The Conclusion

     After 10 years of about ‘the Prisoner’ series on my blog, and previous to that 5 years in one form or another, I have decided that its time to bring it to an end. I say I decided, because I actually wrote my final piece about the series a few weeks ago, and it felt then that I had written more than enough on the subject. I know that this news will come as a blow to a large number of readers of my Prisoner based blog because from time to time they have urged me to go on writing about ‘the Prisoner’ series hoping in all hope that I would never stop. However I long realized that this day would eventually arrive, because there is a time for everything and eventually everything comes to a natural end whether we want it to or not.
   I have enjoyed myself immensely having covered ‘the Prisoner’ series in so many different and varied ways, and knowing that fellow Prisoner enthusiasts have been most appreciative of my Prisoner blog over the past 10 years has always helped me give of my best. But fear ye not my Prisoner based blog isn’t stopping, because I intend to keep it active, there is one ‘More Tales From The Village” to come this year. In the New Year’ my blog will be completely dedicated to Prisoner “fiction,” My Prisoner based blog has become, and I trust will continue to be, a source of reference for Prisoner enthusiasts the world over.
    As for myself I still remain a prisoner of ‘the Prisoner’ today as I have always been ever since I first watched ‘Arrival’ all those years ago as a boy of 12 years of age. And I shall always be grateful to the Prisoner because over the years he has allowed me to carry out a variety of related projects, my blog just being one of them.
    So I look forward to be seeing you all in the New Year with a variety of ‘More Tales From The Village,' a third volume of tales in 'Further Tales From The Village, 'Village Life,' 'Who’s That On The Telephono,' 'Out of The Village' along with a number Prisoner based short stories with the occasional front page Tally Ho story, and there could be much more later in 2021. I have three Prisoner based manuscripts {novels} which have been written, and currently I am writing a fourth. I am hoping to hear about the possible publication of these novels later next year. However if that should fall through then some large pieces of “fan fiction” could….. well let me just say that for now, I am keeping my options open.

So I'll be seeing you in 2021…….won’t I?

Television Series' With The Worst Endings!

    In recent years there has been the idea of drawing up lists of the worst endings to television series. Below is one such list of top six worst endings, I hasten to add that I have never seen any of the series listed here, apart from a few episodes of ‘Quantum Leap.’ However there is one further series which could easily be added to it, that of ‘Twin Peaks.’

1. ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (CBS) The finale of the long-running

young-friends-in-New York sitcom was legendary, for all the wrong reasons. ...

2. ‘Seinfeld’ (NBC) That's it? ...

3. ‘Lost’ (ABC) ...

4. ‘Game of Thrones’ (HBO) ...

5. "Dexter" (Showtime)

6. ‘Quantum Leap’

   From a personal point of view one episode is never listed, which I suppose is hardly surprising seeing as the programmes in question are all modern day television series, with the exception of ‘Quantum Leap.’ And no list mentioned ‘Twin Peaks!’ And yet there is a television series which goes back even further than the 1990’s, as far as the late 1960’s which can be added to that list, the finale to ‘the Prisoner ‘Fall Out.’ The understanding was it was to have explained ‘the Prisoner’ and answer questions arising from the previous 16 episodes, which of course it didn’t, and only muddied the water even more. The trouble with ‘Fall Out’ is it doesn’t dovetail with the previous 16 episodes, and the people today who draw up such lists probably haven’t even heard of ‘the Prisoner’ and ‘Fall Out!’
   And yet at the same time, as I have said before, perhaps ‘Fall Out’ is the most logical conclusion, if indeed we can call ‘Fall Out’ the conclusion to the series. Isn’t there an argument for ‘Fall Out’ being where ‘the Prisoner’ begins? The Prisoner who was with them, resigned and then went and gone, rather like No.48!  

 Be seeing you

The Ten Most Idiotic Things Said & Written About The Prisoner

 1}  “The Village is on the English coast, a short drive from London. All the Number 2s and the rest of the personnel were “patriotic Britons’’ trying to break the Prisoner for the good of the British secret state.”

