Teabreak Teaser

    Why does Number 2, even this interim Number 2, feel the need to have film of the perpetually moving wax in an Astro or Lava Lamp on his wall screen? Or is it surveillance film footage of the Village Guardian in it's containment area under the sea?

BCNU

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

    Yellow skies, brown acrid smoke, the Village is on fire!
                    "Evacuate - evacuate - evacuate!"

BcNu

The Therapy Zone

Oops!

    I was reading through some old issues of Number Six magazine, and spotted a letter referring to a mistake made in ‘Living In Harmony’ and is the following.

    "It starts when the stranger {Patrick McGoohan} is in jail. The Kid pulls one of his guns on him, but the stranger simply sits on his bunk rolling a cigar and ignores him. The Kid draws his gun again, and the stranger continues enjoying his cigar. But when the Kid draws his gun for the third time, we see the stranger lighting up the cigar......this must be a mistake?"

    Well what else would you do with a cigar, but light it! The only mistake made, and it has nothing to do with the scene, is actually made by the author of the above piece. Patrick McGoohan isn't rolling a cigar, but rolling himself a cigarette. The cigarette paper is brown because it's "liquorice" paper!

Rats!

    A disapproving Headmaster.

    2 That is cowardice!

    6 That's honour, sir

    2 We don't talk about such things.

    6 You should teach it, sir.

    2 You're a fool!

    6 Yes sir. Not a rat.

    Rats run together! They race for position. Fools like in the Shakespearian tradition, are non-conformists, outlaws, outcasts. They are out of the common fun. The headmaster exists to train his charges into the ways expected of them. Hence the headmaster in question, does not want to see his prize pupil grow up to be a "Lone-Wolf!"

   On the other hand, there is another form of "Rat," one who "rat's" on his mates, tells on them to the Headmaster for example. That is the kind of honour the Prisoner was talking about, the honour of not "ratting" on the boy who was speaking in class, the schoolmate who he took the punishment for.....12, not 6, of the best!

Rebellion Is Something Ill Afforded!

    It has been generally accepted by many fans of the Prisoner that No.6 is a rebel, a rebel who has "Vindicated the right of the individual to be individual," so stated by the President in Fall Out. No,6 is said to be a "Revolutionary," a man who has revolted, resisted, fought, held fast, maintained, destroyed, overcome coercion...... But then No.6 is offered the opportunity to lead "them," or go, No.6's first instinct is to make a statement, but seeing as no-one wants to listen to him, he rebels and brings down the system of The Village. It is strange is it not, that the revolutionary should be both Jailer and prisoner, don't you think. What did No.14 call it.....oh yes, "A persecution complex!"

Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

     A man who resigns from a top secret, confidential job, that wouldn’t be allowed would it? A man who sees such business as being above the law, might that man not become a law unto himself? Might such a man not want to become Number 1? A man of his calibre, a man of steel, with a superhuman will power, he could be capable of anything, even the creation of the Village. And once that Village is created, what to do with the man who created it? Well you put him in it, so that he would not be able to tell the rest of the world about it.
    What then might happen to that man who resigns his job, after what, creating the Village? He cannot be left to wander at large, who knows what he might say. So you have him kidnapped to the Village. But you make him, let us call him the architect, comfortable, at home, you even make his home a home from home. You want him whole, un-broken, a man like him, he can be of use. He is seen to have a future in the Village, he might even be offered a position of authority. But a mistake has been made, in abducting him to the Village, you may not have damaged him, but you have taken away his freedom, his identity. You’ve taken away his name, and have given him a number. So why the Number 6? There’s got to be more to it that just “Six of one, half a dozen of the other.” Oh yes I know, because 6 is the only number when turned upside down, it makes another number, well what about 9, or if you think about it 8. I could go 66, or 99, even 88, but that would be too much, as I think the point has been made. The point being, that in my opinion, Patrick McGoohan was trying to be far too clever for his own good! Or perhaps it is because six is a perfect number. Otherwise it might simply be that Ratcliffe College is situated on the Six Hills road1
    So, you’ve got the architect behind the Village, the Prisoner, what are you going to do with him? Make him an offer of authority? No, that’s the last thing you want to go and do. Because if you do, he’ll only go and try to organise a mass breakout, and you don’t want that do you? So you make him a prisoner, but not just any prisoner, otherwise if he falls into the hands of unethical doctors, they just might begin experimenting on Number 6, and if they go too far, well, you might lose him!
    Make him feel at home, let him live in his own “home from home,” but don’t forget to lock the cell door at night, curfew time would be best. And if you lace his nightcap with a sleeping draught, that’s all to the good. And introduce the drug into the water supply, just in case the Prisoner doesn’t drink his nightcap. Hell, that could be introduced to the whole community, to keep everyone asleep at night, and out of trouble. Not the warders of course.
    You can allow the Prisoner a few privileges, but do not under any circumstances make him feel important, even though he has a future with you. Let him make the odd escape attempt now and again, stage a couple for him, but with you under control of the situation at all times. Assign someone to him through some devious subterfuge, and make that someone a woman, that way she can get close to him, get him to open up to her, and in turn she can report back to you on the progress she is making. Play games with the Prisoner, question him, interrogate him, but whatever you do…….Don’t damage the tissue! Bruise it a bit by all means, but in general terms the Prisoner must remain intact. There are other ways, and the Prisoner we know as Number 6 must be won over!
     I have to say that in general terms, Number 6 had it pretty easy in the Village, when you think of what they might have done to him. I’ve been of the opinion that if the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation was so important to the Village Administration, why didn’t Number 2 have the Colonel bring the Prisoner’s letter of resignation with him to the Village during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben?’
     How possible would it have been for the Prisoner to have resigned in the first place? I mean to say, if he was that important, when the Prisoner had returned to London, surely the Colonel would have done his utmost to make sure he didn’t lose the Prisoner for a second time, if he didn’t know of the Village in the first place that is. Otherwise he’s lost Number 6 to the other side, depending on which side runs the Village. Number 6 said that if he couldn’t find out here, meaning the west, then he’d find out elsewhere, presumably meaning the east, behind the Iron Curtain. Talk about putting your head in the noose! I’m sure the Russians, or Czechs would have loved that, a defecting British…….yes that’s a good one, a British what, Secret agent? Well let us say so for arguments sake, a British Secret Service agent defects behind the Iron Curtain in search of answers, I bet the Russians wouldn’t be able to believe their luck. And there’d be no coming back from there, not unless there was an exchange for someone on the cards. And no doubt Number 6 would blab to his Russian interrogator about the Village, much in the same way that he did to the Colonel and Thorpe. So that if the Russians didn’t know about the Village, they would after Number 6 had told them! But if the village is behind the Iron Curtain, and the Russians responsible for the Village, well they’re not likely to let go of their prize prisoner a second time. And even if they were not, either way Number 6 ‘s Goose would be well and truly cooked!

