Escape And Escapability

    Cobb - whose suicidal death was faked in Arrival, as indeed was his funeral but a sad affair for No.9 nonetheless for that. So Cobb, who was alive and well, was allowed to leave the village "Mustn’t keep my new masters waiting" Cobb tells the new No.2. Cobb promises to give them No.2's compliments, and will tell them that there are no loopholes.

    Hang on a minute! Hasn't Cobb just exploited one loophole? Soon he'll be back in London, to work for his new masters. But this also opens up the possibility of Cobb being able to simply disappear once he is back in the old country!

   No loopholes, I think Cobb found such a loophole and exploited it so as to escape the Village! Even if Cobb did go working for his new masters, he had in fact escaped the Village!

Be seeing you

Prismatic Reflection

      A change of mind, it was a terrible thing to do. At the beginning the Prisoner known as Number Six probably didn’t know too much about it, I expect he was heavily sedated at the time. He had to begin to deal what “they” had done to him from the moment he saw the face unknown in the mirror.
    At the beginning I should have imagined that it must have been a more terrible ordeal for the Colonel. He had been seconded to the Village, although he looked slightly uncomfortable to be there, and not to know why. It was all explained to him, that it was possible to put the mind of one person into the body of another, mind transference. However I cannot help but wonder how it was for the Colonel? Did he go willingly, or was he dragged kicking and screaming to the operating theatre? Perhaps he, like the Prisoner, had been heavily sedated. But one thing is for sure, the Colonel did not survive the mind transference ordeal. And yet he was loyal to the end, in fact his last thought was of Number 1, “Tell Number One I did my duty.” And in that there perhaps lies the answer, the Colonel being an ex-Army man, used to doing his duty, carrying out orders. He might not have batted an eyelid at having to undergo the mind transference, a stiff upper lip and that kind of thing, not the regimental way to show fear in front of the men.
    “Why did you resign?” That‘s what Number Two used to ask. “Number Two?” Chairman of the Village. “I’m here to ask the questions old boy.” I’ve always thought this Colonel to be something of a stupid …………..
   And yet what if there had been but one Colonel, the one we see in ‘Arrival,’ the same Colonel who the Prisoner went to see when making that call in the country, and more so, the same Colonel in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’
    I always thought Sir Charles Portland was superfluous, and that would include Janet Portland. I know the Prisoner had left the receipt for the transparencies with Janet for safe keeping or in time of trouble, but he could have simply have left that receipt in the wall safe behind the television set in the lounge of his house. It would have been safe there as anywhere, besides they still got their hands on those transparencies thanks to Mister Carmichael and a clerical error!
    However returning to the Colonel. In the previous two episodes in which the Prisoner believed he had escaped the Village he’s always gone running back to the Colonel………….but in this case perhaps the Colonel was otherwise engaged, his mind wrongly housed in the body of the Prisoner back in the Village! And that is probably why the Prisoner had to go and see Sir Charles Portland instead. I had never looked at it that way before, not in all my years of appreciation for ‘the Prisoner.’ As detective Inspector Baynes once said “I thought I had squeezed all the juice out of it, but I see there was a little over” --{The Mystery of Wisteria Lodge by Arthur Conan Doyle}.

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

Doctor Jacob Seltzman

  

How do we know that this is the true face of Doctor Jacob Setlzman? Because we have to accept what we are told, what we see on the television screen. And yet, he may very well have first tested his machine out on himself with some unsuspecting victim patient some years pervious. Which in turn leads to the questions of when and where?

It Was A Shock!

Well it must have been, for No.2 to find out that he was C! No.6 really did play No.2 for a fool. But then that's what you get when you become over confident. He underestimated No.6, and at the end I think the doctor-No.14 was mildly pleased by the result. After all No.2 had been placed under pressure by No.1, and No.2 transferred that pressure to No.14. We all do that, we kick down when the pressure is on.

  Originally when I saw this episode, I thought we would never see this particular No.2 again. However No.1 must have seen that the failure of ‘A B and C’ was not all his, and so was brought back for a second chance in ‘The General,’ a second chance which was not directly linked to No.6. No.2 having become involved with No.6 because of No.6 poking his nose it where it wasn't wanted!

   As for the doctor-No.14, we never see here again. Perhaps she was confined to  hospital work only, or worse. Because when we encounter No.14 next, he's the chess champion in the episode of ‘Checkmate.’

"A still tongue make a happy life" especially those married to a 'fish wife!'

Playing The Role

    It was once written that it could never be imagined that anyone other than Patrick McGoohan could play the role of Number 6. Well they will have to get used to the idea, as there's soon to be a new SIX, and a new village to boot!

   But don't worry, 6 is but a number and I'm quite sure that Patrick McGoohan was not the first NUMBER SIX, indeed the character of NUMBER SIX can be traced all the way back to 1927.

Be seeing you Number Six - whoever you are, wherever you are.

Thought For The Day

 A Correct Diagnosis!

   With No.1 running the Village, they must know, or at least No.1 must know, the reason behind No.6's resignation. So why continue to ask the question "Why did you resign?" Perhaps the doctor's diagnosis of No.6 in 'A B and C' is correct, that it is an anguish pattern - agonising physical or mental disorder. It could be that No.6 was still agonising over his decision of having resigned, and thereby he continues to persecute himself because of his resignation.

Be seeing you

Pictorial Prisoner



   Its strange, well it's Patrick McGoohan who was a strange man. Here he is pictured dancing with 'C' played by actress Annette Carrell in 'A B and C.' He seems at ease with her, comfortable even. And yet he couldn't play a small romantic scene with Nadia Gray during 'The Chimes of Big Ben,' he had to play the scene with a stand-in for Nadia!

BCNU

Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

Portrait of Number 58 - Rachel Herbert

BcNu

60 Second Interview With No.2

   

No.113: “When did you first begin to suspect Number Six, or rather Curtis?”

    No.2: “I suppose I began to have my doubts in my office, it was a strange thing for Curtis to have said.”

    “What was?”

   No.113b "Smile" {click goes the camera}

    “That I wanted Number Six broken, had broken him. He said it was my idea!”

    “Wasn't it?

    “He knew it wasn't!”

    “And then after Curtis went to see Number Twenty-four you took him to the helicopter.”

    “Curtis, was edgy. I'd never known him to be so strung up. Susan once said that he was quite unflappable.”

    “Susan who died a year ago.”

    “Yes.”

    “That's really how you caught Number Six out, wasn't it?”

    “Edgy. Reporting to the General, not having had time to think about my proposal I put to him when he first arrived here. I knew something was wrong.”

    “Then you went to have a word with the helicopter pilot.”

    “Of course, Number Six......”

    “The man you were suspicious of being Number Six.”

    “Yes. Well I had to be sure. And when I said "Give my regards to Susan."

    “And No.6 replied "I won't."

    “I knew that this man wasn't Curtis, but Number Six.”

    “And by this the helicopter pilot knew to take off, fly a circuit of the Village and land again, instead of taking No.6 to the landing stage.”

    “Of course.”

    “Susan saved you bacon from the grave then?”

    “You could put it like that.”

    “If Curtis still hadn't carried that photograph of Susan around with him in his wallet. That was lucky for you!”

    “And of course you knew Curtis before he came to the Village.”

    “Yes, we were old colleagues.”

    “And when you saw No.6, you instantly thought of your old colleague Curtis, and the plan came to you.”

    “No it came from the General!”

    “What a computer?”

    “Look I think I've said enough!”

    “Yes Number Two. The sixty seconds are well past.”

Reporter No.113

Photographer No.113b