2}  “The Prisoner was a rocket engineer. After he quit his job, in a slight against him Village scientists created Number 1, the ‘pilot’ of the Number 1 rocket, by cloning the Prisoner’s features onto an intelligent ape. The ‘1’ on the creature’s robe and the side of the rocket signifies “British Lunar Mission 1,” as ‘Number 1’ is a truncated title for the UK’s first moon shot. It’s the name of the whole expedition, not the Village mastermind.”

                           {Not A Number: Decoding The Prisoner}

3}   “I wrote the last script first. All the other stories were meant to lead into it.”
                      {Patrick McGoohan - Daily Mirror 3^rd February 1968}

4}   “In the opening sequence the Prisoner enters a building by the way out!”

                         {Number Six Magazine}

5}   “The following four locations were mentioned by Karel in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Rearrange the four locations into their correct sequence, 1. Danzig 2. Gdansk 3. London .4 Copenhagen.”

                      {The Prisoner Interrogations}

       {It is a misconception by some fans of ‘the Prisoner’ that Danzig  Gdansk are two different cities, when in fact they are two different names for the same city!}

6}   “After considerable thought and debate it appears to us that Number 6’s abduction and subsequent arrival in The Village were almost certainly at the instigation of Janet Portland to further her plan.”
                           {Deadlier Than The Male – In The Village magazine}

7}  “The Village is near Dover, because the lorry in ‘Fall Out’ emerges out of a tunnel and onto the A20.”

                                  {Number 6 magazine}

 8}  “The Village is near Deal In Kent.”

 9}  “The woman customer had seized upon that shot of a rocket lifting off from behind the Portmeirion skyline as evidence that Number One had been an alien from space all along.”

                                  {un-attributed taken from Alan Moore’s Remembers Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner,” Part2}

10}  “In Fall Out the village is destroyed by the rocket.”
                                                          {A Prisoner fan}

Be seeing you

More Tales From The Village

    The day was much like any other day in the village, people going about their daily lives, well most of them. It wasn’t going so well for No.47 who had thus far failed to give any information away. He even refused to give away the date of his birth! But it would only be a question of time, because given enough persuasion and pressure under both physical and mental torture; everyone talks on the third day, after that they couldn’t stop No.47 from talking. It was the lesser information he gave away first in the hope that this would prevent him giving away the “vital stuff” of which he was reluctant to go beyond headings when dealing with the files he had seen, and the projects he knew about. But the doctor was skilled in numerous interrogation techniques, and was determined to extract all the information in 47’s head. Being confined in a hospital room 47 was not availed of any of the so called “niceties” the village provided for others of his kind. Perhaps those were not so important, or had given up all the information and were now living out the remainder of their lives in the peaceful atmosphere of the village. Either that or they had come to the village of their own free will! But not so No.47, he was confined to a room in the hospital, and so was on tap for the doctor.
   At first it was abuse and name calling in an attempt to dishearten the subject, to make him think that it was his former employers who were responsible for his current situation that he had been left high and dry by his masters, who no longer cared whether he lived or died. Perhaps preferring that he died so that their secrets would remain secret, so what did it matter now if he talked?
    Then it was more physical, as the interrogations lengthened the subject was not allowed to sit, but made to stand for hours, and hours on end. Eventually they said No.47 could kneel, but the subject knew that if he knelt upon the floor he was that one step closer to talking, and so he refused. He was bombarded with question after question, they played with his mind, questioning his loyalty, asking him where that loyalty had got him, and were telling him that this is where his loyalty had got him.
   Then they let him rest, sleep, and perhaps tomorrow things would look clearer in his mind. Sleep, if only. No.47 could switch the damned light off, how was he to sleep with the light on? It was after that things became more psychological with the use of a mixture of mind bending drugs that altered perception, the visions of strange and terrible creatures, they induced paranoia he was afraid of his own shadow, and he became more and more mentally unstable. But 47 had a friend he could talk to.
    “How is it today with you Mike? They want to know all about you Mike, but I’ll not give you away, you can trust me Mike. But you must first help me, tell Number 1 what they are doing to me, you didn’t know I have friends in high places, did you Mike? Get me out of here Mike and we’ll go places together. This doctor is a fool if he thinks he can get me to talk, what do you say Mike? Oh I don’t think the doc would like that at all, he’d think it was a physical impossibility. But we know better don’t we Mike. Tell me Mike, is the sun shining today, the sky clear and blue. Perhaps we’ll go to the brass band concert today.”
    “Doctor, who is he talking to?” No.2 asked.
    “He has created a friend, Mike who he talks to.”
    “Why should he do that?”
    “To deflect what we are doing to him” the doctor replied, and added “it’s interesting, none of my subjects have been taken as deep into himself as No.47, and come out of it. This is the first time I have witnessed such behaviour.”
    “Hey Mike they’re talking about us!
    “Shut up! If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be in this spot. Why don’t you just tell them what they want to know, then it will all be over.”
    “You know I can’t do that Mike.”
    “Well let me tell you, that if you don’t, I will!”
    “You wouldn’t, you couldn’t?”
    “I could and I would if you don’t.”
    “Would you say it’s a duel personality doctor?”
    “No, Number 47 is putting it all onto Mike’s shoulders, if Mike decides to tell all he knows, then 47 will in his mind, be blameless.”
    “Hey doc, I’m ready to talk.”
    “Good, I’m glad one of you has seen sense.”
    “Yeah doc, but do me a favour, let me sit up.”
    The restraints were released, and Mike was allowed to sit in a chair.
    “Thanks doc, now we can talk.”
    No.2 issued the doc with a warning but he was too late. Mike made a lunge for the doctor, knocking him off balance, then grabbing a scalpel from a nearby trolley he cut his own throat, and No.47 lay dead in a pool of blood.
    “Yes sir…I realize that, but there were unforeseen circumstances, and the doctor…yes sir, I will sir, I understand………but sir if I could just explain……..yes sir, as you say sir.”
    No.2 put the ‘L’ shaped intercom down on his desk “I won’t be leaving after all 22.”
    “I see sir” said the tall fair-haired assistant.
    “I shall be living here as a prisoner.”
    “I see sir.
    “As a favour to me 22.”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Don’t let that doctor get his hands on me, if you see what I mean.”
    “As a favour to you sir.”
    “Now perhaps you will escort me to my cottage?”
    “Cottage sir, the hospital surely.”
    “The hospital, why the hospital?”
    “Because that’s where you belong! Tell the doc Mike will be there in a few minutes!”
    “Are you alright sir?”
    “Of course he ain’t right, call for an ambulance, this man should be in the hospital, he’s had a very nasty shock, haven’t you me old Number 2. But Mike’s here, I’ll see you right…..right into the psychiatric ward!”

