Bureau of Visual Records

  The Prisoner in a very dark place! It’s surreal, as though he’s been taken down into the Underworld, well I suppose he has. But this is but one depth to the Underworld of The Village, a place where questions are asked and completely ignored by the members of the Council. But before the Prisoner can emerge victorious, he will have to traverse deeper, to eventually face the truth within himself, before he is allowed to emerge back amongst his people again.

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The Therapy Zone

   How would you define the episode ‘Dance of the Dead?’ It doesn’t fit into any of the three main categories within ‘the Prisoner,’ those of Escape, Resistance or Revolt. Number 6 makes no attempt to escape, and there is no plan on the part of Number 2 to attempt to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. However the doctor-Number 40 amply makes up for that particular deficiency. While Number 6, upon finding a radio in the trouser pocket of a dead man on the beach, sees the radio as receiving word from his world, somewhere beyond The Village.
    This episode is a kaleidoscope of life in The Village. We see Number 6’s breakfast being delivered, a breakfast which will be stone cold by the time it arrives at the door of 6 Private! And life is never dull in The Village, there is always something going on to either entertain the good citizens, or to keep them involved, and ‘Dance of the Dead’ with its Carnival is no different. If this episode had been screened in its library order second to ‘Arrival,’ it would have been a primer episode to show what life in The Village would be like for Number 6, as well as the television viewer.
   It would appear that there is no overall theme within ‘Dance of the Dead,’ as it appears to progress with a number of discreet scenes. And yet there is the underlying theme of Carnival, and surveillance. Number 240 is their best Observer, and yet she didn’t know that Number 34 had died. Well that is no aspersion on her ability, seeing as how Number 34 died sometime in the night, and 240 worked on the day shift.
    It should be wondered why the Ball in the evening was held in the Town Hall, when all other activities were undertaken in the Recreation hall. One can only imagine that to hold the Ball in the Town Hall would afford Number 6 the opportunity to explore the inner workings of The Village. In other words to “snoop” around the Town Hall. Also there was the question of the termination order, and Number 6 discovering the body of the man he set adrift in the sea with his message to someone in the outside wall, in a drawer in the Mortuary. None of this could have happened had the Ball been held in the Recreation Hall, which makes this a contrivance, which culminates with the Prisoner being put on trial for the possession of a radio. Yet the Prisoner’s trial could have been held in the Recreation Hall.
   The Prisoner’s trial is said to have been inspired by ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. The story revolves around a lawyer who disputes with the Devil before a Court of historical figures to overturn the contract by which a man has sold his soul. In the case of the Prisoner he is faced with the Maid as Queen Elizabeth, the Doctor as Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Town Crier as Julius Caesar. The trial is a Kafkaesque experience. Number-240 the Observer is the Prosecutor, Number 2 the Prisoner’s defender, and yet the defender is called as a witness for the prosecution! As for the Prosecutor, at first she acts as though the Prisoner’s crime, the possession of a radio is a personal affront to her, and has no greater desire than to see the Prisoner punished for his breaking of the rules. The Prisoner is a human being, with weaknesses and failings of his kind. That he had a radio, and has broken rule after rule cannot be denied. Then the defender pleads for clemency, he is new, and guilty of folly, no more, surely they can treat folly with kindness. The three Judges consider, and then the Prisoner is sentenced to death, the Prosecutor voices her protest. But it’s the rules my dear, as Number 2 reminds her.
    ‘Dance of the Dead’ is perhaps unquestioningly the most surreal episode of ‘the Prisoner’ series, both in events and in fashion. The good citizens of the community are allowed to dress in colourful and garish costumes. Well almost everyone, everyone except for Number 6 and the Butler. And the death chase, when the Prisoner runs for his life, chased by a blood thirsty mob, who look as though they would tear him apart with their bare hands, so soon as they could lay hands upon him. But who are easily dispersed when they have lost sight of their quarry!
   The Prisoner finds his way into another room, an elaborately decorated room, which he might have taken for Number 1’s office. The final surreal moment, finding, and attempting to destroy the teleprinter he finds behind the screen, only to be out manoeuvred when the teleprinter bursts back into operation, continuing to print the text on the paper.
   What is the result of ‘Dance of the Dead?’ That is unclear as the story itself. It is difficult to perceive what Number 2 achieved, however one thing is clear, Number 6 remains as defiant as ever.
    “You’ll never win” Number 6 tells Number 2.
    “Then how very uncomfortable for you old chap!” is Number 2’s response, and laughs at the Prisoner as the teleprinter suddenly bursts back into operation.
    Number 2 mocks the Prisoner with her derisive laughter, and her final words give promise of some very rough times ahead, which would have worked better, had this episode taken its rightful place after ‘Arrival.’ 

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Don’t You Like It Here?

