There Are No Second Chances!

    Just when did No.6 and No.24-Alison first meet I wonder? What was it that first brought them together? And how was it that No.6 and No.24-Alison, first realised that they shared a mental link - that they could reach each others minds? And you thought that there were no more questions to be asked of the Prisoner, not that they're ever likely to be answered, or have anyway of knowing. And speculation would seem to be pointless.
    If No.6 and Alison-No.24 came together through genuine circumstances, and by no contrivance of No.2, then No.2 obviously saw a situation which he could put to his own advantage, and thereby breaking No.6 and learning the reason behind the Prisoners resignation. All it would take would be to coerce No.24 into co-operating with the betrayal of No.6.
    Towards the end of The Schizoid Man episode, Alison told No.6 that she was ashamed of what she had done. And because she had realised that the man about to leave the Village by helicopter was No.6 and not Curtis, thus she wanted No.6 to know that its not often one gets a second chance, and that had she a second chance, Alison wouldn't do it again. Thus letting No.6 know that his secret, was safe with her.
   Now when No.6 told Alison-No.24 that there are no second chances, that wasn't quite right. There are second chances for those fortunate few, like No.2 of A B & C who was brought back to the Village for a second term of office in The General, which turned out all the worse for him. And there was No.2 of The Chimes of Big Ben, who was seen to be a good man, brought back to the Village for Once Upon A Time and Dregree Absolute, a one-to-one situation which ultimately cost him his life. And No.2 would have remained dead, had it not been for the advent of Fall Out!
I'm Piet Hein

Its A Question Of Daffodils

  We know that No.73 was driven to suicide by No.73, she having jumped to her death through a hospital window at the beginning of Hammer Into Anvil. In 73's hospital room, there is a bunch of daffodils in a vase. Then later, when No.6 visits the graveyard, there is a buch of daffodils on 73's grave. Now I wonder who put those there? Originally, the script for Hammer Into Anvil, called for No.6 to visit the graveyard at the end of the episode, to lay a bunch of daffoil flowers on 73's grave. This scene was cut from he trasnmitted episode, but apparently not the daffodils placed on 73's grave which we do see in the transmitted episode.
    At the Ball in Dance of the Dead, No.2 offers No.6 a glass of undoctored wine, to which No.6 replies I rarely drink, and that would be right. Because No.6 might sniff the bouquet of the wine, but he does not tatse it. And that also goes for his role as Danger Man John Drake. Because Drake rarely drank as well. He would be given a drink, he might taste it, but rarely would he finish his drink. Perhaps that's because of the kind of work Drake did, often going behind both the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. Drake had to always have his wits about him at all times. Mind you, there are times when Drake would play the drunk, and on many occasions.
     Why is it I wonder..................................................sorry I was lighting my pipe just then, why it is that whenever there is a picture of No.6, either on the front page of The Tally Ho newspaper, on his card of identity, or election placards, No.6 is always depicted in civilian clothes, and not Village attire of piped blazer etc?
    The map drawn by No.6, and added to the amended wallet of the dead man washed up on the beach in Dance of the Dead, is completely useless, because it only has the four points of the compass, and no longitude or latitude. What's more No.6 has not even been able to name the sea! So if you can find the Village by using No.6's map, you're a better man than I am Gunga Din!
    No.13 is as unlucky as the number 7 is lucky, that's why the number does not appear in the Village.
    Amongst the most used numbers employed in the Village are 2, 8, 10, 12, 14, 22, 54, 113.
    Only one issue of The Tally Ho newspaper is dated, and that same issue is used for two episodes, A B & C and The Schizoid Man, in one because of the Headline 'Is No.2 Fit For further Term?' And in the other for the date Feb 10th.
    In Checkmate No.6 and the Rook-No.58 ask to see the Shopkeeper -No.99's books. Strange that his books have never been inspected before. Is that why we never see No.99 again after Checkmate, because of a discrepency in his books! Because at the end of Checkmate, No.2 states that they, meaning No.6's reliable men, will be placed back on the chessboard tomorow. However when No.6 goes into the General Store in following episode of Hammer Into Anvil to buy a small note book and a copy of The Tally Ho newspaper, there is a new shopkeeper! So what did they do to 99 I wonder? Perhaps they simply took him away for treatment, and he just never came back!
I'm Piet Hein

That No.6 Has a Radio Set!

