More Village

     Although The Village Guardian is a physical entity which is activated by the command of Orange Alert, either by the Supervisor in the Control Room or on occasion by Number 2 in his office. However the Guardian also has a symbolic meaning. Patrick McGoohan once said of The Village Guardian “The balloon represented the greatest fear of all – the unknown. Or the invasion of privacy. Or hidden bureaucracy. Or interviews. Or taxes. Or whatever.” 

   So what is it Six is afraid of? “Look up Six, look at your fear. See what you create with it.” Whatever it is, every time he becomes afraid, when he’s about to escape, or lose something or someone, as in the case of 4-15, Rover appears on the scene. Whatever Six’s fear, he cannot bring himself to face it!

  In the original series "Rover" as it was called, and became known as, was the Village Guardian which kept the citizens in line, and was despatched to recapture escaping prisoners. Stopping them by suffocating its victims into unconsciousness or worse. But in THEPRIS6NER Rover is not The Village Guardian. It is not activated at the command "Orange alert." It does not patrol The Village, nor does it keep the citizens of The Village in order, or chase down escaping prisoners as in the case of 93 in the desert. That is a task left to armed Guardians.
   In THEPRIS6NER we discover the origin of the Village Guardian, something we never knew in the original series, only by what was said by Patrick McGoohan. It would seem that Rover in this series, is Bill Gallagher's interpretation of Patrick McGoohan’s words. So in this series the interpretation isn’t so far off McGoohan’s meaning after all. In fact its spot on.

    With the episode of Darling there is a scene straight from the original series of A B & C, the way in which Six is taken from his apartment at night to a laboratory in the Clinic, where 313 and Two have things done to Six. But in this case it's nothing to do with why Six resigned, but love. 313 injects Six with 4-15's genes, as Two sees that love is "all in the genes." The theory being that we fall in love with those who match our own genes, but Two and 313 have taken this one stage further. And so carrying 4-15's genes inside him, he cannot help but love 4-15, and she him. It's called "Gene Symmetry Therapy." There is doubt, suspicion even, but Six cannot help himself but love 4-15.

    And it's strange, but Lucy-4-15, develops a relationship with Six much in the same way as Nadia did with No.6 in the original series, but without the sex, although Nadia might have, had No.6 been willing! More than that, 4-15 is forced to love Six in the same way that No.8 is hypnotised into loving No.6 in the original episode of ‘Checkmate,’ only the methods are different. Lucy is clever and ambitious, whereas 4-15 is the wholesome, un-ambitious side to her character. She has had affection from her father, and probably sees getting the same affection from Six.

    313 has a complicated relationship with Six. Because she works for Two, and injects Six, and this is where the contradiction is, she is attracted to Six, and that is why 313 kisses Six at his wedding, so to stop the wedding, and was successful in that. 313 is a go-between Two and Six, so that's what the contradiction is, her attraction to Six, being attracted to what Six has to offer. 313 and Six respond to each other. They both have love, pain, fear. They are quite similar in that way, they are people who respond to each other, and that is where the love lies between them.

   As for 147, he is entirely satisfied with his life inside The Village, until a terrible thing happened. His daughter 832 fell into one of the holes which were appearing in The Village, and after that he becomes a broken man. Is this the kind of treatment that is dished out to those like 147 who were brought to The Village to be made better in the first place! Once 147 loses his child, he has lost all his reasons for believing in The Village. After that 147 is on Six's side.

   The holes which are a nothing, oblivion, and beyond hope. They are not holes in the ground, they are holes in reality. What are they? Where do they come from? And what do they tell us about The Village? Well if we had not been told, this would be a difficult one to figure out! And that is where the difference lies between the two series, McGoohan would never have explained holes appearing in his Village!

    I tend to think that at the end THEPRIS6NER Six gave himself up for the greater good. That 313 agreed only to do what she did until Six could find a "better way," to find a new Two to pass The Village on to. Because at the end of Checkmate, Six has reached the place where Two began.

   One can only speculate just how many Twos there have been up to the time of Six becoming the new Two. As for The Village, it appears to be a second chance for people who are Ill, have committed crimes of some kind, a place where people are taken, whether they want to be saved or not, while at the same time are living their lives in New York.....so The Village is in New York, but only in the mind!

