Kitchenalia!

    When it comes to ‘A Change of Mind,’ an episode not filmed at Portmeirion, it is strange then that it contains more Portmeirion crockery seen in No.6’s kitchen, than in any of the four episodes actually filmed in the Italianate village, put together! The tea cups, together with a coffee set, all have the ‘Favourite Horseman’ design.

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No.6

    No.6 isn’t what would be termed as a “social animal.” It was Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who strongly stated about the social nature of the man being a social nature a social animal, an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. I would not say No.6 is anti-social, but he is certainly an individual who likes to mind his own business.
   He doesn’t openly seek the company of others, except when it suits his own purposes, and it generally does suit his own purpose. And yet when isolation is forced upon him by declaring him unmutual, he’s angry at having been made an outcast, no more taxis, the telephone is cut off, and he’s refused custom at the Old People’s Home. He suddenly feels lonely and craves inclusion. No.6 is a loner, yet cannot withstand real loneliness!

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If You Go Down To The Woods Today…….

    At the beginning of ‘A Change of Mind’ the two thugs, No.16 and No.53, who were obviously sent to the woods in order to pick a fight with No.6 so that when he vanquished his two opponents it would give them the opportunity to go running to supposedly the Welfare Committee to put in a complaint against No.6 for assault! That was all well and good as far as No.2 was concerned, but then 37 minutes into the episode No.6 finds himself back at his gymnasium in the woods, and who turns up but, No.’s 16 and 53 seeking to extract their revenge upon No.6. No.6 had doubts enough as it was, but somehow that fight helped him back to his senses, and was suddenly his old self once more. It’s possible that adrenalin, released in No.6’s body during the fight, helped counteract the Mytol sedative administered by No.86 during the supposed operation of Instant Social Conversion on No.6.  Had it not been for the intervention of 16 and 53…..well who can say what would have happened!

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Tales From The Village

    “How is it you’ve never escaped?” It was a question I had not asked myself, well not for quite a while. I suppose it’s something you get used to, the village, it’s easy to get used to something when you live it every day. And eventually you learn to accept and settle down, once you’ve learned there’s no way out! And when you think about it there’s only so many ways one can attempt to escape, especially if one is limited by the lack of skills, such as navigation, or the inability to pilot a helicopter for example. It’s easy to know what not to try, the difficult part is to come up with a plan that’s got have more than half a chance of succeeding! Oh there was one chap who organized an escape group, each member of the group had a different skill that he or she could bring to the escape plan. It still failed, well it came down to a matter of trust, someone had to be in charge you see, and that was the person who came up with the plan in the first place. He had to give the orders to see that the plan was carried out correctly, that nothing was left to chance. But it was that air of authority that let the plan down, a question of trust you see. But then no plan is full-proof, and that’s mostly why escape plans fail! But it’s true that everyone tries to escape when their spirit’s broken and some see it as the duty of every prisoner to try and escape at some point. One or two have escaped but they have always been brought back, although not always alive. It’s the Guardian you see it’s always on patrol, and you can’t outrun it, and if you fight back when it attacks you, the damn things like a balloon, it offers no resistance! Someone attempted to prick it with a darning needle thinking it would burst like a balloon. But it didn’t.

     Anyway I’m too old now for escape, I’m happy to live out my days here in the Old People’s Home. All my needs are catered for, and there’s always a game of chess on offer from the General, or if the weather’s set fair the Admiral and I go sailing aboard the boat, although he assures me she good in any weather. There he is now, “Ahoy Admiral” I shout and wave. “Anyway I’ve got to go now; the Admiral will be weighing the anchor in a few minutes.”

    And off he went the silly old fool, if he thought anyone could go sailing in a stone boat then they are off their heads! But then the madness began, with the sails set and the Admiral at the wheel, the stone boat broke away from the quayside and sailed away into the estuary. No-one could believe their eyes as we stood staring at the vessel which had been part of the quay now sailing away out towards the sea. The silver grey helicopter took off and gave chase; it circled the vessel like a gnat in the vain hope of stopping or slowing the vessel which was now in the mouth of the estuary with the wide open sea ahead of it. A pair of speed boats also set off in pursuit, and there was a sudden disturbance in the water as a white sphere shot through the surface and went skimming across the sea towards the approaching the Stone Boat. But what could it possibly do? What happened next you might ask, as the helicopter continued to circle, the two speed boats finally catching up and then…..and then……….I woke up!

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Who Is This Arthur When He’s At Home?

    Who is Arthur? Dutton mentions Arthur and the Colonel in an opening scene of ‘Dance of the Dead,’ when the doctor No.40 is attempting to gain information from No.6 and using No.42-Roland Walter Dutton in the process, who is speaking to No.6 on the telephone about it being a bore. There having been a suspected security leak. Apparently its not Dutton asking, its the Committee, who want a breakdown  on everything they know, No.6, me {Dutton} Arthur, the Colonel. All the files he's seen, the projects he knows about, just headings, not details.

   So I suppose Arthur is an assistant to the Colonel, in the same way as both Fortheringay during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ Thorpe in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and Potter of ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’ He was  possibly the most ineffective of the three, seeing as he was present at the untimely murder of the Colonel, but somehow unable to prevent it!

   Of course Arthur mentioned by Dutton could always have been “Dear Arthur,” Mrs Butterworth's deceased husband. After all he was in the Navy, and British Intelligence recruited from the Navy.  

