"All That Can Be Written About The Prisoner Has Been Written"

    Now that title is one hell of a statement to make, but it was made by one 'DL' several years back now, in another decade, another century in fact. But that was before new discoveries were made about the series by one David Stimpson, who for the time being is keeping those fresh discoveries to himself, and I can't say as I blame him. I can only hope that he gets around to having those new dicoveries published soon, as I'm aware of a large number of fans of the Prisoner who are waiting to read them.
    But there is another aspect to the Prisoner, questions which defy explanation, questions which will never be answered, no matter how much in-depth research is carried out into the subject. Questions which will forever remain a mystery. For example, that cave in Free For All, no not the Therapy Zone, the one in which No.6 stumbles into through that open steel door, which in turn is revealed by a revolving inner wall of the Green Dome. And just what are those men doing sitting round a "pulsating" Village Guardian, what is 'it' up to? And looking round the exterior of the Green Dome, just where is that cave situated?
    In a different situation, we have a retiring No.2 who is escaping the Village by helicopter. The question is, why does the helicopter turn back towrds the Village? Was it on order of the Supervisor in the Control Room? Or was it a voluntary action on the part of the ex-No.2 to have the helicopter pilot take him back to the Village? In a similar situation, we have Professor Jacob Seltzman escaping the Village by helicopter. Why doesn't No.2 act, and give the order that the helicopter pilot is to return his passenger to the Village? What's more, how does the Colonel know about No.1? Surely he could be a traitor, as one of  his predecessors, the Colonel of Many Happy Returns doesn't appear to know anything of the Village, or at least he feigns not to know what his ex-colleague is talking about! We can never be sure you see, that's the problem, and also what keeps us interested. It's not what we know, its what we don't know, and that leaves room for plenty more to write about the Prisoner. And scope, there is still scope to make more deductions, to theorise, debate, and to discover. I mean why does one man need such a large house as 1 Buckingham Place? Surely a single man would live in a flat! Who was living in that house at the time of filming the Prisoner? Who decided that that was the house for the Prisoner in the first place, is its location important to the character? Questions you see, but I don't have the answers!
I'm Piet Hein

THEPRIS6NER

    It was once said of the Prisoner, that everything that can be written about the series, has been written. Well I'm not so sure about that, not even after these past fourty-four years. But it would seem that everything that has been written about THEPRIS6NER has been written, and perhaps even forgotten about. Because the 2009 series does appear to have been forgotten by the majority. So I thought it high time they were reminded, and perhaps might revisit the series, or if they failed to give THEPRIS6NER a fair trial, they might be tempted to give him a second chance. So here is the first in a series of articles which I wrote at the time of the British premier of THEPRISONER09.

I'm Piet Hein

Death Is An Escape!

    The Village has two cemetaries, one on the beach, that can't be real, can it? The other is somewhere in the woods, yet there is no church in the Village! What's more there is no priest presiding over Cobb's funeral, just an Undertaker and a group of professional mourners, professional mourners because they could not all have possibly known Cobb, not like No.9 claimed to have done. In any case Cobb wasn't really dead. He hadn't really jumped out of that hospital window, that was just for the Prisoner's benefit. So that to the Prisoner, Cobb would be dead, much in the same way that to the rest of the world in Dance of the Dead No.6 would be dead!
    There being no body in the coffin at Cobb's funeral, makes me wonder if anyone is buried in that graveyard down on the beach at all! Because the sea comes in right up to the base of the cliffs. The sands move, and the waves wash away.
   It was said of Cobb, by a hospital orderly, that he jumped out of a window having committed suicide. If Cobb had, who would not be the last, for Nadia Rakovski-No.8 was questioned about whether she was attempting suicide during The Chimes of Big Ben, and tried it again by electrocution in the Interrogation Room that time.
   No.73 was another, but she did jump through a hospital window, but it was not the first time she had attempted suicide. 73 had tried that earlier by slashing her wrists! I don't know why 73 jumped through that hospital window. True No.2 had threatened her, he even approached her bed, but he had not physically harmed 73. In fact if you watch the film of that scene in Hammer Into Anvil, 73 doesn't throw herself out of the hospital window until No.6 suddenly bursts in on the scene! So the question is, who was it who put that bunch of daffodils on 73's grave? Surely Not No.6, but then who else was there in the Village who was close to 73 to have done it, her husband perhaps? No, he was still somewhere over there! Perhaps it was No.6 who laid flowers on 73's grave, who no doubt regretted her death, and possibly seeing seen himself as some sort of avenging Angel!

    The Rook in Checkmate saw death as being an escape. 'One day I'll die and beat you all' he told No.6. this idea is played out in THEPRIS6NER09, where suffering a Village death does mean escape, escape to that 'other place,' their former lives outside the Village. For people like 455, 909, 832, and 415 it means back to their life in New York. But what of the 'old man' 93, who suffers a Village death in Arrival? The Prisoner buries the old man whom he encounters in the first few minutes of Arrival in THEPRIS6NER09, and after the old man dies the Prisoner buries the body somewhere out there in the desert, or does he? Later in Arrival, a funeral is held for the old man 93, Two claiming that 93's body has been found, which is something Six refutes, having supposedly buried 93's body in the desert. But he didn't you see, because like at Cobb's funeral before him, 93's coffin is empty. 93, who is a representation of, if not actually the former No.6, suffered a Village death. The only question remains, to which former life did he return? To that in London as the Prisoner, or that of the former Village as No.6?
I'm Piet Hein