Where Do Your Sympathies Lie?

    Well I felt sorry for No.2 of A B & C, it wasn't his fault that No.14's drugged failed, it was hers, and perhaps that's where the Doctor-No.14's sympathies lay, with her patient No.6. After all, if she had told No.2 that No.6, while lying on the operating table, had opened his eyes and seen No.14, putting her on the wall screen, then the out-come might have been very different. In fact at the end No.14 seemed pleased that No.6 had succeeded!
    We don't see No.14 again, well not in the form of the doctor at least, but we do see No.2 again, when he's given a second term of office. Perhaps because it was seen not to be all his fault the failure of A B & C, and seeing as how with the General and Speedlearn, No.2 would not have direct contact with No.6, then he could not fail this second time. Well perhaps he would not have done, had it not been for No.6 poking his nose in where it wasn't wanted! In the end The General could not have been a worse disaster if it had tried. The discovery of a possible traitor in the Village. The destruction of a super computer. The death of the Professor, and that of No.12, although I'm not sure if No.12 was trying to be a hero in attempting to save the Professor's life, or clung onto the Professor in an act of suicide! Which do you think it was?
    There has always been a question hanging over the two episodes of A B & C and The General, the question of which of the episodes is suppose to appear before the other in the screening order of the Prisoner? During the opening sequnce of The General we hear No.2's voice in the opening dialogue tell the Prisoner 'I am the new Number Two,' which would suggest that the General does predate A B & C in the screening order, because in the opening dialogue No.2 tells the Prisoner 'I am Number Two.' meaning that he's been in the Village before. Yet in The General No.2 tells Madam Profssor that he and No.6 are old friends, suggesting that they have met before in the Village, putting The General before A B & C in the screening order.
    Am I sympathetic towards No.6's confinement in the Village? Well not really, because No.6 is too good to be true. He doesn't bend, not even a little, and if you don't bend, even ever so slightly, you'll break. But No.6 doesn't show any signs of breaking, well perhaps once did he show such a sign, towards the end of that episode with The Schizoid Man. But I found the way in which No.6 returned to his old self, via the short circuiting table lamp, a little too easy for me. All that conditioning carried out on No.6, so ealily undone, no I don't go for that myself. I know that's what happened in the episode, but I still don't have to accept it!
   Then one minute No.6 doesn't give a fig about the good citizens in the Village, as he likes to mind his own business, and expects other to mind theirs. He also prefers his own company to that of others, which is anti-social. Then before you know where we are, No.6 is coming to the rescue of the citizens of the Village, by stopping the assassination/execution of the retiring No.2 in It's Your Funeral, he wasn't minding his own business then was he? And so by the time of the next episode A Change of Mind, No.6 is back to his old self again, minding his own business, keeping himself to himself, none of which actually makes any sense!
   I don't like No.6. He uses people, gets what he wants from them, like Nadia-No.8. I'm not sure if he would even make a good next door neighbour!
I'm Piet Hein

Who Is Flajack Charlie?

   Just who is Flapjack Charlie? Well obviously he's Curtis-No.12. During his conditioning No.6 states that flapjacks are his favourite dish. Well I can tell you this much, those which No.6 tucks into during his conditioning are not flapjacks, they are pancakes! Flapjacks are flat biscuits, what No.6 eats are pancakes made from batter cooked in a frying pan, and here in England are tossed in the frying pan on Shrove Tuesday!
   So did Curtis undergo plastic surgery? If he did it was very good. Other than that he would have to be an exact look-a-like for No.6, which he might have been, as we all have our doppleganger. It has also been suggested in the past by fans of the Prisoner that Curtis might have been a clone of No.6. But then such a contingency would have had to have been carried out at birth. Because a clone would first have had to have been created, then be allowed to grow and develop like any other human being. You just can't clone someone as an exact double of someone aged 38, it doesn't work like that, only in films. I recall how in The Boys From Brazil doctor Joseph Mengele tries to ressurrect Adolf Hitler through creating a number of clones. A number of boys are born, but only one of cloned boys has the traits of Adolf Hitler, and he turns the dogs on Mengele. So you see it would have had to have been a long process for the Village to have created a clone of No.6, it would have taken 38 years to get an exact double for No.6!
    On another matter, do you know how many No.2's actually took up office in the Prisoner? 32, and that includes No.6 being elected as the new No.2 in Free For All, along with each of the sub-divided No.2's of the Town Council! Is that what happens to past No.2's I wonder, they end up as brainwashed imbiciles, standing on the Town Council? If so No.6 had a lucky escape!
    Fans of the Prisoner have often asked the question, what if Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion said no, you can't film here? In other words, what if Portmeirion was not available, for whatever reason? Perhaps somewhere different. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere exotic.................yes, a Butlins Holiday Camp, that's where! Certainly somewhere different. Yet not so quiet, and definately not in the least bit exotic! And that's official from a member of the production crew at the time.
    In the Cat & Mouse nighclub only non-alchoholic Gin, Whisky, and Vodka are sold. They look the same, taste the same. So the Village is teetotal, with a law of prohibition. And the Cat & Mouse nightclub a Temperance bar, serving only non-alcoholioc drinks. But no non-alcoholic beer or wines? Even Temperance bars had a drink which looked like a beer, made from a cordial, with raisins, and a secret ingrediant. It looked like a dark beer with a head on it. Me, I'll have a double, with no ice or water!
I'm Piet Hein