A Change of Mind

    What’s this, Big Brother? It’s more like a take on the 1914 Lord Kitchener propaganda poster “Your Country Needs You!”

     They’re right of course, quite right, Your Community needs You! It’s just a pity the welfare Committee of this community doesn’t stretch to taking more care of the individual, and stop Number 2 from carrying out what is nothing more than a witch hunt! In the previous episode there was to have been a Village purge of malcontents, now the malcontents/unmutuals are being made docile by a brutal method which has been medically improved upon by Number 86.

   It seems to me that the title of another episode fits this one very well, ‘Living In Harmony,’ because really that’s all this Number 2 wants. The taking of one’s mind by isolating a person’s aggression, to take away the person’s “will” is really a last resort. The trouble in the first place is, that the least form of neglect or show of disharmony can get a person into trouble, and see them brought before the Committee. But all one has to do is publicly confess and apparently that’s that!

    I like the way Number 6 returns to his cottage to find Number 2 sat nibbling on his shortcake biscuits. Make yourself at home why don’t you!

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More Village - THEPRIS6NER – Darling

    Tonight ‘Darling’. The ‘Modern Love Bureau’ is the modern way for couples to meet in The Village, which is an interesting commentary for today, because couples today are more likely to meet via dating websites on the Internet, rather than going out and meeting people socially. But one thing the ‘Modern Love Bureau’ has is “Blink Match” technology, in other words matched marriages!
   Six is matched with 4-15, and they fall in love with each other. Yet the love Six feels for her has been manufactured by Two and 313 in a laboratory. This might be a new Village, a new Six, but they still come for him in the night when Six is asleep, three times in fact. Rather like the three times in the original series of ‘A B and C.’
   Six’s love is generated through gene symmetry therapy. They scanned the brains of people who were likely to fall in love, they discovered, and Two said Six would like this, that the more there was gene similarity between people, the more they fell in love. And so they replicated by transplanting 4-15’s genes into Six! His feelings for 4-15 are manufactured! 313 doesn’t like what she’s doing to Six, but lets not pretend she has any choice in the matter.
  There’s a touch of ‘Free For All’ about this episode, when 1891 of the “Modern Love Bureau” speaks to Six through his television set. Six presses the off button. Within seconds the doorbell to Six’s apartment rings. He goes to open the door to find 1891 standing on the threshold!
   Holes are beginning to appear in The Village, Two tells his son 11-12 that it’s something to do with the weather, an ambiance anomaly. But really they are oblivion, and beyond all hope for anyone who falls into one of the holes. And yet, for anyone courageous enough to take a leap of faith………..they mean escape!
  And so the episode of ‘Darling’ is reached in this screening of THEPRIS6NER, and is fair to say the weakest of the six episodes, which arguably mirrors ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ for being the weakest episode in the original series. The modern Love Bureau uses "blink match" technology to find anyone in The Village a partner. 1891 appears talking to Six about the Modern Love Bureau through his television set. Six slams the TV and the picture goes blank. The next moment 1891 is standing on the doorstep of Six's apartment. Now where have we seen such a scene before?   Holes begin to appear in The Village!

   Six "What is it?"
   Two "It's a nothing! It's oblivion! It's beyond all hope!"
    147's daughter 832 falls down such a hole as this. Six said he would go into the hole and bring her back. But Six is weak, he has not the strength of his convictions. He is afraid to take that “leap of faith,” for if he had, Six would quickly discover that through the holes is escape! Or is there? perhaps not, seeing as when 4-15 dived into one of these holes, in New York 4-15's counterpart Lucy Dies in Michael's apartment when it is blown up  due to a gas explosion!
  This is one anomaly that runs through the entire series. It should be Helen who is dreaming The Village, and that does appear to be the case. Lying heavily sedated in a recliner in her apartment in New York. So why is that reflected by M2 who spends the majority of her time lying in bed heavily sedated, and can only be allowed a few minutes of wakeful time before holes begin to appear in The Village? There is no reason for M2 to be in this unconscious state, as its Helen in New York who dreams The Village, and her counterpart M2 should be free to enjoy The Village and her time with her son. After all that’s why she and her husband Curtis, volunteered for The Village experiment in the first place. So that they could have a son! M2 has never been with her son, has not seen him grow up, and relies upon her husband Two to tell her about their son 11-12 during her brief wakeful minutes. The Village was created in order to bring broken people there to be made better. Its seems that does not work for M2 and Two himself. They wanted a family, and Two places much reliance on family life, as he did in ‘Harmony.’ But in The Village M2 and Two appear to suffer as much as anyone.
   I once wrote this is the weakest episode of the series, since then I have reassessed my opinion on that score! 

Breathe in…breathe out…more Village!
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Caught On Camera!

    What’s this? Soames Forsyte appears to have come across a small Rover, how did that get there? Put it down Soames, don’t hold it up to your face like that, can you hear me Soames put that thing down before it’s too…………late!

    “Aaaaggghhhhh!”
   I never liked Soames Forsyte much, far too business like that man of property, no humour. Yet towards the end he did become likeable, and he didn’t deserve this!