I’ll be seeing you

Village Observation

    After the act of sabotage which the observers fail to notice, Number 12 feigns telling Number 6 that the deliberate destruction of official property is a most serious offence and that he must recommend the full penalty. It could be imprisonment, it could be a fine, Number 6 takes the fine. Well imprisonment could only mean solitary confinement, as Number 6 was already in a prison of a sort. So it might have been solitary confinement, which I’m sure Number 6 would have enjoyed!

    The Number 12 once issued to Number 6 in ‘The Schizoid Man’, is now the Number 12 issued to a young

man who works in administration, who has been with us, to use Number 12’s own words “Quite a long time sir"

So some time has passed between 'The Schizoid Man' and 'The General,' and Curtis lies in the graveyard.

    Number 28-the Supervisor announces from the confines of the control room;

    “All units orange alert, orange alert. All units, all posts orange alert, orange alert.”

    This because the Professor is trying to flee the village along the beach, where incidentally he deposits his tape

 recorder with the message that the General must be destroyed, and discovered by Number 6.

    So the orange alert is for the Professor and possibly to warn all units and all posts that the amorphous white membranic mass of the Village Guardian has been released from its containment area somewhere on the seabed,

and that they should be on the alert. However it is a curious fact that even though an Orange Alert had been

issued by the Supervisor in the Control Room, the Village Guardian did not put in any kind of appearance.

    The watchmaker-Number 51 is a man of principle, he has lived in this prison of the village for a very long

time, everyone is here for life, yet he has never met anyone here who has committed a crime. He sees the death

of Number 2 as an assassination and not murder, perhaps it is what they need, the citizens, to shake them out

of their lethargy, to make them angry enough to fight. When it comes to relationships in the Village we see for

 the first time father and daughter linked by numbers, Monique-Number 50 and her father-Number 51, his

wife was probably 49 or 52.

Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

   It has always been something of  a puzzlement as to how Number 6 knew that it wasn't the Professor lying in that bed. I mean to say Number 6 picked up that walking stick before he entered the bedroom, he must have had a plan as to what he was going to do with that walking stick, so what was it in the hallway that first raised his suspiscions?
   And I have written about this before, who or what is Madam professor screaming over as Number 6 brings that walking stick down on the head lying on the pillow, her husband, or that of her masterpiece about to be smashed by Number 6?

Be seeing you

The Art Seminar by our own reporter

    Soon after her arrival here in the Village, Madam Professor began to organise "Art Seminars," well this reporter decided to go and see what all the fuss was about. But low and behold I was not the only familiar face there, why, No.6 was attending this art seminar!

   Quite a likeness, wouldn't you say? It seems that as an artist No.6 is a bit of a dab-hand! But there seems to be another familiar face at the seminar, the figure sitting on the edge of the pool, with his back turned towards my photographic colleagues camera lens, just behind the man whose asleep, and in the top photograph as well. Isn't that No.14, the chess champion of Checkmate?

   But I digress for the moment. We are here to find out what this art seminar is all about. First I asked No.6 why he was here. "I don't know" was his reply. Madam Professor suggested that he might be finding things a bit strange, to which No.6 responded with "That's the trouble, I can't find anything at all!"

    So with No.6 not being able to find anything, I asked Madam Professor "What are people looking for here?" Madam Professor looked around her garden "What do you think he's doing?" I looked at the man tearing up a book. "Tearing up a book!" I replied. "He's creating a fresh concept. Creation arises out of destruction" Madam Professor told me. "Well what about the young woman standing on her head over there?" Madam looked to where I was pointing. "She's developing a new perspective." "Really. And him?" Oh, he's asleep. The mind learns only when it wants to. Not at set times" Madame explained.

   Does your husband believe that Madam?" I asked "It's self evident surely" was her clever answer. Finally I asked Madam Professor what her subject is. "Modern art, what's yours?" Well apart from a pint in the "Cat & Mouse", I'm one of these newspaper reporters who goes about sticking their nose in other peoples business!

    I came away from the art seminar with the feeling that I had learned absolutely nothing. It matters not one tinkers jot whether of not the man tearing up a book is creating a fresh concept or not. All he's doing is destroying a reasonably good book! And as for all that girls time standing on her head, the world will still remain the same, but upside down! Nothing will change for all their efforts, and if things don't change, they will remain the same!

Your own reporter

Photographs by No.113b