It's Inexplicable!

   The way in which No.42, a young woman, in the Prisoner episode A Change of Mind, who appears to be in a permanent state of depression, always in tears. Who is quickly brought out of her depression and able to take an active, and aggressive role on the Ladies Sub-appeal Committee! Her rehabilitation has been quite remarkable, if not inexplicable!

    That No.6 should know that the head of the Professor lying quietly asleep in his bed, was actually a bust, and not in fact the Professor at all. I mean he took a terrible risk if he had got it wrong. I have often wondered what had made No.6 so suspicious in the first place, so as to bring that walking stick down on the Professor's head like that. And you see, even after these 45 years, there are still things in 'the Prisoner' which will forever remain unanswered.

    Madame Professor, she seemed as surprised as anyone to see No.6 bring that walking stick down upon her husbands head, only to discover that it was made from some form of plastic or resin. And seeing Madam Professor's surprise, would be an indication that she had not in fact made that bust of her husbands head. Yet No.2 remarks that No.6 has made a bit of a mess of her masterpiece. I have wondered in the past whether or not it was Madam Professor who had acutually made that bust of her husband, due to her apparent, shock, surpirse and puzzlement. But that could of course be because of the destruction of her masterpiece. And if Madam Professor had not made the bust of her husband, why should No.2 say that she did?

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Thought For The Day

   When in the opening sequence the Prisoner shouts from the beach "I am not a number, I am a free man," is he shouting this in anger or panic? I've often wondered.

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Page 6

   When he was 'Danger Man' John Drake, Patrick McGoohan was used to taking on a variety of different guises. A school teacher who has sufferd a breakdown. A lecturer with a drink problem. A white slave trader. An airline steward with a drink problem. A writer. A clerk. A journalist. A radio disc jockey. An insurance investigator to name but a few. So here on Page 6 we are happy to bring you the Prisoner known as Number 6 a he appears in a variety of guises.

                  

              

                      

              

     From supposed abducted secret agent, to a prisoner dressed in regalia more acustomed to Henley boating regatta, to an abducted supposed secret agent in Paris! From a Top Hat Administrative figure to a Projectionist, as himself, and as someone who looks like him, his own doppleganger. Posing as a doctor, and this next guise is a particularly clever one, the Prisoner in the guise of the Colonel, or perhaps that should be the other way round. A town Sheriff, well all boys like to play cowboys and indians, girls like to as well. Next up is John Drake Mister X, although he looks like John Drake in that raincoat and flat cap. And then we come to the real Mister X, who poses as a soldier of Revolutinary France, and a cricket player, though not necessarily in that order. And finally the mad Monk, or I should say Number 1.

I'll be seeing you

THEPRIS6NER

    Why the ships drift anchor as a folly in the middle of the desert? I have absolutely no idea, as that was never explained, and follies are rarely explained. "Follies are as follies do" as Braithwaite would say, they need no explaining, otherwise they would not be follies. Personally I think it would have been a nice tribute to the original series to have had a canopied penny farthing bicycle discovered by Six, half buried in the sand.

   Originally there was the idea to have a full-sized ship attached to the sea anchor, but it was plain to see that that was just one step too far. However, along with the ships sea anchor, a lifeboat from a ship can also be seen in the desert.

   So Michael took over as the boss of Summakor, Michael sat in the chair in the control room like a Supervisor amongst so many observers sat at their monitors. Such is the modern day take on the Village Control Room.

   I don't see it, do you, what it was that sent 313 running out of that dark corridor in ‘Checkmate.’ You see it was said that all the questions will be answered in the final episode, well the basic ones maybe. Not the fact that no-one in The Village seemed to actually pay for anything. Not even why wraps were the basic nourishment in The Village, or exactly what the Therapy Zone is. And did you notice just how Six spent so little time in his apartment in The Village? And why did Two's wife give The Village a fifties/sixties atmosphere, even 313 rode a sixties style bicycle!

    Despite what fans of the original series might think, basically the two series are not that dissimilar from one another. Okay you haven't got the quirkiness of the original, there are no huge painted backdrops as used in the original, no studio sets purposely built, and in it's way there is less style of the original series in the reinterpretation, with Two the stronger of the characters, Six being the weaker. But if you take away the "filler" episodes of the original series, episodes like ‘Living In Harmony,’ ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ ‘It's Your Funeral,’ ‘A Change of Mind,’ ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ ‘A B & C,’ originally McGoohan envisaged ‘the Prisoner’ being only a 7 episode series. So if McGoohan had managed to get his way, instead of having 17 episodes, you would have only 7. Because when you look at the original series, there are some which basically are really unnecessary to ‘the Prisoner,’ and are considered as simple "fillers" used to "pan out" the series.