 Be seeing you

The Prisoner

        “Plan division Q all set, its working beautifully…….dead on schedule you could say………No sir, just the way you ordered it….…. The people are already gathering it will be very spectacular………… No nothing can go wrong now I’ll stake my future on it……….. Well thank you sir, I know you will.”
   Why is it I want to tell this interim Number 2 to get up off his knees? And why is he speaking to Number 1 using a yellow telephone, when in previous episodes it was more usual to use a red one. It might have been an idea to get him to use that red oversized curved telephone, the one actor’s Colin Gordon and Patrick Cargill were forced to endure. This interim Number 2 assured Number 1 that nothing could go wrong, well whenever did a plan involving Number 6 work? He also staked his future on the plan succeeding, well as it worked out this new Number 2 didn’t have much of a future. We can only speculate as to what happened to him. Was he instantly removed from the position of Number 2? Or was he allowed to replace his predecessor to become the permanent No.2, forced to work for the good of both the village and its community, behind the scenes as his predecessor had done, during the forthcoming year. And so made to sweat from that day forward, over what his own fate may be 365 days from then, on Appreciation Day!
   But returning to that curious over-sized red curved telephone, I have arrived at the conclusion that the introduction of that prop was simply to make certain actors look ridiculous! I mean just look at the reaction of Colin Gordon and Patrick Cargill when they have to use it. Yes that curious looking prop does appear in a couple of other episodes ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ and ‘Fall Out,’ but in all the seventeen episodes of ‘the Prisoner,’ only these two actors used this prop, when other actors and actresses playing the role of No.2 used a telephone to speak to No.1, they used the usual 'L' shaped telephone.