    Two wants to give Six The Village, it's his way for escape. But what surprised me was, the ease with which Six finally accepted The Village. Each episode is a challenge set for Six by Two, this is much in the same way of the original series, each episode being an ordeal for No.6, to win or lose. In the original series No.2 did not always succeed in his challenge with No.6, and it's the same for Two in THEPRIS6NER. And ultimately Two will fail unless he has a challenge that will completely undermine Six through his own beliefs. Six only wants to do the right thing, and that is what will give Six to Two, and did. Because Six is the One!

   Caught on camera, oh look……….the man with the stick!

It is, as it is, as it should be

Be seeing you

Teabreak Teaser

    During ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ who is Fotheringay speaking to on the telephone?

BCNU

Thought For The Day

   "Big Ben has just struck eight. My watch says eight."
                                           {No.6 - The Chimes of Big Ben}
   But what proof do we have that No.6's wrist watch said eight O'clock? The Colonel didn't ask to see the watch. The watch may very well have stopped for all the Colonel knew. It is always possible that No.6 smelt a rat, and decided to say the business about the wrist watch to see how the Colonel would react. The Colonel didn't react, he didn't even ask to see No.6's wrist watch!
   It would seem that along with the Colonel, we are expected to accept No.6's word for it! Words from No.2 of 'Free For All' suddenly spring to mind about No.6, "Can you trust him?"
  One further thought, having looked at the scene when the crate is opened, No.6 does have a rather cynical expression on his face. But perhaps that's because he's tired from the 12 hour journey!

I'll be seeing you

Colony Three -The Village!

