The Prisoner Preferred: Arrival

    You might think that choosing one favourite episode from seventeen would be a relatively easy thing to do. Not when fifteen of the episodes of the Prisoner are all particular favourite ones, it isn't, but there comes a time when you have to put your hand on your heart and chose just one, saying "that's the one, my absolute favourite episode."

    For me that just has to be "Arrival," not simply because it is the first chapter, well that is one of the reasons, but mainly because it is the story which captivated me so long ago now, way back in 1967. The clash of thunder, dark clouds in the sky and a green, yellow nosed Lotus Seven racing along that deserted road, or runway, depending on how you look at it. Little did I know then as I watched, riveted by the opening sequence, that I too had become a Prisoner!

    "Arrival" has that special air of mystery about it. A man resigns from his job, what that job is could be anyone’s guess, well we didn't know at the time did we, or even why he resigned. But certainly he felt very strongly about the decision he made, slamming down his letter of resignation along with his fist, upsetting the cup and saucer, not to mention the tea plate, a definite show of anger if ever there was one! And he was angry, he certainly gave the man sitting behind the desk and ear full!

    Whoever the Prisoner is, because he could be anyone, including John Drake, he is a man of great determination who is not afraid to speak his mind. He arrives home, having been followed through London by a black hearse, he rushes into his home of No.1 Buckingham Place, Westminster and collects two previously packed suitcases. He collects his travel documents and a couple of colour photographs and places then in one of the suitcases. By this time one of the two undertakers has entered the Prisoners house, nerve gas is pumped into the study, the Prisoner collapses onto a couch. He awakens in what he assumes to be his own home, but upon opening the blinds, a look out of the window confirms that he is not in London at all! Gone are the towering skyscrapers, to be replaced by some picturesque Village!

    The Prisoner then takes his first tentative steps out into the village, he looks up to see a figure up in the Bell Tower, but when he climbs to the very top of the Bell Tower the figure is gone, if he was ever there in the first place!

It is the look upon the Prisoners face which makes me wonder how I would feel if I were abducted from my wife and home. Everything I had known taken away from me and put in an alien environment, not knowing where I am or why I have been brought here, and certainly no contact with the outside world. Confused, angry, frightened, wanting to know why and by whom?

    From the Bell Tower the Prisoner sees a woman setting up tables on the other side of the Village. Quickly he descends the Bell Tower, makes his way along the cobbled path, across the lawn and Piazza, through an arch and across the street to the cafe. He questions the waitress still setting out the table and chairs, the gardener takes no heed of the man, but gets no adequate answers to his questions, they haven't even got a telephone, but there's a call box round the corner!

    The Prisoner tries to make a call, asks what exchange this is, but without a number, which the Prisoner does not have, he can make no such call. He tries to leave the village by taxi, asking the Oriental driver to take him to the nearest town. But they are only the local service, and so the Prisoner arrives back where he started. The fare is 2 work units, work units? Well seeing as he has no work units he can pay her later!

                        

Then upon trying to ascertain where he is at the General Store, he studies two 'Maps Of Your Village' one Colour, the other black and white, the colour one being much larger but still depicting the same area of the village, the sea and the Mountains beyond. Other maps of a larger area are not called for!

    At this point one could imagine oneself as No.2 sat in his office of the green dome watching the Prisoners every move as he amuses himself with the Prisoners impossible situation.

    The first meeting with No.2 in the green dome proves to both the Prisoner and viewer alike that the Village authorities don't always know everything about one. They didn't know the Prisoners date and time of birth for example.... 4:31 am 19th March 1928. Was this something just to get the Prisoner to confirm something about himself? I cannot for the life of me see the village having a file on the Prisoner and missing such mundane information as his date and time of birth.

    As for the Prisoners reason of why he resigned, surely that letter of resignation would answer that one, as long as they have access to it of course, or perhaps they do and don't quite believe it.

    The helicopter lands upon the triangular lawn, from which it is just a step or two to the old peoples home where they will look after you..... for as long as you live! Short taxi ride takes the Prisoner and No. 2 up the hill into the village. Through a speaker of the public address system comes a warning of intermittent showers later in the day, and that ice cream is now on sale, the flavour of the day is strawberry.