       February 10th is the only date used in the village, and on this morning 54 years ago, according to the day/date calendar on the bedside table, Number 6 woke up to find a local election was about to take place. What’s more he is invited to become a candidate and stand for election for the position of Number 2! That is not all, because tonight Number 6 will drink his nightcap of hot chocolate before going to bed. But despite the sedative in the nightcap, Number 6’s sleep is still light, so it is quite on the cards that any disturbance will wake him. So his sleep is deepened for him by use of a pulsator device hidden in the overhead light. While that is taking place, two medics come for Number 6, both of whom are wearing dark tinted goggles which presumably protect their eyes from the effect of the pulsating light. One of the medics administers an injection into 6’s left forearm before they take him from his bed and place him on a stretcher. His wristwatch and day/date calendar are removed from the bedside table. The wristwatch is then given to Curtis because during the rest of the episode Number 6 wears a watch with a stainless steel band. As for the day/date calendar it never appears in Number 6’s cottage again, neither does the one removed from the kitchen. But Feb 10th appears even before the onslaught of both ‘Free For All,’ and ‘The Schizoid Man’ the date appears in ‘A B and C’ on The Tally Ho broadsheet along with the headline ‘Is No.2 Fit For Further Term’ And yet as we know this is the same edition of The Tally Ho used in ‘The Schizoid Man.’ the end of the same headline ‘Is No.2 Fit For Further Term’ can be seen. And yet Number 6 cannot hang around long, because by Feb 22nd he has to set sail on that day if he’s to arrive in London on March 18th!
     My wife and I have come to the end of watching ‘the Prisoner’ as in real time, if that wasn’t curious enough, back in July they watched ‘A B and C’ in three acts over three nights. Thinking about those three days of ‘A B and C’ it made me wonder what No.6 did during those three days. I know he met up with No.14 on the lawn of the Old People’s Home and paid No.2 a call on the first day, and on the second day he followed No.14 through the village, and the woods to the laboratory. No.2 caught No.6 on camera walking, “Irritating man!” But surely No.6 cannot spend all his time walking around the village. Nor do I see him sitting about wondering what they have been doing to him. Well he would wonder, but No.6 isn’t the type of man to dwell upon it.
    In ‘Fall Out’ the Prisoner is given his own suit if clothes, the supervisor told him that it was because they felt he would feel happier as himself. Is that why No.48 is also wearing his own clothes? And what about the Professor and Madam Professor, did “they” think they would feel better as themselves? And of course they are not given numbered badges to wear, is that because they are not allowed to go out into the village? The Professor and his wife are under house arrest! The Professor and

Madam Professor are played off against each other by No.2, each are essential to the other. The Professor does as he is told to protect his wife, and Madam Professor makes sure he does for his own good. Mind you they did live in a very elaborate, well decorated house which might have been the Manor House as noted on this village poster. Obviously Madam Professor would have had to give up the house after the death of her husband, possibly her art seminars as well, and go and live in a much smaller cottage and get a proper job, as a waitress at the café, or a maid. And seeing as they put The Professor and Madam Professor in the Manor House, equally they could have put No.6 in Government House according to his previous position. Ah but then again he had resigned, and no longer worked for the Government, so perhaps that’s why they put him in the Roundhouse! I looked up the definition of “Roundhouse.” Originally the uppermost room or cabin of any note upon the stern of a ship. And it is the proper place for the Master; and the deck or cover over it is named the Poop. Roundhouse is defined in Blanckey's dictionary (1740s) as spaces under the poop. So perhaps No.6 has a Naval connection, after all James Bond was recruited from British Naval Intelligence, as was Philip Calvert {When Eight Bells Toll}, so why not ZM73?
    And I enjoy the triviality of ‘the Prisoner’ as with the time when No.6 changed his socks in that air vent in the laboratory in ‘A B and C, also the way No.2 had the back of his head to the camera when No.6 unmasked him. It’s a wonder No.2 didn’t recognize the back of his head, mind you it’s very rarely one gets to see the back of ones own head! The slippers No.6 is given at the time of his medical in ‘Arrival,’ are quite obviously McGoohan’s own, otherwise he’s been given someone else’s well worn slippers! And those spectacles No.6 wears as part of a disguise in ‘Dance of The Dead,’ again obviously McGoohan’s own spectacles, otherwise the prescription lenses could have impaired his vision, well not unless they were plain glass lenses as he once wore in ‘Danger Man!’
    When No.6 sits on an outlook on top of the cliffs tuning in the pocket transistor radio, he picks up a transmission “Nowhere is there more beauty than here. Tonight when the moon rises, the whole world will turn to silver. Do you understand, it is important you understand. I have a message for you, you must listen, the appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight. If our torment is to end, if liberty is to be restored we must grasp the nettle even though it makes our hands bleed. Only through pain can tomorrow be assured.” That bit “Nowhere is there more beauty than here,” that voice sounds like it could be describing the village. And that could mean the radio transmission might be coming from somewhere in the village itself. And what about that voice, to my ear it sounds very much like No.2 of ‘Free For All,’ actor Eric Portman! And that radio message, was that meant for No.34 whose body was found at the shore line by No.6, because if it was that part “the appointment cannot be fulfilled. Other things must be done tonight” sounds like help isn’t coming, and that he’s been hung out to dry!
   And that blue post box in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ is that the new “Blue zone” in the post as mentioned as one of No.2’s achievements in ‘It’s Your Funeral!’
   In ‘The Schizoid Man’ when No.6 sets that taxi in motion, and Rover chases after it, that’s probably an analogy like throwing a stick for a dog!
    And in ‘Checkmate’ when No.14 asks No.6 if he plays chess he does so with good reason, because everyone on that chessboard has to know how to play chess, so as to be able to make the right move when it’s called out by one of the players. The Prisoner can be so simple!                                                                                         

