School Days

"Those were the days, the days that are gone, the faces forgotten, the memories linger on...... Southminster."

 

  No.12 "I'm not afraid of you school bully!"

No.6 "Well you should be, I swat little boys like you."

"Is that how you treated your last fag?"

"He was weak and feeble, he should have stood up for himself."

"And you want me as his replacement?"

"I'm off to the tuck shop, but I haven't any money!"

"Mother sent me a hamper from Harrods, I'll share some of it with you."

"When?"

"At midnight in the dormitory."

"A midnight feast you mean?"

"If you like. After all it is Halloween."

"What's she got to do with it?"

"The festival of Halloween, we'll celebrate it with a midnight feast in the dormitory."

"Good. Now we'll sing the old school song together."

"Florri - agitona."

"You trying to be funny!"

"No school bully."

"Then we'll sing the old school song together, got a problem with that?"

"No school bully."

Together "Those were the days, the days that are gone. The faces forgotten, the memories linger on..... Southminster."

BCNU

The Therapy Zone

Split Personality!

   If we are to believe that No.6 and No.1 are the two different sides of the same persons personality, No.6's alter-ego being No.1, and vice versa. No.1 who No.6 launched in that rocket, to whatever hate might befall him, could No.6 actually survive without that darker side of his nature? What I mean is, look what happened to James T. Kirk that time when there was a cock-up with the Enterprise's transporter - in splitting the two sides of Kirk's nature. His "good self" who found it difficult to survive without his "darker side."

    Of course when No.6 actually gets to meet No.1 - his alter ego, this can only work in allegorical terms, because no-one can actually get to physically meet with his other self, his alter ego. So in actual terms, when No.6 went to meet No.1, he wasn't meeting himself, but someone else entirely - that could only be Curtis of ‘The Schizoid Man!’

 The Prisoner - Its A Damned Nightmare!

    And it all starts after the Prisoner has handed in his letter of resignation. His abduction followed by two men in black - Undertakers - who having rendered him unconscious, then carry a coffin into his home, and carry it out again with the Prisoner inside. A coffin which they place inside their hearse and calmly drive away.

    The village where everyone appears to be happy, citizens who have everything they could wish for, save for their freedom, their individuality, and a name to be called by! The Village - which gives the air of a seaside holiday resort, which hides something dark and dangerous, like the hospital where experiments are carried out on the patients therein. Leucotomies, the isolation of the aggressive frontal lobes are carried out on patients without a qualm. To make nothing of the "aversion therapy" room.

   ‘Free For All’ has the first No.2 who doesn't care what happens to No.6, or how she goes about getting what she wants ;

     "Will you never learn..... this is only the beginning... We have many ways and means but we don't wish to damage you permanently... Are you ready to talk?"

    I hate to think what this No.2 puts No.6 though during the following days, probably just was well we do not witness that! But I suppose the darkest time during the nightmare of the Prisoner must surely come with the ‘Dance of the Dead,’ and as the title suggests, it's all about death. The dead body found by No.6 on the beach - the brain dead citizens - the termination order set against Roland Walter Dutton, but in his case death would be a happy release I should think! The use of the dead, first by No.6 as he uses a corpse to send a message to the outside world, and then again by No.2, who sees a massage sent to confirm a known fact, that No.6 has died in an accident at sea. And of course No.6 is sentenced to death at his trial, simply for the possession of a radio! But originally, the script for ‘Dance of the Dead’ called for everyone at the dance to die, save for No.6 who then could be aliened to be death itself!

Village Slogans

   I can understand the reasoning behind such village slogans as "A still tongue makes a happy life" or Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for oneself," "Of the people for the people, by the people," that last one borrowed from one of the many Gettysburg addresses, I forget which one for the moment. And as for "A still tongue makes a happy life" I know the origin of this one, but who wrote it and others used in the village is beyond me at the present time. I mean "Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for oneself", it reads as though they were written by resisting citizens, not of their keepers, or if they were by those who refused to disclose anything about themselves.

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A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner

  In fact any scene which involves No.6 and No.2 together during 'The Chimes of Big Ben.'

http://youtu.be/CSZ5WbTdaOo

    This simply for the rapport between 2 and 6, something which should not have been able to happen, seeing that No.2 is changed quite often so that it should be impossible for a relationship to develop betwen No.6 and No.2. It is a scenario seems to have failed in this case!

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Quote For The Day

    No.2 "Why did you resign?"
    No.6 "What's that sir?"
    "Oh come along boy, why did you resign?"
    "From what sir?"
    "Now my boy you know perfectly well what I'm talking about....why did you resign?"
    "I can't tell you that sir."
                                               {Once Upon A Time}

    Of course No.6 cannot tell No.2 why he resigned, because he hasn't done anything yet. He was regressed to the age of 5, and at this point in time, he's only just received his school certificate! It has always been my opinion that No.2 jumped the gun here. Perhaps he was too keen to deiscover the reason behind the Prisoner's resignation. I don't know why, even if No6 had told No.2 the reason behind his resignation on the first day, there were still 6 more days to go in the Embryo Room!

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Pictorial Prisoner

Evacuate....Evacuate....Evacuate.....