    “Well I can think of better places to be. That Number Two, she wants the impossible!”
    “Don’t we all?”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Escape. You want to escape just like any of us.”
    “Escape from where?”
    “From here.”
    “To where?”
    “Ah that’s the crux of the matter, no-one knows where here is.”
    “The Village?”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s somewhere.”
    “Yes.”
    “Has no-one tried to find out?”
    “One man did, little good it did him.”
    “Why?”
    “Its like the taxi ride.”
    “Taxi ride?”
    “Didn’t you try to take a taxi ride to the nearest town on the day of your arrival?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you found out that it’s only a local service. A taxi will take you anywhere you want, just as long as you end up back here in the end.”
    “So?”
   “You began your journey in The Village.
    “Yes.”
    “And you arrived in The Village.”
   “Yes.”
    “Well don’t you see, you got in the taxi in The Village, and then you got out of the taxi in The Village.”
    “I had arrived.”
    “And so it was with Number Six. They do say he left The Village aboard a raft, that he sailed far far away. And yet he ended back here in The Village in the end.”
    “So you are saying what’s the point?”
    “If you know of a way out, forget it. They will only bring you back here in the end. Even those who are eventually allowed to leave are brought back, not always with their consent. Number Eight, he thought he had found a way out. I remember there wasn‘t a funeral.”
    “Why not?”
    “Its not always possible. You need a body!”
    “They didn’t bring his body back?”
    “I don’t think they could find it. Washed away on the tide most likely.”
    “So what does Number Two want?”
    “My confession!”
    “Don’t tell me you’re disharmonious!”
    “No.”
    “Look where are you? I can’t see you at all!”
    “I’m over here by the bookcase.”
    “I don’t believe it, you’re invisible”
    “No just camouflaged. I’ve invented a liquid that when something, or someone, is immersed in this liquid the subject takes on the colours and textures that surround it.”
    “That’s incredible!”
    “If I sit in a chair you see the chair and not I who have taken up the form of the chair. Or to stand here by the wall I take on the appearance of the wall paper.”
    “And this is what Number Two wants, the formula. Where are you?”
    The door of the cottage suddenly slammed shut. Number 2 had The Village put in lockdown, The Village and the entire area of the woods and beach searched. But to no avail. It would seem that number 242 had simply disappeared. Oh number 2 had number 243’s statement of what had taken place. The bath stripped out of his cottage and taken to a laboratory, and the laboratory searched thoroughly, and Number 243 questioned about his colleague’s recent activities. But he knew nothing, save that 242 had been secretly working on a new chemical formula while studying a chameleon reptile…………

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                  "Uncle Six!" 

                        "Goodnight Children."

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Fly Now, Pay Later!

    But the helicopter turned back to The Village you see, and as Number 2 looked up to the sky, I bet he couldn‘t believe his eyes! Why, who gave the order to recall the helicopter? The new Number 2? Certainly not, he was on still on the balcony after being outwitted by Number 6. The Supervisor-Number 26 in the Control Room? It’s unlikely he knew what had taken place during the Appreciation Day ceremony. The helicopter pilot? Why should he fly the helicopter back to The Village, unless there was some mechanical fault. Really there was only one person who could have told the pilot to fly the helicopter back to The Village, the retired Number 2.
    But why should an ex-Number 2 want to go back to The Village, when Number 6 had given him the perfect way out? Because it’s as the retired Number 2 said, they would get him sooner or later, no matter where he went. No doubt he didn’t want to have to keep looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, waiting for them to come for him, as one day he knew they must. So why not make it easy for himself, and live out the rest of his life in quiet retirement in a Village for which he had done so much, and let them look after him.

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Citizen No.51

   He had met no-one in The Village who had committed a crime. So what was it that brought him to The Village? Perhaps he was one of those citizens who came to The Village of his own volition, maybe with his wife and daughter Number 50, if she was not born of The Village that is. And his wife, seeing as there is no sign of her, perhaps we can assume she now resides in The Village cemetery.
   It might be that 51 became disillusioned with life in The Village, that’s why Number 100 was able to turn 51 into an anarchist so easily. Because 100, working as an “undercover,” pretended to have the same beliefs as Number 51. 51 wanted to commit an act of assassination, something to wake the citizens from their lethargy. What happened to him after Appreciation Day? Who can say? He was stopped from murdering the retired Number 2. Perhaps because he allowed himself to be indoctrinated, groomed even, by an agent provocateur, they might allow his daughter to look after him. Or retire him into the Old People’s Home, where he can sit in the lounge opposite the retired Number 2 whom he tried to kill. As for his daughter Number 50, it would leave her virtually alone in The Village. Unless she found a way to build herself a new life there, if that is at all possible.

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Quote For The Day

    “Might drop his guard with children..hmmm! He might give something away.
    “Well it was worth a try Number Two.”  
    “He told them a …….he told them blessed fairytale. That one wouldn’t drop his guard with his own grandmother!”
                     {Number 2 and Number 10 - The Girl Who Was Death}
   Was it, was it really worth a try? I suppose anything is worth a try once. But really, who’s idea was it to try and get Number 6 to open up to children? And was this the one and only time, or was Number 6 something like Scheherazade?
    They were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one, and in more ways than one. They might just a swell have forgotten about this idea the moment they thought of it, whether the idea originated from Number 1, Number 2, both, or some external agency. However judging by Number 2’s attitude at the end, he should perhaps guard his words more carefully “Might drop his guard with Children” he seems to be criticising his superior. But then Number 2 was only working with the tools he had been give. As far as Number 1 is concerned they should have gone straight to the ultimate test of Degree Absolute. But that never seemed to occur to Number 1 untail afterwards. ‘The Girl Who was Death’ does give some light relief from what has gone before, and for what is yet to come. More than that the episode does give some little incite into the kind of work the Prisoner used to do before he handed in his letter of resignation. He managed to save London from destruction by the rocket of a mad scientist. I wonder how much the Prisoner was paid for the kind of work he used to do? £10, £15 a week? And no medal at the end of it, not even a “golden handshake,” possibly not even a thank you. Mister X the unsung hero! It’s no wonder he eventually resigned!

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