The Outsider

   The Outsider is an unused script for the Prisoner written by Moris Farhi. The script opens with the early morning sunshine and No.6 acting in the most peculiar way. He's on top of the cliffs, measuring the edge with a length of string with hooks at both ends. Then jots the measurement down in a notebook. There is a heading in the notebook cliffs West and below that the figure of a segment of geological map is taking shape. And beach area 18 along with a completed map of the particuliar scale 1:1000 and suddenly there is a drone of an aircraft!
    No.6 reacts instantly at hearing the drone of the aircraft which instantly reaches a deafening crescendo. He cups his ears whilst trying to spot the aircraft, then the drone cuts out, instead a whistling whine, and an explosion tears the air. There is a gyser of smoke and fire shoots up in the distance. No.6 pockets his notebook and runs in the direction of the column of smoke, zig zagging through the trees. He finds the pilot who ejected before the aircraft impacted with the ground.
   Finding the pilot, who's first instinct is to go for his gun, but then thinks better of it seeing as how the approaching figure is unarned. He addresses No.6 in some indistinct language, a cross between Latin and Nordic. No.6 asks the pilot if he is the only one, but there comes no reply. He asks if the pilot speaks English, there is a moments hesitation, then his English is perfect and accentless. A brief conversation breaks out between the two. The pilot works for an outfit the Meteorological Bureau weather observation. He saw the seaside town....He asks if No.6 is a Forester?
No.6 "No,"
Pilot "A Gamekeeper?"
"No, a Prisoner."
"Aren't we all? On parole?"
"No.6 examines the parachute
Pilot "A Goverment issue!"
"What Governement?"
"How many have you got?"
"Hows the leg?"
"I'll survive."
   No.6 manages to get the pilot into a cave, it's mouth well camouflaged with undergrowth and foliage. Inside No.6 checks the walls for hidden surveillance, there is none. The cave is only home to bats who reside there. The pilot has a survival kit, compass, which No.6 istantly sees as being useful, along with a map. The map depicts the southern tip of America, Argentina, Chile, and the Falklands. Although the pilot is injured, No.6 ties him up in the cave, the pilot referring to himself as the Prisoner's Prisoner!
   During opening exchanges within the cave, the two men engage in a cat-and-mouse game about the supposed location of the village. The map found on the pilot suggests South America, perhaps even the Falklands Islands. Yet No.6 dismisses this theory by referrence to the stars and especially the Great Bear, which cannot be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. After this strange sparring, there is the odd scene in which the back of the pilots map is rubbed on the wall of the cave to reveal a secret chart, the location in The Chimes of Big Ben. This was also the area identified as the Village's location in that particular episode. It is possible that the area of the Baltic was intended to have been the original location for the village, behind the Iron Curtain.
     The story line then unfolds with No.6 determined to use the pilot to concoct an escape plan. And the main village action of the script concerns a game of poker between No.2 and No.6, No.6's chair having been wired to a lie detector on the Control Room. But No.6 spots the wire and thereby spoiling No.2's plan. But this is a most interesting premise, the village could have probed No.6 for information about the crashed aircraft, and certainly about the whereabouts of the missing pilot. This under the guise of monitoring No.6's responses in a harmless conversation during the poker game.
    Then the action moves to the Palace of Fun which is never used or even mentioned in any of the 17 episodes of the Prisoner, although it appears on the Map of Your Village. In the Palace of Fun No.6 visits No.2 in the thermal baths. But No.2 confronts No.6 about the whereabouts of the pilot. No.6 refuses to give any such information away, and is duly taken away to the hospital where he is subjected to five hours of torture in a 'Non-gravitational chamber.' This torture would have involved in No.6 being left weightless and subjected to extreme temperatures, loud noises and psychedelic lighting effects.
    The climax of the story involves an intriguing plot which called for a helicopter to rescue the pilot using a transmitter beacon hidden in the pilots flying suit. The transmitter having been activated and hidden as a crafty decoy, while No.6 lights a bonfire on the hillside. However this would have been another decoy as No.6 and the pilot signal the helicopter by lamp from the beach.
    No.83, mysteriously turns up on the beach and joins No.6 and the pilot. No.83 who is said to be an Undergraduate who is studying for her exams, and who has been assigned to No.6, who he rejected in the Palace of Fun.
    No.83 "I've been searching for you, it is my duty to please you...then I saw him" pointing to the pilot.
    Pilot "I was outside looking for you, and there she was." Imitating 83's voice "I have come to please you! "What is she, mad?"
    83 "A pleasure hostess!" she says proudly.
{This is the first insinuation of sex in the village}
    But the piloit isn't keen on taking the girl with them, in fact he wants to kill her, having taken out his gun. She's happy here, our world won't make her happy. And even No.83 wants to be killed.
    "Please....I'm so happy...so happy. Yes kill me! Kill me. Please don't take me..."
    But No.6 is adamant that the girl goes with them. So the beacon on the beach is lit, a signal transmitted, and a helicopter despatched  to make the rescue of the pilot, all carefully observed by No.2 and the Supervisor in the Control Room. In fact the plan for the escape would have succeeded if only No.6 had not drunk the cup of drugged coffee!
    It had all been one of No.2's little games. the pilot hadn't crashed at all, that had been staged, an explosion, the plane wreckage scattered about. The pilots broken ankle, the cyanide capsule....all psychological warfare. The village never does anything by half measures!
    No.6 "I guessed as much. But one musn't pass any chances. Good training. Was it worth your while?"
Pilot "Indeed. It should convince you there is no-one you can trust, no-one can help you. There is no-way out."
    This after No.6 has awakened in the Georgian residence of No.2 who offers him tea. The pilot is the new No.2. After a short interview No.6 leaves the Georgian residence. Around him the village is coming to life. He starts walking towards his cottage, a man unbroken. The camera moves to an aerial panoramic view of the village. Two prison gates suddenly clang shut in the foreground. In the centre of the screen we see a white dot coming at us like a bullet. It is the face of the Prisoner. It stops just behind the bars....final fade out.