    At this point the village seems idyllic, enjoying an almost holiday camp atmosphere. The villagers dress in brightly coloured clothes, piped blazers and straw boaters and colourful striped cloaks. Enjoying both the beach and swimming pool, all be it unheated! The Prisoner is shown how peaceful and picturesque the Village is, he finds it charming, No.2 tells the Prisoner "it will grow on you."

    After showing the Prisoner all of this, a demonstration of power is almost inevitable. A man in the Piazza suddenly starts running around in circles "be still" No.2 orders, but the man still charges around in circles. Then the white membranic mass of the village guardian puts in an appearance, from the spout of water of the fountain, to the top of the Gloriette and finally suffocating the citizen who refused to be still!

    "What was that?" asks the Prisoner.

    "That would be telling!" says No.2

   In "Arrival" there is a demonstration of how subtle the Village authorities can be. The Prisoner is undergoing an interview with the manager of the Labour Exchange, he is asked to carry out an aptitude test. A round peg to fit in a square hole in the top of a table. As the Prisoner lowers the round peg, the square hole in the table adjusts itself, now becoming a round hole so that the round peg now fits. Thus demonstrating that the village and its community is prepared to change or adjust in order that the Prisoner fits in!

    I like the notice in the Labour Exchange;

                 'A STILL TONGUE MAKES A HAPPY LIFE'

     Have you ever had one of those days when it would have been better to have kept your mouth shut? I know I have!

    There are tins of 'Village Food' in a wall unit in his kitchen, food in the fridge. He has been given a card of employment, health and welfare card, credit card and card of Identity. Music plays like piped supermarket music in his cottage '6 private' in which the Prisoner, still without a number, paces up and down like a caged animal. Then a most powerful scene as he takes the loudspeaker playing the music, holds it above his head for a moment then hurls it to the floor and tramples it to pieces under foot. Yet still the music plays on, there is no way of switching it off, despite the loudspeaker lying smashed to pieces on the carpet!

    Number 6 makes two escape attempts, one by village taxi, the other by helicopter. After the latter he is herded away by the village guardian, just as a sheep dog would herd a stray sheep back into the flock, and judging by the look upon his face the Prisoner is well pissed off!

    In "Arrival" the Prisoner is learning about the village, I could go on about the banter between himeslf and that of No.2;

"We even have our own little newspaper you know., the Tally Ho."

"You must send me a copy!" quips the Prisoner.

No.2 laughs "you'll be the death of me!"

    But that is all part and parcel of "Arrival" as is the betrayal by old and new friends, Cobb who mustn’t keep his new masters waiting. Betrayal by No.9 who never intended to leave without Cobb, but was used by everyone else, from Cobb, the helicopter pilot, No.2 and yes even No.6! Its the air of mystery about "Arrival";

Where is the village?

Who runs this place?

What is the village guardian?

Who's side is No.6 on?

Who is No.1?

Watching the Prisoner take his first steps in the village, not knowing where he is or why he has been brought there.

    The questions go on and on, well they used to, not so much these days, I have most of the answers now and enjoy "Arrival" as I do the rest of "the Prisoner," as good honest escapism.

    "Arrival" sets the scene perfectly for that which is to follow.

Be Seeing you

ESCAPE!

    Here's the irony! Poor old No.6, he wakes up one morning to find that everyone has escape but him! The Village is completely deserted, save for himself and the Village cat! But where has everyone gone? What made everyone leave the Village, and why didn't anyone wake him? Well the trouble is he doesn't always answer the knock on his door! All I can say is, that No.6 is like that of Robinson Crusoe. And like Robinson, No.6 tried escaping the Village by sea, just as Robinson tried to escape his island by sea. But all he did was to sail round the island to end up back where he started, just like No.6 does!

Be seeing you

It's Your Funeral!

