction set of these Isle of Lewis Chessmen which I purchased in 1987. Do I play with them? From time to time. I have also seen some of the original Lewis chessmen, they are quite remarkable.

Be seeing you