{Soames Forsyte/Eric Porter - The Forsyte Saga 1967}

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60 Second Interview With No.2

    “If you don’t mind my saying Number Two, you cut the figure of a statesman.”
    “No I don’t mind your saying that at all, its not all that often we politicians get good press. Who are you anyway?”
    “I am Number One-one-three, and this is Number One-one-three b, we contribute to The tally Ho.”
   “Smile” click goes the camera.
   “Newspaper men eh, so what’s brought about this sudden interest in me?”
   “Well Number Two.............”
   “No doubt it’s because of the way I exercise a remarkable manipulation of such a community as ours.”
    “Well not really. It’s the way you demonstrate a measure of individualism!”
    “Individualism, whatever do you mean?”
    “Well most Number Two’s wear a plain dark double breasted blazer. But you wear a different jacket altogether. It’s a specialist jacket, what would you call that colour, dove grey?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “What’s more it has cuffs, what kind of jacket has cuffs at the end of its sleeves?”
    “I don’t know what you’re getting at, but I don’t see what this has to do with anything!”
    “Also you don’t wear the regular grey rolled neck jersey.”
    “I wouldn’t would I, not with this jacket!”
    “And I haven’t seen you put your hand in your jacket pocket.”
    “Should I?”
    “You usually do, it’s one of your little traits.”
    “Is it, I hadn’t noticed.”
    “Why pick Number Six as your opposition candidate?”
    “I don’t think that has anything to do with you!”
    “Number Six is just the sort of candidate we need.”
    “Please don’t write that down!”
    “How will you handle your campaign?”
    “I have no comment at this time!”
    “Will use every means at my disposal.”
    “Now you’re putting words into my mouth!”
    “Don’t worry Number Two, it’s what I do. But, Number 2 the press is right behind you. There just one thing I don’t understand.”
    “And what is that?”
    “How did you get to Number 6’s cottage so quickly that time?”

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MindGames

    Apparently they had to pull a lot of strings to get Curtis seconded back to them, did they? Curtis, is that what his name was, I just wonder.........Well Number 1 might have come up with a plan against Number 6 which he himself might have a personal hand in, and it would have got him out and about the Village. Well the plan behind ‘The Schizoid Man’ wasn’t Number 2’s idea. Perhaps Number 1 thought here’s an opportunity to impersonate Number 6,and have some fun into the bargain by turning the tables on Number 6 and getting him to impersonate Number 1. Ah I hear you say, but Rover got Curtis, and he’s dead. But we only have Number 6’s word for that, we do not know if Number 6 checked the body or merely assumed Rover had suffocated Curtis to death. And in any case even if he was dead, they could have resuscitated the body as with the “late” Number 2. There, that would have livened Number 1’s day up, and bade him never to want firsthand experience in the Village again!

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Track That Bird!

   Observer “Tracking.”
   Supervisor “Beam.”
   “Beam on sir…..yellow….tracking….orange….its out of sight!”
   Supervisor “Get me a fix, radar.”
   “We’ve got a fix sir.”
   “Hellfire.”
   The proceedings are suddenly interrupted by the presence of Number 2 who demands to know what the Supervisor thinks he’s doing.
   The pigeon, Number 6 is sending a message.
   Number 2 takes command, he doesn’t want the pigeon destroyed, he orders the pigeon to be brought down, he wants the message it’s carrying. He orders the Beam to be set at minimum strength. Just as well really, Hellfire would have burned the pigeon to a crisp, they’d have been nothing left of it or the message!
    A search team is sent out to find the pigeon, and is eventually brought to Number 2 in the Computer Room. A note is taken from the bird’s leg……just a minute, Number 2 missed something, two indentations of two further numbers above the written ones in biro. These indentations in the paper suggest there was another coded message written before this one, or at the very least Number 6 changed his mind. And this scrap of paper is the middle part of a larger piece of paper, although I’m not sure what that tells us. 

However Number 6 did not write this coded message, compare this to the message we do know was written by Number 6 below.

    There was a change of mind regarding the code, because originally Number 6 was to have used letters instead of numbers. But just another minute……the message which Number 2 takes from the pigeon’s leg isn’t the one written by Number 6. Here is his coded message, written in black ink using a broad ballpoint, or felt tip pen towards the bottom of a page, and torn from the notebook he purchased from the General Store. I’ve been unable to identify the pen Number 6 used. 

 So what’s the game? There was a change of mind regarding the code, because originally Number 6 was to have used letters instead of numbers as demonstrated in this piece of unused exposure strip.

   So where was this pigeon flying off to? The pigeon was ringed, that makes it a homing pigeon, which in turns means it would have eventually returned to the village!

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XO4

    That missive written to XO4;

    “To xo4

          Ref your query via Bizet record.

          No.2’s instability confirmed.

           Detailed report follows.

                                                     D6.”

  

    Who did Number 2 think Number 6 was going to hand that missive to? Who was XO4? Perhaps one of those masters Number 2 was afraid of. Perhaps he worked for Sir Charles Portland’s department in Military Intelligence seeing as everyone seemed to go by a code name, ZM73, PR12, and XB4 for example. So why not XO4 and D6, except Number 6 already had a codename ZM73, but perhaps Patrick McGoohan decoded to amalgamate his past and present in that codename, D for Drake, and 6 for Number 6.
   As for Number 2 he must have been under the impression that XO4 was somewhere in the village, otherwise it would have been impossible to get that missive to XO4 outside of the village. But of course XO4 didn’t really exist, well not in the village, so what happened to the note Number 6 wrote? He probably threw it away in a litter bin. Its just as well an Observer hadn’t picked that up on camera, otherwise Number 2 would have thought the litter bin a “dead drop,” and might have ordered his assistant Number 14 to keep the litter bin under the closest surveillance to see who would come along and retrieve the note. But then what happens when the litter bin is emptied? He would probably have had the dustbin man brought to his office for questioning!

Be seeing you