    The above pictures were taken during the evacuation of the Village during 'Fall out.' It is suggestive, by the appearance of all those helicopters, that everyone was evacuated from the Village. And yet those helicopters are not very large, they could not carry more than four or five people at most. And these citizens who are running away from the Village, what chances of them being air-lifted from the Village? It appears to be panic which drives them away, but where are they running to, and what will become of them once the Village is evacuated? Perhaps there will be only one place they can go, back to the Village!

BCNU

The Prisoner Under The Spotlight

   

And When The Questions Cease To Be A Burden To Others & We've Made A Prison For Ourselves, what then is left?

    Well nothing less than a brilliantly devised Television series. Because no matter how satisfying it is to put answers to questions, arrive at fitting interpretations of the events, happenings and individualistic items seen in the series, there is a point we all eventually arrive at..... a personal understanding of the Prisoner. How deep that understanding is, or how long we each take to arrive at such an understanding, one thing is certain, with understanding comes a peace of mind.

    For myself I have questioned the prisoner, put interpretations to, and arrived at an understanding of the prisoner which might not please many, but one with which gives me peace of mind. Because for over a period of some three years I have been carrying out such an in-depth study of both the Prisoner and all related material which has never been carried out before, which resulted in a very extensive manuscript The Butler Speaks. And during that time I found it nigh on impossible to sit and watch any episode of the Prisoner without noticing something which I had previously missed or that which needed either writing upon or researching. But now my researches are as complete as they can allow, having been able to put answers to 97% of the questions posed by both the Prisoner and his village. Having been able to put interpretations to those events which create such puzzlement or misinterpretations of everyday occurrences by the use of reasoned logic. And all I need now is a publisher to take my magnum opus. Not that I would say that it is complete, because I suppose such a work can never be completed, because even today there is still the odd item which rears its head and sets me off again on the research trail, but even then times like that get fewer and fewer, and finally I have to draw a line somewhere. And even after such researches as I may have carried out, there are still certain aspects to both the Prisoner and his village which cannot be explained. Which I suppose is no bad thing.

   So now I can sit back and watch all the episodes of the Prisoner and enjoy them for their own sake, from the powerful and unforgettable opening sequence to the build up of the canopied penny farthing of the closing credits. And as any good observer worth his or her salt will tell you, not all of the closing credits are quite the same, in regard to the canopied penny farthing I mean.

    Have I ever tired of watching the Prisoner? No, is the swift answer to that question, even though I know the episodes backwards and I imagine that can be said of any fan of the Prisoner. yet I don't make it a regular watching of the Prisoner as a complete series. What I mean is, my wife and I might watch the whole series once or twice a year, then we like to dip into the series from time to time, watching an episode here and an episode there, made possible by the fact that even as a series each episode is a story all in its own right. If I were to watch an episode tonight, it might be Arrival, ‘Checkmate,’ ‘Dance of the Dead’ or ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ but certainly one of our more favourite episodes which just happen to be with most of the action centred around the village.

   And then there are times when I try and picture in my mind the things which take place between the episodes we see. such as Curtis-No.12 parading around the village masquerading as No.6 in a cream blazer. The time of the Village festival as suggested in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ And when the episode of ‘The General’ really began to take place. Because the Professor and his wife just didn't arrive in the village the day after The Schizoid Man, the art class held by the Professors wife tells you that much, and when was the computer The General brought to the village? And what would be seen as the continued use of the Seltzman machine of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ even without the good doctor Seltzman! And what happened to No.2 after his breakdown, such was the bed waiting for him in the psychiatric ward of the hospital! Such examples as these, along with other instances are what intrigues me now. Perhaps there is the call for a short story or three to be written in order to please my over imaginative mind.

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The Therapy Zone

Death At Sea!

    It's No.6 who has died in an accident at sea, well that's the story which will be put out, once that body which had been amended to look like No.6 has been found at sea. Well that's the story of ‘Dance of the Dead.’ But hang on a minute, what as originally planned in the original screening order, that ‘Dance of the Dead’ featured before ‘Many Happy Returns’ - who would that figure? I mean the reported death of the Prisoner, who has died in an accident at sea, but then turns up alive. Surely that would have made his ex-colleagues - the Colonel and Thorpe - take their ex-colleague seriously right from the start.

Hero Or Anti Hero?

    During his escape in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ the Prisoner has no qualms in attacking the two supposedly gun-runners in order to achieve his liberty. However I suppose this is quite understandable, seeing what the Prisoner has been put through during the time after his abduction to the village, and now in being so close to his freedom, the Prisoner will not allow anyone to stand in his way!

   No.6 returns to his cottage at the end of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ No.6 clicks his fingers and his cottage door opens automatically for him. This to the announcement over the public address system "Good evening citizens, your council wishes to announce an exciting competition.... the subject this time, seascapes...." And it has always seemed to me that the female announcer is rubbing salt into No.6’s wound as he returns to his cottage!

Aversion Therapy

Playing Devils advocate, this scene might not be as bad as first thought by the viewer.

 

    After all this is taking place at the hospital, and not every doctor is carrying out human experiments on the hospital patients. Well perhaps they are even in this instance, but "aversion therapy" can mean therapy for patients with phobias, a dislike of something, a repugnance towards a specific thing, possibly even an allergy of something. And so patients are being treated for such here, a voice coming through the headphones each patient is wearing, a voice telling them not to fear whatever their particular aversion is. Well its possible, however unlikely the reader may find this idea.

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