    The Village has a postman, he delivered Six's Clinic appointment card you'll recall. But does it have a newspaper I wonder? And to get on the bus in The Village, and to get off the bus and arrive in the Village is just the wildest thing!

   Undercovers, they watch and report on people who become suspect "Dreamers" they call them. Well here's a right pair of "Undercovers" you're ever likely to meet.

  909 and Six. Here they are "undercover" at the swimming pool as they watch 1955 who is suspected of being a "dreamer."

   I mean aren't "Undercovers" meant to blend into the background? These two, 909 and Six, seen here on the right of the picture, stand out like two sore thumbs. I mean if you're going undercover at the swimming pool, then wear trunks. Sit down, blend in, like those other people by the pool, who themselves could be Undercovers. The thing about Undercovers, the Undercovers are never told who the other Undercovers are. And a "cell" of Undercovers never tells other Undercovers who they are. So it's possible that everyone in The Village is an "Undercover!"

    If a Village death isn't an actual death, in the way Two died having blown himself up with a hand grenade, and by which he returns to that "other place," as others have who have died in The Village, then that means that no-one is actually buried in The Village cemetery. And that can be said of the original series, as Cobb died in The Village, there

was his funeral of course, but then Cobb wasn't actually buried in The Village graveyard - was he? Cobb was allowed to leave The Village to return to the "other place." It's not exactly the same thing I know, it's more of an interpretation, as is THEPRIS6NER series itself.

THEPRIS6NER

   Soon after the release of THEPRIS6NER on DVD, I went there to enquire about this soundtrack cd, and do you know what I learned? That it's been deleted! Apparently it was available from last January, but I've not seen it in HMV. Anyway, there it is, stricken from the list! The soundtrack is still available through downloads from the Internet, but that's not quite the same for me. It's the actual article you see, the packaging, having the article in one's hand. True, the soundtrack to THEPRIS6NER isn't very inspiring I have to say. I'm sure no doubt I'll get a copy of this, given time, off ebay perhaps or through Amazon Books. And no doubt in years to come this item will have become a real collectors item.

    However I did acquire the soundtrack on cd, at Christmas 2010. Which must have been no little effort, because the cd is only available from America od Switzerland.

 

DAS - BCNU

The Therapy Zone

    The Embryo Room, I'm sure it didn’t just exist just for this session of 'Degree Absolute' that we witness in

Once Upon A Time.' It makes wonder how many other ‘Ages of Man’ have been relived from the cradle to the 

grave in that time locked room? I suppose it all all depends upon how many individuals survived the previous

tests in order to make it into the Embryo Room in the first place doesn’t it?

“We Shall Need The Body As Evidence!”

   Evidence, for what? Oh we know what happened during 'Fall Out,' No.2's body was resuscitated and he became like a "new man." But 'Once Upon A Time' was produced long before the idea of 'Fall Out' came along. So originally at the end of 'Once Upon A Time,' when the episode was to have stood alone, amid the other 15 episodes, No.2 would have actually died and what then for No.6? Was he simply to have been returned to the Village and the cell being his cottage? Most probably, yes.

   But as it stands why the need of the body for evidence? Simply to show that Number 6 turned out to be the better man?

A Matter of Resignation

   Having escaped the confines of The Village, or at least he thinks he has, he arrives in an office he knows very well, and in that office he is confronted by the Colonel who sets about debriefing the Prisoner. "The night is young and there are many questions First why did you resign?"

    The Colonel has been brought to the village in order to question and thoroughly de-brief the Prisoner-No.6, the Colonel has become akin to No.2 if you like. But I never have understood the Colonel's peristence over the Prisoner's resignation. Surely the Colonel had read the Prisoner's letter he left with that balding man in the office during the opening sequence, and if he had he must surely know the reason behind the Prisoner's resignation, and so doing could tell No.2 why the Prisoner resigned without all this complicated plot, which failed anyway. All the Colonel had to do was walk into No.2's office and show him the Prisoner's letter of resignation, then they could move on and use that reason against the Prisoner himself!

Be seeing you

Teabreak Teaser

    The question is often asked by Number 6, "Who in Number One?" However rarely is the question asked.......who is Number 2?

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

    Today we look at the Prisoner through the French Window!

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