    Tonight when the moon rises the whole world will turn to silver............ It's my opinion that the message heard transmitted over the radio No.6 was listening to, but seeing as how the radio was found in the pocket of the dead man on the beach in Dance of the Dead, was intended for him. Mind you, there's no real evidence that the transmitted message was intended for the dead man either. But then again if it was.........that would mean the dead man had somehow smuggled the pocket radio into the Village with him. Could No.34, for that is whom the dead man was, No.34 having been under the observation of No.240, but who had died, have been a plant in the Village? The transmitted message indicated that the appoinment could not be fulfilled, that other things had to be done that night. Perhaps No.34 was waiting for someone, someone to come and extract him out of the Village, or perhaps a group should have been on the way to the Village for whatever reason.  The dead man in the water, attacked and suffocated to death by the Village Guardian? Certainly if No.34 had been a plant in the Village, it might possibly have been something like John Drake of M9 having infiltrated Colony Three, somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. But then our side had a man in Section One, who helped get Drake out, unlike No.34 in the Village, who would appear to have come to a very nasty end.
    No.6 was seen to have a future with the Village. But he's still a pawn to be used in someone elses game. Such as in It's Your Funeral, when No.6 was used as a dupe in the plan to execute the retiring No.2. Without No.6, to give the plan credibility, without which the plan might backfire. But the plan did backfire! You would have thought that to involve No.6 in any plan would be tantamount to failure. And why is it that an interim No.2, an heir presumptive, doesn't have to use that over-sized, curved red telephone which two of his predecessors are forced to use in A B & C, The General, and Hammer Into Anvil?
    No.2 of Hammer Into Anvil believed that No.6 was a plant, sent to spy on them by their masters. No.6 had signed a note to XO4, an obvious code name, which is a precursor to the code names used in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - ZM73 and PR12. D6 was once thought by certain fans to be code for Drake 6. But no, that would surely be too obvious. Of course No.6 wasn't a plant. Nadia Rakovski was though, if that was indeed her name. She was a good agent, and no-one better to have planted in the Village. But what if No.2 in Hammer Into Anvil was actually right. What if No.6 is a plant, sent to test and spy on the Village and it's administration?
I'm Piet Hein

A Brave New Village

    It is not at all easy to sit here, quill in hand, and a blank sheet of paper upon the desk before me. Certainly not when hundreds upon hundred of articles must surely have been written on the subject of the Prisoner. Someone once said, I forget who it was, that everything that can be written about the Prisoner has been written. The trick is these days, is to try and come at the Prisoner from a different angle, and that is what scriptwrier Bill Gallagher successfully did with THEPRIS6NER. Although the 2009 series is not to everyone's taste, I believe there is much within the series that every fan of the Prisoner can appreciate, as there is much of the original series in the 2009 series. It's just been reinterpreted, or reinvented, what's more THEPRIS6NER is more sutble than the original series, you have to give it a chance that's all.
   With McG's series of the Prisoner you have so much to come to understand, so much is left to interpret, there is no one satisfactory conclusion, and questions have been left unanswered. Not so with Bill Gallagher's seires of THEPRIS6NER, because there are a series of clues to follow throughout the whole six episodes, and the first clue is in the opening scene. Follow the clues, put them all together, and by the end of the last episode Checkmate, you are left with no doubt at all of what THEPRIS6NER is all about. Even then I was left wanting more, to know what the new Two's Village would be like in the unconscious mind of 313. Would Six, the new Two, be able to find a better way? Would he be able to build a better Village? Or would he fall into the same trap as Two? Of course that is the driving pulse behind THEPRIS6NER, the handing over of the Village by Two to Six. Okay, with Bill Gallagher you know what his series is all about. It is not a remake. It was never intended to be a remake. And AMVtv never once described the series as a remake. and as I have stated the viewer is left in no doubt whatsoever what THEPRIS6NER is all about. Well you wouldn't want to be put through the ringer for a second time, not the way Patrick McGoohan did the first time...... would you?
    With the original series there could be 1,100 different interpretations of what the Prisoner is all about, and each one could be the genuine article. But with THEPRIS6NER there is nothing left to interpret. There are no unanswerd questions.........well you might think that, those of you who actually watched the series from the moment the Prisoner woke up in the desert somewhere, to the moment 313 shed a tear, as Six was imagining a brave new Village. Questions such as the old man, 93, whom the Prisoner helped, and who died out there in the desert. He was wearing an old style piped blazer, and as far as I can see, was the only citizen in the new Village to do so. Where did he come from, and where did he go having suffered a Village death, back to his former life in that 'other' place. Yes, but which 'other place,' which former life, in London or the former Village, to remain still a prisoner?
   Curtis and Helen esaped the Village. Originally Curtis and Helen volunteered for the Village experiment because they saw it as a way and means for them to have a child. But that child murdered his mother, then comitted suicide. Curtis and Helen, back in New York had lost their son. they are two broken people. And it is broken people who are subconsciously brought to the Village to be made better. So, would Six and 313 bring Curtis and Helen back to the Village to be made better? Now that's something to speculate over!
    Holes begin to appear in the Village everytime M2 is awake. To help stop the people of the Village panicing, citizens are encouraged to 'Keep A Pig,' because it is said that pig breath can stabilise the Village. But surely pigs dig holes themselves. They ruttle about for truffles with their snouts!
    And then there is the question of those pig masks........worn by members of 16's family towards the end of the episode of Harmony. The pig masks are worn in the American transmitted epsiode, but not in the United Kingdom transmission. Nor do the pig masks appear in the episode of Harmony in ITV's box set.....why is that?
    There are 'dreamers'in the Village, dreamers who dream and remember another place, other than the Village, New York in the case of 554 and Six. That is because those who are brought to the Village are living two existences, one in the Village, and in that 'other' place. But when living in that 'other' place, do they dream of the Village?
   So you see, there are some unanswered questions after all. there is something for everyone in THEPRIS6NER, if only those who poo-pooed the series in the first place, would now give the series a second chance. Even if THEPRIS6NER had left no unanswered questions whatsoever, the series is still a treat to watch, entertaining, somewhere to escape to.
I'm Piet Hein