A Favourite Scene In THEPRIS6NER

    “Look, see how the sun makes it all glow…..The kind of day that makes you glad to be alive.”

    “Why are you keeping me here?”
    “I see no locked doors.”

   “They were after me.”
   “Ooh, sounds terribly ominous.”
   “Why am I here? This is nothing to do with me, any of this. I’ve seen you before.”
   “Really. What were you doing in the mountains…Six?”

                              

   “What? I…I was….err lost. I mean I have no idea how I got here…What did you call me? Look something’s wrong here”
   “Yes, you are wrong Six.”
    “Do not call me that, I’m not Six.”

    “Show me your ID papers.”
   “I don’t have any papers.”

   Feeling in a pocket the Prisoner produces an identity card with his picture on it.

   “Well you just put them there.”

   “You were seen in the mountains. What have you done with Ninety-three?”
   “I don’t know anything about Ninety-three.”

   “Where is the old man?”

   “You can’t do this to me. I don’t care who you are…. do you hear me.”

   The Prisoner brings his open palm down on Two’s desk, slightly upsetting Two’s cup in its saucer.
    “Now I want to get back to New York.”

    “That’s not possible. There is no New York. There is only the Village!”

   The above takes place in ‘Arrival’ when the Prisoner is brought into Two’s office, sat in a wheelchair. This is one of those homages paid to the original series, when No.6 is brought into No.2’s office sat in a wheelchair in ‘Once Upon A Time.’

    The Prisoner may not be as forceful as his predecessor, but then the character isn’t meant to be, and the way the Prisoner brings his fist down onto Two’s desk is seen as something less strong, seeing as the Prisoner doesn’t completely upset two’s cup and saucer, unlike that in the original series. But then the Prisoner doesn’t bring his fist down on the desk, it’s an open hand!

    When Six said he wanted to get back to New York, and Two replied that’s not possible. There is no New York, there is only the Village. Seeing as the Village is in the desert, originally I thought that perhaps there had been a nuclear holocaust, and that the Village was perhaps populated by survivors of a nuclear war. And the scenes I saw of Michael in New York, merely memories.

Village is best for us

Be seeing you

ROVER – the Village Guardian

    Is it male or female, or both? How does it reproduce, if it is capable of reproduction. If it isn’t, then this would suggest that the Village Guardian is a single membranic organism, that doesn’t in fact reproduce, but divides and replicates itself either within its containment in much the same way as an organism, or whenever a segment of the host cell is released beyond its containment. In this case, the membranic matter of the Village Guardian, cannot only divide and replicate itself, but also it is capable of absorbing itself back into the host.

   Autonomous reproduction is ruled out, as there can only be passive replication by the machinery of the host. This in turn can only be brought about by the apparatus of the governing body, in this case, the Supervisor and the mechanics of containment. In this sense similar to inanimate matter.

Be seeing you

Number 6 - As A Friend?

   You can count the number of friendships No.6 cultivates in the Village on one hand. Nadia during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ was the first, or rather second if you count No.9 of ‘Arrival,’ supplied No.6 with the electro pass, but cannot really be counted as a friend to No.6. And the same can be said of Nadia, and yet there appeared to be the aspects of friendship between Nadia and No.6 although Nadia had been assigned to No.6 in much the same way as No.9. and No.6 was suing Nadia simply to escape the Village. But what about No.2, could he be a friend of No.6’s? There was certainly a rapport between the two, friendly banter and all that. Which of course was rekindled during their time together in the embryo room of ‘Once Upon A time,’ as No.2 was actually beginning to like No.6. And he did introduce No.6 to his new neighbour No.8, and she I think became close to No.6, as a friend, but possibly it could have been more than that. Well that's the feeling I get from her attitude she shows towards No.6. There's a warmth in her, especially when they are sealed inside that crate together!

   No.6 had other friends, such a 'A' and 'B' of the episode ‘A B and C,’ although such friendships as these had been cultivated outside the village and long before his abduction. No.24-Alison in ‘The Schizoid Man’ could have been a friend. Certainly they looked friendly towards one another. But of course we don't know, and can never know, just how this friendship between No.6 and Alison began to blossom, more on the part of Alison or No.6. A mutual friendship, based on a "mental link" or one purposely cultivated by Alison which in turn the idea originating at the door of No.2's office! At the beginning it might just have been another assignment, but at the end, unlike Nadia, Alison was ashamed of what she did, and wanted No.6 to know that given a second chance she wouldn't do it again! I suppose as well as not being able to say just when this friendship began to develop between Alison and No.6, we cannot say just how this "mental link" between them came about. As we observe No.6 helping Alison with her "mind reading" in his cottage, the "mental link" appears to be real enough. unlike the "stacked cards" during No.6's attempt to prove that he is No.6, there is no way that the cards used by No.6 in his cottage that evening could possibly be stacked against him in the same way as they were in No.2's office that time.