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Fall Out!

    Is that an order Number One? It sounds like an order, a military order, fall out and nothing to do with radiation fallout! Unless you mean there is to be a falling out, but amongst whom? The citizens, surely not, then.....oh, a falling out amongst friends! You, No.2, No.6, is that it? Perhaps through Fall Out you mean to destroy everything because of No. 6. Is this where it all begins, by falling out? No.6 like No.48 was with us then he went and gone, is that it? If there is no Fall Out there cannot be an ending, and no ending there is no beginning, without Fall Out none of what we know can take place! Fall Out is the making of the Prisoner!

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Watching The Prisoner - A Change of Mind

                               “They’re right of course, quite right!”

    When it comes to physical exercise just as Kosho links ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ with ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ or possibly the other way around whichever way you like to look at it, No.6’s homemade gymnasium apparatus in the woods links ‘It’s Your Funeral’ with ‘A Change of Mind.’

    To my mind No.6’s home made gymnasium apparatus is first established in ‘A Change of Mind,’ or at least at a time before this episode, that’s why I place this episode before ‘Its Your Funeral’ in this slightly amended screening order to the one in my book ‘The Prisoner Dusted Down.’ And I imagine it is from ‘A Change of Mind’ that the film footage is taken of No.6 working out in his own private gym which appears in the daily prognosis report on No.6 in ‘It’s Your Funeral.’ Certainly the prognosis report would be looking back at his previous activities, and that in itself would be enough to place ‘A Change of Mind’ prior to ‘It’s Your Funeral.’ For my book I attempted to get as close as I could to a definitive screening order of ‘the Prisoner,’ and yet having amended that screening order slightly for my watching the series now, its plain to see that there can be no definitive screening order, simply on the grounds that there are far too many imponderables! Perhaps it would be simpler to stick to either the screening order or the production order of ‘the Prisoner,’ but even those throw up their own inaccuracies!

    There is a saying, “Birds of a feather flock together,” and yet alone in the woods No.6 has set himself apart from the community of the village, preferring his own company to that of others.

    No. 6 appears to be training for the big break, and yet escape hasn’t been on No. 6’s mind for a long time. He’s simply keeping himself in training, not wanting himself to get out of condition. It’s a little antisocial of him perhaps. But we have no idea why No.6 took it into his head to build himself a private gym in the woods. The doctor-No.10 said after No.6’s medical that he was fit for any contingency, but didn’t have anything specific in mind at the time. Did he mean another escape attempt, or perhaps something much closer to home, such as the process known as Social Instant Conversion?! At least Number 6 didn’t end up in the Aversion Therapy Room. When No.6 asked the “lobo” man if he’d been inside that room, the reply was not in there, that he was one of the lucky ones! Lucky to be one of those citizens who have been domesticated or pacified by having their aggressive frontal lobes isolated! A barbaric operation which the charming doctor-No.86 cleaned up, no blood, no barbarism, only the use of sound waves, all very neat and tidy. And I thought the two doctors No.40 of ‘Dance of the Dead’ and No.23 in ‘Checkmate’ were bad enough!

     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 No.2 from carrying out what is nothing more than a witch hunt!

    I like the way No.6 returns to his cottage to find No.2 sat nibbling on a shortcake biscuit taken from a glass bowl of such biscuits. Make yourself at home why don’t you!

        “All charmingly domestic…I think I’d like some tea.” Certain episodes have a theme running through them, this episode has tea for its theme.

    No.6 cannot stand girls who can’t make a decent cup of tea, and gives No.86 a lesson in brewing a proper cup of tea. He can also boil eggs for his breakfast when push comes to shove, unless he has someone like Nadia to boil them for him! In fact for breakfast in ‘Arrival’ the Prisoner had two fried eggs with bacon, along with toast and marmalade, tea with lemon, yet touches none of it. I expect he wasn’t hungry. No.6 only appears to enjoy a hearty breakfast when it’s brought to him on a tray by a maid. And yet since that privilege had been rescinded he just has two boiled eggs for breakfast and in the day a ham sandwich, as seen in both ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ and ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ Perhaps it’s often the way with bachelors who cannot be bothered to cook for themselves. Other meals could be eaten out at the café.

    There is something compelling about the way the big man nibbles daintily on a shortcake biscuit! It puts me in mind of the time when Number 6 nibbles on his ice cream cone in ‘Once Upon A Time. The question is, does Number 6 keep shortcake biscuits in his kitchen to which Number 2 helped himself, or did Number 2 bring it with him? If he likes a nibble from time to time, he might keep one or two biscuits in his pocket, I have known it done.

   At the end of the day, it’s No.86 who is the weak link in the chain of command, stupid woman! She allowed herself to be out manoeuvred by No.6, and seeing as how there is nothing he cannot do, No.6 hypnotises 86 and uses her as a pawn against No.2. So that when the village clock strikes four…………
    “Number 2 is unmutual, unmutual, social conversion for Number 2 the unmutual.”
    “Number 86 has a confession, that Number 2 is unmutual.”
    “Unmutual.”

    “Look at him, an unmutual who desires to deceive you all. Your welfare committee is a tool of those who wish to possess your minds!”
   This stirred up the crowd, No.2 doesn’t like the look of the now angry mob, and makes a run for the sanctuary of the Green Dome, hope he made it!

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