    John Drake infiltrates Colony Three as Robert Fuller! An agent MR58 working in SEKCJA.1 {section.1} amended Fuller’s file with a picture of Drake. Fuller had been recruited to Colony Three like so many before him. A total of 750 people have defected to Colony Three somewhere on the Russian Steppes since the war. Why do they? It’s Drake’s job to find out, so John Drake takes Robert Fuller’s place. But eventually Drake runs into trouble, and manages to send out an automatic radio message via a radio transmitter hidden in his electric razor. The message eventually reaches Admiral Hobbs who gives the order to contact MR58 in SECKJA.1 {Section. 1} to get Drake out of Colony Three.
   Now that’s a curious thing as there is something familiar about that code word, name, call it what you will, MR85. In ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ Number 6 addresses a note to XO4, and signs it D6. In ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ the code names ZM73, PR12 and Potter’s code name XB4 are used. Coincidence? Perhaps. Another coincidence is that British military Intelligence agent John Drake infiltrates Colony Three in order to find out what happens to all the people who are disappearing? He finds out that Colony Three is a school for spies, people who are not only trained in all kinds of intelligence work, but also on how to be English. So that when the agents leave Colony Three to take up positions in England, they are English, in act, thought, word, and deed.
   While in Colony Three Drake is put to work as a bureaucrat working in the Citizens Advice Bureau, there’s probably one in your town. There he advises the citizens of Hamden New Town on their rights. Helping them deal with officialdom, income tax, official documents, any problems they may have. He types up each of their names and details on an index card, and clandestinely takes a photograph of each agent using a camera hidden in his typewriter, every time he hits the ; key!
    The Prisoner is loyal, dedicated to his work, is this a man who suddenly walks out? But he didn’t walk out, he resigned. But what if that resignation was all part of a plan, a plan that would eventually see him abducted to The Village? Yes it is known that the Prisoner was doing a runner, having returned home to collect two suitcases, his passport, and airline ticket. But appearances have to be maintained. After all it is what he would have done in this situation. And that goes for the day of his arrival. Like John Drake once in Colony Three, the Prisoner is given a tour of The Village. It is also suggested that the Prisoner might be given a position of authority, working in the Citizen’s Advice Bureau perhaps!  
   The Prisoner then went on to show normal shock symptoms, followed by the accepted behavioural pattern. That he should be unco-operative, aggressive and even try and escape. By vehicle across the beach, and later by helicopter.
   However this time there’s no such contact in Section 1, no way for Number 6 to get a message out of The Village. So Number 6 must resort to measures of his own, with the help of Nadia Rakovsky. Together they return to London, to be more exact to an office in London that the Prisoner knows very well. The Colonel sets about de-briefing the Prisoner. But it all goes wrong. The Prisoner isn’t in London at all, but back in The Village. It would seem that Number 6 passed the test, he proved that he wouldn’t talk, no matter what they did to him!
    The next few months go hard for Number 6, yet he’s learning more and more about operating techniques in The Village. Then one day he wakes to discover The Village deserted. This is the chance he’s been waiting for. Eventually after a twenty-five day sea voyage The Prisoner finds himself back in London. He returns home, and after being fed and watered, washed, shaved, and given a new suit of clothes, the Prisoner goes to see the Colonel. A debriefing session takes place between the Prisoner having returned from The Village, with the Colonel, and Thorpe. The Prisoner reports to them everything he knows about The Village, backed up with photographic evidence. The Colonel is satisfied enough to check out his ex-colleagues report. Then with the dice loaded in the Prisoner’s favour, and the aid of a Naval Commander and RAF Group Captain, with maps and charts, and having calculated the distance made by the Prisoner during his twenty-five days at sea, a search area of some 1,750 square miles is calculated. And so the Prisoner is back on the trail of The Village, guess what, he soon finds himself back in it!
   Perhaps Number 2 got it right. Perhaps the Prisoner-Number 6 is a plant, sent to The Village by their masters, to check on security, to check on Number 2. After all Number 1 didn’t intervene on Number 2’s behalf.
    The next time the Prisoner finds himself outside The Village, he’s once more back in London. Perhaps now he can approach Sir Charles Portland and tell him about what has happened to him in the year he has been away. But there’s a snag, he’s not himself! He has a terrible time trying to convince Sir Charles Portland that he’s ZM73. You would think that the Prisoner would use his real name while with Sir Charles, but no, he insists on using that code name ZM73, just as a colleague uses PR12, and Potter XB4.
    I know that a point has been stretched with suggesting that the Prisoner-Number 6 is a plant in The Village, sent there as John Drake was sent to Colony Three. But as a friend of mine once said to me, if you can’t stretch a point, what can you do? In any case I am not the first to stretch this point. What’s more there are parallels between ‘The Prisoner’ and ‘Danger Man,’ ‘Colony Three.’ The first is the use of the same style of code name. The second is that Colony Three is referred to as The Village by Donovan the director of Colony Three, who said to Richardson that he wants Fuller off their hands. Fuller is suspected of working for the Americans or the British, although Donovan thinks that’s doubtful. But if something happened to Fuller in The Village, Section 1 would be down to investigate. They’ll come down in force and they’ll never leave. Apparently Section 1 has always resented Colony Three’s independence. They’ve been trying to get hold of the Colony Three project since it started. It seems that even in Soviet Intelligence there is jealousy between departments. And thirdly no-one recruited to work in Colony Three is ever allowed to leave. Anyone who goes to work in Colony Three ceases to exist to the outside world. Much in the same way that Number 6 ceases to exist to the outside world, because he’s supposed to have died in an accident at sea! Robert Fuller {John Drake} having been recalled by Section 1, was the first person recruited to work there, ever to leave. The first person that we see who is able to leave The Village is, Cobb. But why the need for the elaborate plan of Cobb’s supposed suicide, and the staging of his funeral? Was that simply for the Prisoner’s benefit, so that to him Cobb would be dead? What did that matter? Cobb was leaving The Village anyway, the Prisoner wouldn’t have known where Cobb had gone, or why. But I suppose that would have been enough, that they didn’t want the Prisoner to know Cobb had left. He would surely have asked about Cobb after returning to the ward after his medical. I guess Cobb’s suicide merely stopped the Prisoner from asking questions. The only way for the Prisoner to leave The Village would be to tell them who he was, if he could have got Number 2 to believe him. And no better time for that than when he had broken Number 2 in ’Hammer Into Anvil.’ Number 6 could have reported Number 2’s breakdown in control to Number 1 himself. Well he could if only Number 6 had been a plant. And even if he was, which side would he be working for? In any case, how could they possibly allow Number 6 to leave with all the knowledge he had gained about The Village. He had already reported its existence twice, but thankfully to the right people. Next time they may not be quite so lucky!

Be seeing you

On The Road To Recovery!

    "Yes I've seen a copy of the deciphered message, what time would you say?................ About eight o'clock Saturday morning................well yes I can't wait to read his blog again!"

BCNU

What No Blog?!!

    "What do you mean no blog?...........What's gone wrong?.........well of course sir.......naturally we hope he gets better soon.......but its completely ruined my day I don't mind telling you!"

Be seeing you............soon

Teabreak Teaser

How many people did Number 6 kill while in The Village?

BCNU