Caught On Camera!

    The Strange anomaly in the Control Room!

    The anomaly occurred during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ during the day shift in Control Room. What’s more it happened right under the nose of the Supervisor, and he never even noticed it!

   As the Supervisor walked the Control Room floor, quite suddenly, and instantly, something appeared on the floor. What is it? What could it be? What is its purpose? It doesn’t look like a loose electrical cable. It looks more like a chalk line drawn on the floor, although the shape is indeterminate, as is the reason for it.  

   However a few moments later……whatever it was on the floor, it’s gone almost as instantly as it appeared!

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A Cure For All!

   During 'the Chimes of Big Ben' Number 6 accompanies Number 2 to the Green Dome in order to take tea with Number 2. While there he makes an audio note to Number 6’s file, that his sense of humour is strong and unimpaired. He asks Number 6 one lump or two, as he can never remember how many lumps of sugar Number 6 takes. Yet from reading his file he discovers that Number 6 doesn’t take sugar. Perhaps Number is frightened of putting on weight. But then nor is he afraid of being reduced! Then Number 6 tops up his tea, and at the same time takes three lumps of sugar. To which Number 2 tells him not to worry, he’ll be cured. Surely Number 6 isn’t in The Village for the good of his health! Mind you according to Number 2 Nadia Rakovsky was brought to The Village apparently suffering from nervous tension, and there to recuperate! Perhaps the reason Number6 is in The Village is also to recuperate, for peace of mind! Together they enjoy their tea, and watch Number 8 on the wall screen waking up in her seemingly own home. It must have seemed like old times to Number 6. Old times? Surely it wasn’t that long ago since his own arrival in The Village!

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                              “The Arrival!”

bCnU

Thought For The Day

   On the surface Number 6 may have won the election, and yet as he stands on the steps of the Town Hall he is faced with suspicion and indifference which borders on hostility. It might have been expected that the newly Number 2 should have addressed the electorate from the steps of the Town Hall, even if it was only to thank them for their support and belief in him.

   The scene in which the new Number 2 is presented to the good people of the community, leads into what may be called the endgame. In which power is handed over from the out-going Number 2 to the new Number 2. There is no explanation of how anything works, of the new Number 2’s duties. If Number 2 wants to know anything, he’s only to press a button and ask! Perhaps this is the same for every new incumbent of the Green Dome!

   If you think about it, power should actually have been handed over to the new Number 2 {Number 6} on Appreciation Day. After all Appreciation Day of ‘It’s Your Funeral’ wasn’t concocted for the benefit of Number 6, it was an annual event. And that would give Number 2 a year’s term in office! What’s more the out going Number 2 of ‘Free For All’ should have been wearing the Great Seal of Office seeing as he is the Chief Administrator. Then that seal should have been handed over to the new Number 2 {Number 6} and finally the former Number 58, now the even newer Number 2, should have been wearing the Great Seal of Office. The only trouble being that both Appreciation Day along with the Great Seal of Office hadn’t been thought up until well into the production of the series. And yet having done so, the scriptwriter Michael Cramoy had written Appreciation Day into Village history! And that makes it very difficult to ignore!

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Numbering!

   We know that Number Six rejected his number the moment he was discharged from the hospital, on the day after his arrival in the Village. He removed the numbered badge pinned to the lapel of his blazer, tossing it into the back of the taxi. Then when he met with the new Number 2 he voiced his protest, "I'm not a number, I am a person." Yet when Number 6 encounters people like Nadia during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ he freely admits that no names are used in The Village, only numbers, and yet freely admits to her that he is Number 6!
   So having stripped the Prisoner of his name {not that he ever seemed to have one} of his very identity, they then gave him a new identity, that of Number 6. And yet as time passed they went one step further. In 'The Schizoid Man' Number 6 was abducted from his home, taking away his identity, his possessions, giving him a new identity, with new possessions in a new home. Also a new appearance so that when Number 6 woke up one morning, he is no longer the man he thought he was. Number 6 pins a numbered badge onto the lapel of his blazer. But just as before, Number 6 takes it off and tosses it away. “I’ll not need that to remind me that I am your Number Six!” And from that moment on, Number 6, although previously rejecting his new identity of Number 6, he is now desperate to prove his identity. Maintaining that he is Number 6!
   Even when having escaped the confines of The Village in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ the identity of Number 6 persists. "You're a stubborn fellow Number Six" the Colonel tells him. Under these normal circumstances one would have expected the Colonel to use his ex-colleagues name, not that of his Village identity! As they say, what’s in a name? Eh Number 6!

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Hammering!

    Number 2 once said you have to be hammer or anvil, who saw Number 6 as the anvil. In ‘Free For All,’ Number 6 is invited to attend the dissolution of the out-going council at the Town Hall. Once in the Council Chamber Number 6 is permitted to question the Council members. Then comes the moment when Number 6 makes a most serious breech of etiquette. Number 2 would imagine that Number 6’s desire to stand for election is genuine. Nevertheless the rules demand that he undergo the test! And from that moment Number 6 is sent spinning down through the floor into an underground passageway, while Number 2 is frenziedly banging a gavel, viciously hammering a wooden block. The use of the gavel is purely to bring order to the Council Chamber, there seems no rhyme or reason why Number 2 should hammer on that wooden block in such a frenzy. Unless it has a symbolic meaning, to hammer Number 6 into the ground, or rather through the floor below!

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Citizen 58

   Number 58 is a maid who brings Number 6’s breakfast to him in the company of Number 2. With ‘Free For All’ being the second produced episode, this will not be the last time Number 6 has his breakfast brought to him by his personal maid {although at the time Number 58 doesn’t first appear to be all that personal} the last time will be in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ After that Number 6 will have to make his own breakfast!

   According to Number 2, she may be a maid, but Number 58 used to work in records. She has a great variety of information, and a wonderful gift….a photographic memory! And he doesn’t think she’ll be with them for long. Once having given up all the information she has, then released back into Records in order to gather more information!

   As the episode progresses Number 58 may grow upon us, as her attitude grows more amiable. And yet she is an agent operating undercover for The Village, as a maid, another woman whose assignment is to get close to Number 6. She has an almost continuous expression on her face, which really is at odds with everyone else in The Village.  

    Towards the end Number 58 who speaks a completely unintelligible foreign language, who has developed into an appealing character, undergoes a further transformation. Gone is the appealing smile, gone the cheerfulness, and gone is Number 58. Replaced by the serious, hard-hearted, vicious, unemotional, now English-speaking Number 2, who treats Number 6 with contempt.

   As the new Number 2 stands on the dais in her office, everything about Number 58 has gone. And yet she played her part.

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