Chimes Out Of Tune!

   It was once noted that having arrived in the Colonel’s office after a supposed twelve hour journey, the crate is finally opened, and Number 6 and Nadia are on opposite sides of the crate to which they were when they originally got in the crate. Well obviously the crate was opened from the opposite side to the one they got into!
   More than that is the red lorry which is supposed to be transporting the crate with Number 6 and Nadia sealed inside, well there is no crate on the back of the lorry! You'd think if someone was going to film a lorry on the road, they'd actually put that crate, even if empty, on the back of that lorry, certainly for continuity purposes. And in that regard it would have been better if they could have had film of the same lorry, not that of two different ones! After all, the film of the crates being put aboard a cargo ship, means the viewer can assume that one of those crates contains Number 6 and Nadia. And again the viewer sees a crate filmed being loaded onto a cargo plane. Perhaps the lorry is from another film, in fact all the film of the twelve hour journey was supplied by World Background. 
   ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ has a “cold war” scenario. Forget for a moment that Number 6 and Nadia are supposedly escaping from The Village, the action could easily suggest that they were simply escaping from a country behind the Iron Curtain. And bringing the Prisoner back to an office, again supposedly in London, with both Fotheringay and the Colonel present, well that merely confirms it is the British who are behind The Village.
   And why oh why didn't Number 6 pick up on the fact that Big Ben chimes twice in the space of 2 minutes and 45 seconds. But it was rather clever for them to get the chimes of Big Ben, which is being played on a tape recorder, to synchronise perfectly with the watch worn by Number 6! 

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Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                    “Sometimes In My Dreams!”

 BcNu

Page 6

    I wonder, I wonder if those three children in ‘The Girl Who Was Death called Number 6 uncle Six? I was only wondering, only 16’s family called Six Uncle Six because he was supposed to be their uncle. In THEPRIS6NER that is. I shouldn’t think Number 6 was an uncle to those three children, but they might have called him uncle Six, using it as a term of endearment. Uncle Six has a sort of ring to it, wouldn’t you say? After all to them Six wouldn’t be his number, but his name. Ah, but whose children were they, I hear you ask? It’s has been suggested in a theory that they might be the sons and daughter of Number 2. That would be the easiest thing I suppose, nothing easier really. Number 2 brings his children to The Village, unconscious so they see nothing of The Village, only the room of their nursery. So how many times did Number 6 visit the children? If it was but the once it seems to be an awful lot of trouble to go to, just for one try at getting Number 6 to drop his guard with children. But then it’s not any less an elaborate plan than any of those preceding it. And anything is worth trying once. Strange how between ‘The Schizoid Man’ and ‘The Girl Who Was Death’ the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation appears to have become of secondary or indeed of no importance whatsoever, while breaking Number 6 has suddenly become the primary objective for some. While now the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation has suddenly become important again. But it seems to have been a half-hearted attempt. Not running out of time, more like ideas. It’s the same with Number 6 attempting to escape, after ‘Checkmate’ he simply stops trying to escape. He did try and send a message to anyone who might find it, but that backfired on him. Because then like Cobb, as far as Number 6 is concerned, to the outside world he’ll be dead, something which seems to have been forgotten by the time of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!’

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Caught On Camera!

    You know in ‘Arrival’ how there are three Number 66’s, well four if you count the two different ex-Admirals, plus the maid in the Prisoner’s cottage and the taxi driver who drivers Number 6 home from the hospital. Well there’s another Number 66 but this time in ‘Free For All,’ the chap on the right in the picture. 66 is a very popular number in The Village it would seem!

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There Never Was A Number 1!

    The question at the time was, how was Patrick McGoohan going to wrap it up with regard to ‘Once Upon A Time,’ to resolve the question of Number 1? According to ‘the Prisoner’ Film Librarian Tony Sloman he once said that McGoohan was never going to resolve the question. There never was a Number 1. Pat McGoohan was Number 1. We were all Number 1. There was never a Number 1. The extra shots were never there on the original. That was the end. Because ‘Once Upon A Time’ was originally just another episode, being one of the early written episodes. The final scene at the end in which the Supervisor asks Number 6 what he desires? To which Number 6 replies "Number One" was later added

    Makes you think... doesn't it especially when in THEPRIS6NER 1,100 said “There is no Number One. There has never been a Number One, and there never will be.”

