Entering Through The Cottage Door!

    The door to Number 6’s cottage door is operated electronically by use of a sensor, but only for Number 6 it seems. Because when the maid-Number 66 in ‘Arrival’ comes and goes she has to manually open and close the door, as does the electrician when he turns up to replace the loudspeaker! How the sensor is able to distinguish between Number 6 and lesser mortals is unknown. And yet the door does open and close automatically when Number 2 and the maid come calling on Number 6 in ‘Free For All,’ so perhaps the door opens automatically for important people {the maid being Number 2 in waiting} but who also has her hands full carrying Number 6’s breakfast tray! And then again the cottage door does open automatically for the maid-Number 54 in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ but then like Number 58 she does have her hands full carrying Number 6’s breakfast tray if that makes any difference. Because later in the episode she is given a special dress, and given a position of importance at the Prisoner’s trial, as one of the three Judges! 
   Instead of the maid making Number 6’s nightcap of hot chocolate, Number 8 makes it for him in ‘Checkmate.’ He asks her how she got into his cottage “Oh the usual way by the door” she tells him, after all there were still ten minutes to curfew so the door would still be unlocked. Whether or not the door opened automatically for Number 8, or she had to physically open the door by turning the handle when she entered the cottage. When she left, the door does open automatically for her. But then as Number 6 observes the door is always open to them, meaning Number 2, doctors and medical staff, and generally anyone working for The Village and against Number 6. Which brings me nicely to early one morning in ‘Its’ Your Funeral,’ when Monique went to call on Number 6. At night time the cottage door is securely locked, it wouldn’t do to allow citizens to leave the confines of their cell cottage and wander about freely at night. So really, seeing as it was so early in the morning the Supervisor would have quite naturally have had to make sure the door was left open so that Monique could gain access. But they didn’t just leave the door unlocked, it was actually ajar, so all Monique had to do was push the door open. In this case had the door opened automatically for Monique, it would have been a bit of a giveaway. And yet Number 6 was naturally suspicious when he asked her how she got in {rather like Number 8 in ‘Checkmate’} “The door was open” Monique tells him. It always is to them, isn’t it?!
   In regard to this, when the Supervisor explains about leaving the door open for Monique so that she would have access, Number 2 says “Doesn’t she know how to knock on a door then?” And that’s the thing, no-one knocks on Number 6’s door, they just walk in!
   

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                   “You ain’t seen me, right!”

BSEENU

Quote For The Day

    “I’ve met no-one here who has committed a crime.”
                                {No.50 the Watchmaker – It’s Your Funeral}

    He’s right of course, resigning one’s job isn’t a crime one can chuck up a job anytime one wants to unless a person is a Civil Servant then it gets a little tricky. All Number 6 did was to resign, Nadia said she had resigned but that was a lie. Cobb, I’ve no idea why Cobb had been brought to The Village, unless he was like the Colonel and Fotheringay and actually worked for those masters behind The Village. The Rook had been brought to The Village because he was an electronics engineer who had designed an electrical defence system, who thought every nation should have it. Treasonable thoughts perhaps, but that’s all, thinking about doing it isn’t a crime. Dutton Roland Walter Dutton why had they brought a petty Civil Servant to The Village. He hadn’t committed a crime, he hadn’t even resigned his job, but there he was being experimented on by a doctor who threw his heart and soul into his work, extracting what information he could from Dutton. But Dutton hadn’t had access to the vital information, but by the time the doctor found out it was too late.....for Dutton! The General, the ex-Admiral, an ex-Count, as with so many people in The Village, why are they there, what crimes did they commit if any?

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In Dance of The Dead

    “You, you of all people……..I’d never have believed it!”
    “Roland Walter Dutton!”
    “Who was he?”
    “His body was washed up on the shore. How long have you been here?”
    “You don’t know?”
    “Would I ask?”
    “Its difficult to say, a couple of months, and you?”
    “Quite recently.”
    “How’s London?”
    “About the same.”
    “Yes, places don’t change……only people.”
    “Some people.”