 See you soon

The Therapy Zone

 

  Which would you consider to be the worst outcome for any of the No.2’s who have held office in the village? I sat back in my chair considering the fate of each of the interim No.2’s, interim because none of them were permanent, their term in office ending naturally or due to ineptitude and failure. I came to the conclusion that ‘The General’ is the first contender, No.2’s confidence in the General to be able to answer any question, given the basic facts, was eventually to lead to his own downfall. What could possibly be worse than the destruction of a powerful computer, along with the death of both the Professor and No.12 of administration? There had been a number of failures on the part of No.2, but in ‘Arrival’ No.2 wasn’t trying, he had hardly got into his stride when he was replaced! ‘Chimes’ well once could hardly blame No.2 for that failure, had it not been for the fact that Post 5’s wristwatch was set at the wrong time, who knows, perhaps the plan might well have succeeded. The look on the Colonel’s face told me that he is more likely to pay for this failure than No.2, after all he had done all he could to see No.6 and Nadia managed, to escape the village.
    ‘A B and C’ a definite failure for No.2, although14’s drug did work, but really is the doctor-No.14 not guilty of aiding No.6? She failed to tell No.2 that No.6 had opened his eyes and had seen her. Is she guilty of deliberately leading No.6 to that laboratory in the woods?  Then there’s that curious phrase of hers, “We all have to make mistakes, sometimes we have to” did No.14 deliberately introduce that phrase into the conversation with ‘B’ so to give the game away to No.6 in his dream? But if this failure wasn’t bad enough for No.2, things were bound to get worse for him!    ‘The Schizoid Man,’ the best that can be said in No.2’s favour in this case is, he did manage to stop No.6 from escaping! ‘Many Happy Returns,’ ‘Dance of the Dead,’ ‘Checkmate’ are well calculated episodes on the part of No.2, and then we come to ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ the next failure for No.2 a weak link in the chain of command waiting to be broken. A man with a paranoid mania because he thought enemies within the village were all conspiring against him, so much so that he couldn’t trust anyone, he didn’t even trust No.14 in the important details! In the end No.2 only had himself to blame, and who can say, perhaps No.1 enjoyed No.6 bringing retribution to No.2. Also it’s possible that when No.2 advised the citizens to be constantly on guard against enemies in their midst in that Tally Ho article, he had previously been suffering from a bad bout of “jamming” before the advent of ‘Hammer into Anvil.’ And when the Tally Ho article says “We do not necessarily know where our enemies are, or who they might be” that could mean that the village administration didn’t have a list of known jammers at that time. And that brings us nicely to ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ this turned out to be a complete disaster for this interim No.2, and yet an important lesson was learned, that any plan involving No.6 is bound to fail just ask No.2 of ‘A Change of Mind’ who was hounded back to the Green Dome by an angry mob of villagers!  
    Now we arrive at the next two episodes of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ and ‘Living In Harmony’ which are possibly the final candidates for the worst outcome for No.2. By the time of ‘Darling’, “Did you call?” the editor asked poking his head around the door, no I said and resumed typing, the village administration have brought about the use of the ‘Seltzman machine. Thereby exchanging the minds of two people, the village administration have been able to send foreign agents, brought to the village, then back into the outside World but with the mind of the administrations choosing. This in order for the agent working for the village to infiltrate and break the security of any nation, then to live that foreign agent’s life, gain   information, then be returned to the village in order to have that information extracted!  