   So it would appear that there was something more than friendship between Alison and No.6. Which could, I suppose, be said of No.6 and the little watchmakers daughter No.51-Monique of ‘It’s Your Funeral.’ At first they had been brought together by the manipulation of No.2, in the assassination plot against No.2. But was this a friendship in the true sense, or was Monique simply using No.6 in order to save her father from a fate worse than a fate worse than death? Perhaps they were using each other for their own ends. Monique and No.6 certainly seemed at times to enjoy each others company over a cup of coffee on frequent occasions.

   No.8 of ‘Checkmate’ had a kind of friendship with No.6, even if it was all on-sided. And yet there were moments of kindness No.6 showed towards No.8.

    Cathy, the saloon girl of the Sliver Dollar Saloon in the Wild West town of Harmony, she was another to get close to the man with no name and a cosy little friendship was quietly developing between the pair. But of course almost anything and everything which occurred during the episode of ‘Living In Harmony’ was false. But even so, No.22 who played Cathy in No.8's "role playing game" had wished it had been real, and told No.6 so as she lay dying in his arms.

   The trouble with trying to build friendships in the Village, you can never quite find the friends who you can really trust and rely upon, not the Prisoners anyway. It could be different for those who arrived in the village of their own free will, the warders for example. And those citizens who work in and behind the scenes of the Village. People who maintain both it and its services. After all, you couldn't have an installation like the village where even those who work for it have no trust in one another, could you now?

    No, No.6 enjoys associations and acquaintances in the Village. And for him it will not get much better than that. How No.6 reacts to those who betray him, like Alison-No.24, who remain in the Village, is not known. But perhaps he won't be so hard on the girl. After all she was only carrying out No.2's instructions!

Be seeing you

The Schizoid Man!

   I have written of 'The Schizoid Man' before, but this time is does not concern the episode of the same title, simply the Prisoner himself. There are many symptoms of Schizophrenia and form two categories, possitive and negative. In this I happen to see the two piped blazers as worn by the two Six's in the episode 'The Schizoid Man' as being negative and positive. The dark blazer positive, and the cream blazer as negative. Hallucinations, No.6 does experience hallucinations during 'Living In Harmony,' and I am not so much concerned that the Village is a physical entity, but one created in the subconscious of the mind, that way I can let slip by the fact that the hallucinations were induced by the use of drugs. Delusions, perhaps in the Prisoner's mind he thinks he's Number One. If that were the case, then the Prisoner would be suffering from self-persecution complex as well. The subject may become paranoid, thinking that he may have been poisoned, as in 'The Girl Who Was Death.' He may describe his thoughts, his very words having been placed in his mind by someone else, as in 'A B and C,' when the doctor-No.14 puts words into the patients mind. And there is the possibility that the subject will become socially withdrawn, as No.6 was in 'A Change of Mind. And finally, the schizoprenic patient may become agitated and shout for no apparent reason, that would be when the Prisoner and No.1 met!

    Some of the symptoms of schizophrenia are represented in the dramatisation of 'the Prisoner,' The Schizoid Man, that would be the Prisoner!   

Be seeing you

Page 6

    You may not realise this, but in our experience of the Village, as far as we know, No.6 is the only prisoner who didn't give up any of the secret information inside his head. In fact when the attempt was made to extract any such information, the files he had seen, all the projects he had heard of, headings not details, this by using his ex-colleague Dutton as a medium, No.6 appeared to have an in-built safety device preventing him from giving such information. "You must not ask me that." He would rather die first!
   No matter that the Prisoner-No.6 had resigned his job. What is more important is, that in his previous life the Prisoner had signed the "official secrets act," and this still meant a great deal to him. And because of that no amount of coercion, conditioning of the mind, drugs, or trickery will make the Prisoner give anything away, thus breaking the official secrets act...he is still loyal.

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts and Crafts

From My Black and White Period
                           "Is Anyone At Home?"

BcNu

It Goes Against The Grain

       In the episode ‘Once Upon A Time,’ No.6 could not bring himself to kill his opponent No.2, who said that No.6 was afraid to kill because he was afraid to step over the threshold. At the beginning of ‘Living In Harmony,’ No.6 as a Sheriff, he hands in both his badge and gun, perhaps because he’s become sick of killing, tired of putting his life on the line every time a gunslinger comes into town looking to make a reputation for himself. Or when a gang come to town to rob the bank. As Sheriff of Harmony he refuses to wear a gun, against the coercion put against him by the Judge, the Judges men, and the towns people. Yet the Prisoner is capable of killing, he kills the Kid the Judges "boys," and the Judge in three gunfights all in the one day. It was the murder of Cathy which made the Prisoner kill, and we would all do it, kill that is, no matter how much you might deplore the use of violence. We are all capable of killing, all that is required is something to kill for! And as it turns out, the Prisoner is no different to anybody else.

BCNU