    “I want to talk about it anyway.”
    “Let’s go inside.”
    “I told them.”
    “What?”
    “Everything I know…………the irony is they don’t believe me. You know I didn’t have access to the vital stuff.”
    “Yes.”
    “They’ll take me back to the hospital, and by the time they realize I’m telling the truth it will be too late.”
    “When?”
    “They’ve released me for seventy-two hours, so that I can reconsider in the peaceful atmosphere of …the…..The Village.”
    “There’s still hope.”
    “No my friend not for me………….such noble thoughts are long dead. Soon Roland Walter Dutton will cease to exist.”

   Dutton cuts a tragic figure, he is resolved to the inevitable. Seeing as he didn’t have access to the vital information, it makes one wonder why he was brought to The Village in the first place. Perhaps he is one of those who know too little. It also gave the doctor-Number 40 the opportunity for experimentation.
    It’s clear that Dutton was surprised to see his old colleague in such a place as The Village. Perhaps he thought a man of his calibre would be the last person he should find in such a place. But at the beginning of their encounter there was mistrust, Dutton might well have thought his old colleague was working for The Village, and this was an attempt to get close to him in order to get him to talk. But Dutton has already told them all he knows, there’s nothing left to extract.
   It’s a strange place for Dutton to show up though, outside the cave. It would have been more usual for them to have met up somewhere in The Village. But then it does seem usual for Number 6 to meet up when there is no-one else about. Like Cobb on the ward in the hospital. Had Dutton simply gone for a walk to be alone and simply found himself down on the beach outside the cave? Or was the meeting arranged, if so for what purpose, to deliberately meet with Number 6? They had tried to use Dutton before as a communications medium, perhaps they are trying that a second time. Using him as a warning to Number 6, if you don’t talk you’ll eventually end up like him! This is all pure supposition and guess work of course, in an attempt to reveal the underlying message.
   And the body on the beach, Number 6 assumed it had been washed up on the shore. But what if it had been placed there during the night for Number 6 to find……? 

Be seeing you

The Therapy Zone

    There are those who feel the quote from Kafka’s ‘The Castle is quite apt for ‘the Prisoner’ because on the surface Number 6 does appear to know a good deal about The Village himself. For example he knew that Number 9 in ‘Arrival’ had been assigned to him as she had been to Cobb.

Number 6 is aware that in the woods they can see but cannot hear, the observers, but then he could have learnt that for himself. He knew that Number 14 was a doctor and that she was one of them! Also the name of that the white membranic Village Guardian – ‘Rover’ was known to him, how did he know that then?

    He knows the price of Whiskey and Vodka 26 and 24 work units respectively. And where the green dome is, having showed Number 8 the way across the square, across the street, up the steps you can’t miss it!

    “Be seeing you” a passing citizen says.

    “Sounds like a salute” Number 8 remarks.

    “It is” he tells her.

    He knows that they’ve heard, they are aware and they don’t need anyone’s help!

   And he recognised the voice of Number 2 in ‘Once Upon A Time’ realising that he had been here before. Ah but what Number 6 doesn’t know far outweighs what he does. For example in ‘Free For All’ Number 6 didn’t know where the Town Hall was, he had to check it on the map of the electronic free information board. He didn’t know about the electrical force field of the Town Hall in ‘Dance of the Dead’ when he tried to follow his observer Number 240 inside.

Nor did he know if anyone had seen ‘the rules’ which were spoken about during his trial in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ Number 6 doesn’t know where the village is, he’s always asking “Where am I?” Though later he does learn the location of The Village for himself in ‘Many Happy Returns.’

   He doesn’t know who Number 1 is, neither is he sure which side runs the village.

   ‘The General’ he hasn’t a clue about until he is introduced to the computer, and Therapy Zone is explained to him, as is jamming. Yes Number 6 does know a good deal about The Village, yet he seems to know at times even less. What Number 6 does know about The Village he learns through his time and experience there. Mind you having said this, seeing that Number 6 is the alter ego of Number 1 he should know all there is to know about The Village, and the perfect way of escape to boot!

Be seeing you

Resigned!

    This bloke’s picture has been ex’d out!
    It means he’s resigned his job, file him under resigned.
    All those grey filing cabinets, all that information.