   But once again the plan behind ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My darling’ involved No.6 who for the first time was dependent upon the village’s administration being able to bring him back to the village! But No.2, who although watched everything Professor Seltzman did to reverse the minds of the Colonel and No.6, was out manoeuvred. So another disaster for No.2, in that Professor Seltzman managed to escape in the guise of the Colonel, the Colonel who died on the operating table. But at least the Seltzman machine remained intact, unlike the General! So out of these two episodes ‘Darling’ and ‘General’ I would put ‘The General’ as having the worst outcome for No.2. But what of ‘Living In Harmony,’ that’s a bit of a joke isn’t it? I mean would YOU like to live in Harmony? In fact when I think about the title of ‘Living In Harmony’ it would suit the episode ‘A Change of Mind’ considering the citizens in the village are encouraged to live in harmony. Whilst the title of ‘A Change of Mind’ would suit ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ and that being the song of the 1952 film Western film ‘High Noon,’ would dovetail as the title of ‘Living In Harmony’ very nicely. But as it is, in the Sliver Dollar Saloon No.22 lies dead on the floor, strangled to death by No.8, who has gone totally doolally because he can no longer separate fantasy from reality and throws himself off the balcony. Oh not in remorse from strangling No.22, but because he didn’t want the Judge to hit him no more! Another complete and utter failure for No.2, and two more dead personnel, but still this does not put ‘Living In Harmony’ above ‘The General’ in the “worst outcome” stakes.    ‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ was No.2 really trying during this episode, at the end it seems his heart hadn’t really been in it when he sighs. Whose idea was it to put No.6 in the nursery in the hope he would drop his guard with children. He told them a blessed fairytale! “But it was worth a try Hein” the editor said poking his head around the door! ‘Once Upon A Time’ didn’t end well for No.2, having been brought back for a second term in office. He did succeed to some degree as he did manage to get more out of No.6 than any of his predecessors, and yet at the end he dies, having given his life for the cause, although there are better causes to die for! And he was resuscitated, and eventually arriving back in London to resume his position in the House of Lords. Another No.2 to be brought back, but this time to over see three trials during ‘Fall Out’ didn’t fair all that well either. No.1 sealed in the nose cone of the rocket, four prisoners managing to escape, having to give the order to evacuate the village, as the rocket was launched prematurely. Its another utter disaster which would have put ‘Fall Out’ at the top of the list of worst outcomes for No.2, if it were not for the fact of the combination of ‘The General’ and ‘A B and C,’ the fact that the same No.2 over saw both experiments, the use of No.14’s new “wonder drug” and the educational experiment of Speed Learn which if proven to be a success would have been wheeled out as the Governments new educational process. So with that in mind, and putting ‘The General’ and A B and C’ together, I consider this No.2 to have the worst outcome of any No.2. But why have I placed ‘The General’ before ‘A B and C’ against the more usual television screening order? Because in ‘The General’ No.2 is confident, and self-assured, while at the beginning of ‘A B and C’ he is apprehensive, anxious, because he knows he has already failed once, and sooner or

later that over-sized red, curved telephone is going to start bleeping. And at the end of ‘A B and C’ No.2 is a beaten man, and by the time that telephone does start to bleep he’s panic stricken and with good reason! I shall leave you with this question…..as No.6 throws No.14 out of his cottage through the French door in ‘Hammer,’ did No.14 break his neck, or was he merely injured?  

Be seeing you  

Compliments of The Season

 Wishing all my readers

A Very

Happy and safe

Christmas

David