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Quote For The Day

    “He’s a plant, if anything happened to him, our masters would know who was responsible.”

                                  {Number 2 – Hammer Into Anvil}

    “Our masters,” in ‘Arrival’ Cobb spoke of his new masters, that he mustn’t keep them waiting. And Number 2 in ‘The Schizoid Man’ said of Number 6 “I can’t use the normal techniques, too valuable mustn’t damage him permanently say our masters.” And in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ Number 6 accuses Number 2 of being afraid of his masters, there is never any mention of Number 1, or being afraid of Number 1, or Number 1saying Number 6 is too important, that he mustn’t be damaged permanently, its always the “masters.” It’s only Number 1 when it comes to ‘Fall Out,” that’s why I’ve always thought Number 1 as being Number 6’s alter ego as being a cop out. After all up until the advent of ‘Fall Out’ it’s always been assumed, and with very good reason that its Number 6’s former employers within British Military Intelligence who had him abducted to The Village. Or if not then by some other department within British Military Intelligence, certainly one or the other, but not this Number 1 character seen for a few moments in ‘Fall Out.’ Yes someone has to be in charge in The Village, but that would be Number 2 wouldn’t, as Chief Administrator. Yes Number 2 would be answerable to Number 1, but my guess would be that even Number 1 is held accountable to those “masters” we hear so much about!

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Number 2?

   It may be wondered what it was that made each subsequent Number 2 go to The Village in the first place? What was the motivation? What was said to persuade each one to go in the first place, let alone to go back a second time. Perhaps it was a desire to serve. On the other hand they may have been given no choice in the matter. In any case each Number 2 is different from each other.

    One or two are charming, one’s almost statesman like, while another is a good administrator. Interrogators yes. Persuasive yes, cunning, devious, and calculating. Whilst some would see Number 6 broken, others see Number 6 as being too important to be reduced to a man of fragments, because Number 6 has a future with The Village. And so other ways must be employed, and if necessary Number 6 must be persuaded. If Number 6 would answer just one simple question then all the rest would follow, and they would have him within their power.
   But Number 6 isn’t like the others, he’s not a sheep, he’s a goat, and goats cause trouble, Number 6 is a damned troublemaker! But even so he has to be handled very differently, seeing as how important he is. And in regard to handling Number 6 differently to the others, it would be an interesting experiment to know how different Number 2’s would have handled other Number 2’s assignments. Mix them up a bit, after all which of the Number 2’s would have had the mental strength to be locked in a room in a one on one situation with Number 6? As it is I think the best Number 2 was chosen for that particular assignment, the former Number 2 of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Because as well as the doctor patient scenario, the warder and prisoner aspect, there’s the rapport between the two men to take into consideration. Although that could have been looked on as a weakness. As for the educational experiment of Speedlearn, any of the Number 2’s could have overseen that. Well up until the moment Number 6 involved himself in the equation. Then the situation would have got tricky for any Number 2. The trick being not to underestimate Number 6. Too many Number 2’s were guilty of that. Several just getting away with it, like Number 2 in the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man.’ The only ace in the hole for him was the fact that Number 6 couldn’t possibly have known that Susan had died a year ago!
    On the whole Number 2 appeared comfortable in The Village, although perhaps not feeling quite at home. One even returned to The Village in order to retire, perhaps because he had carried out so much work for The Village and the community, that for him The Village had become home. And for all we know, he may well have spent his time on leave in The Village! Certainly another who had become as a weak link in the chain of command in having completely snapped, may well have spent the rest of his time on the psychiatric ward of the hospital. It takes a special kind of man not only to deal with the rigours of command, to be involved with Number 1’s machinations against Number 6, but to also come to terms with The Village as a whole. Which for most they did, and coming unstuck when the unknown quantity became involved, that of Number 6!

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