    What about it?
    Well we’re in this huge warehouse, and we never see anyone from one weeks end to the next. I mean what’s it all for?
    Not our place to ask, and even if it was.......
    So this bloke resigned.
    He’s not been the first, and I dare say he won’t be the last.
    There no name on this card.
    It’s a computer print-out card.
    I wonder who he was?
    Is, I don’t expect he’s dead, otherwise he’d be filed under deceased. But one thing he was, he was a Civil Servant, otherwise he wouldn’t be filed here.
    Wonder what they did to him?
    How do you mean?
    Well Civil Servants aren’t supposed to resign and get away with it, are they?
    No, I’ll put the kettle on.
    Any biscuits?
    No, we have cake today, a Victoria sponge.
    Oh goody.
    Have you filed that yet?
    I’ve just sent it down the line.
    One day we’ll end up being filed away somewhere in one of these grey filing cabinets.
    We would have to file ourselves away!  
    How do you make that out?
    We’re always down here! When was the last time either of us went outside?
    Tea’s up. Do you want to go outside?
    No.
    Well stop going on and drink your tea, I’ll cut us a piece of cake.
    I mean no-one comes here. We could be dead for all anyone cares!
    We can’t be dead, we’re not filed away. You have to be filed away under DECEASED to be dead, and we’re not dead. Hello what’s this coming through?
    {The teleprinter types a message.}
    What is it?
    It’s a request!
    What for?
    Information!
    No-one’s put a request in for information before. We file anything sent to us, and that’s an end to it. What do they want?
    A letter.
    What letter?
    A letter of resignation.
    Whose?
    Mine!
    Yours?!
    And yours!
    Mine!
    They can’t do this to us!
    They can, they can make us redundant!
    We are redundant!
    I wonder what they’ll do with us?
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Now you know!
    I don’t like this place!
    The Village, I don’t much care for it either.
    They say there’s no escape, that no-one ever leaves this place!
    Then we’ll just have to get used to it!
    But no-one comes here!
    I’ll put the kettle on.
    Citizens Advice Bureau, what’s the point when there’s no-one to offer advice to......any biscuits?

    No, we’ve got cake today, Victoria sponge.
    Oh goody...............

Be seeing you

60 Second Interview With

No.19 No.56 No.19 The Shopkeeper!

    Ting-a-ling-a-ling
    “Ah good morning gentlemen, and what can I do you for today?”
    “We’re not customers.”
    “Oh, well if you’re not going to buy anything you can leave my shop.”
    “Don’t be like that, I am Number One-one-three, and this is my photographic colleague Number One-One-three b, we contribute to The Tally Ho.”
    “Smile” click goes the camera.

    “And I’m the shopkeeper that’s the introductions out of the way, are you sure you won’t buy anything?”
    “Well if it makes you happy, I’ll have a quarter pound of wine gums, and my colleague will have five penny worth of Black Cats.”
    “Certainly gentlemen, now then, five penny worth, that’ll be two point nought, nought, nought two three credit units, and the quarter pound of wine gums three units, that’s four point nought, nought, nought two three credit units.”
    “Here you are.”
    “I’m sorry sir, I don’t take Barclaycard!”
    “I don’t have anything else.”
    “What about your Credit Unit card?”
    “My weekly credit allowance has been all used up.”
    “What about him?”
    “His as well.”
    “Well gentlemen I can’t accept this.”
    “Perhaps we can pay you later?”
    “Sorry, I don’t give credit!”
    “The taxi driver who brought us here said we could pay her later.”
    “Well I’m not such a soft touch as Number Eighteen. And if you’ll take a tip from me, using a taxi to bring you here seems very extravagant when you could easily have walked.”

    “Well if you’re going to be like that! Anyway we didn’t come here to buy sweets. We’re on a job.”
    “Job, what job?”
    “We’re here to interview you for sixty seconds.”
    “Sixty seconds eh. Well gentlemen I think you’ll find your times up!”

    “Eh?”
    “You’ve been in my shop a good two minutes!”
    “Oh!”
    “Well gentlemen I look forward to your custom when your credit allowance has been made up.”
    “Just a minute!”
    “What now?”
    “Have you got a twin brother?”
    “Twin brother…..no.”
    “Well when we came into your shop your number was Nineteen.”
    “What about it?”
    “Well now the number on you badge is Fifty-six!”
    “Is it?”
    “How did you do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Change the number?”
    “Oh you’d better ask my twin brother Nineteen about that!”

    “Be seeing you.”
    Ting-a-ling a ling