    Some time ago I suggested that No.6's activities against No.2, such as listening for a non-existent message on a LP record. The message to XO4 from D 6, leaving blank sheets of paper in the stone boat. Making a telephone call to the head of Psychiatrics, sending coded messages, and all the rest, are acts of a Jammer. Indeed a friend once suggested that No.6 was the original Jammer, seeing as how 'Hammer Into Anvil' comes before that of 'It's Your Funeral' in the screening order. But in the film library order of 'the Prisoner' {according to Tony Sloman- film librarian on the Prisoner'} 'It's your Funeral' appears before 'Hammer Into Anvil.' So in that sense No.6 learns about jamming from the eccentric artist No.118 in 'Funeral,' and goes on to carry out acts of jamming against No.2 during 'Hammer.' Had No.6's number been placed on a list of known jammers, then No.2 could have let ride all those activities carried out against him! Simples!

Be seeing you

Pictorial Prisoner

    "Where's your badge?"
    "Badge?"
    "Yes. You're supposed to be wearing a badge."
    "I don't know. It must have come off somewhere!"
    "That's ruined this scene, and the one before it, we'll have to shoot them again!"

    "Don't worry about it Pat. We're running late as it is!"
    "I know that, more than anyone!"
    "Well who's to notice that the doc here isn't wearing his badge?"
    "I noticed it!"
    "Yeah, not until now though. And you missed the fact that three different people wear the same numbered badge in this episode!"
    "Yeah, and it looks like your days working on this production are numbered!"
   "Shall I go back to wardrobe?"
    "No. We'll keep the continuity!"
   "Continuity?"
   "Yeah, the fact that your not wearing a badge!"

BCNU

Mrs. Butterworth

   Mrs. Butterworth, simply an agent working for the Village in London? That seems highly unlikely, seeing as she turned out to be No.2. But was she No.2 all the time? What I mean is, could Mrs Butterworth have been in the Village at the time, and responsible for the scheme devised against Number 6, for him to wake up to find the place deserted? Or might Mrs Butterworth be a new No.2 newly arrived in the Village, prior to the arrival of No.6?
   If her story is to be believed, her late husband Arthur, was in the Royal Navy. So what does Mrs Butterworth do for a living? Perhaps she works somewhere within the British Civil Service, like the Colonel, Fotheringay, Thorpe, and in his former life the Prisoner-No.6. One thing is for sure, Mrs Butterworth is more than the simply the merry widow, who has a taste for a little speed.

Be seeing you

Scarf & Shooting stick Equals Orb and Sceptre

    No.2 whether male or female, with the exception of Mrs Butterworth, who had perhaps not been long having arrived in the Village herself, and still wearing her own dress, wears the "old school scarf" about his or her neck, and carries about him or her an umbrella shooting stick, a symbol of their power perhaps. Indeed each of the Number 2's wear the scarf and carry about them the umbrella shooting stick at one time or another during their term of office. Although No.2 of ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ has a customised, yet regular shooting stick, and not that of the umbrella kind, customised with the added blade hidden inside the stick.

     Some time ago I arrived at the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, or perhaps being guilty of reading too much into something which is not even there, that there is a similarity between that of the old school scarf as worn by No.2 and the umbrella shooting stick which he or she carries about them as that of the orb sceptre carried about by the Kings and Queens of England. Well even if I am being on the fanciful side, I think its a nice idea and certainly I cannot be far away with the idea about the "old school scarf."

Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

   It is most perplexing, the reason they replaced the Professor with a wax effigy. The fact they have a doctor supposedly looking after the Professor in his house, well that just makes the doctor out to be an idiot. And who is this all for? Certainly not Madam Professor, as she should know. Mind you she did look puzzled when No.6 handed her a piece of wax. But why is she puzzled, after all it was her masterpiece, that wax head.

  I can only imagine that at the time the Professor is in the hospital undergoing some mild therapy treatment. But then why that cannot be done in the comfort of the Professor's home I don't know. That still doesn't explain the reason for the need of a wax effigy of the Professor in the first place.

   And I'll leave you with this thought. It might have been the Professor's home, but you never see the Professor in his home, not once, only Madam Professor. The elegant house, so elaborately decorated, must have seemed like a very large prison within the Village. Because it strikes me that Madam Professor is in solitary confinement. Never once does it seems is she allowed out and about in the Village. When it comes to going outside, she is only allowed as far as the exercise yard, that of her garden. Effectively keeping Madam Professor under house arrest!

Be seeing you