    There is no indication why this script was rejected. Indeed information has it that The Outsider was to have gone into production in January 1967. Moris Farhi was only told by Script Editor George Markstein at the very last minute that the proposed episode had been dropped. This on the word of Patrick McGoohan, on the premise that heros do not birdwatch. The script called for No.6 to observe the migratory birds so as to assertain which part of the world the village might be. And during the torture scene of extreme temperatures, this would cause No.6 to sweat. As McGoohan thought it to be, heros don't sweat!
   To my mind The Outsider would have made one of the strongest scripts of the Prisoner series. A pity that it was not included.

I'm Piet Hein

Don't Get Yourself Killed!

Don't Get Yourself Killed is one of two unused script for the Prisoner, written by Gerald Kelsey. A brief synopsis would run as that No.6 encounters the Escape Committee, which consists of a group of villagers who claim the right to vet all escape attempts, much like the escape committees of WWII Prisoner of War camps. No.6 initially shuns them, but is then coerced into joining them.
    Through his meeting with a member of the Escape Committee known as 'the Miner,' who appears to be attempting to dig his way out of the village, No.6 concocts an escape plan which involves the Miner and an oddball of the villages administration referred to as 'HOF', the head of Facility of the Environmental Adjustment Department. It is this bizarre figure who is responsible for the loudspeaker 're-educational lectures' which flood the village, forcing residents to repeat, parrot fashion, nonsensical slogans like "Individuality is the expression of revolt against the Community" as they go about their daily business.
    The plot requires the 'HOF' to defy No.2's orders and bring No.6 in for conditiong when he observes that No.6 is refusing to take part in a lecture. A sequence in which No.6 is brought into the facility on a travelator device, like a parcel mechanically handled in a conveyor.
   No.6 refuses to co-operate with the 'HOF' and later, somewhat unconvincingly, who suddenly declares an interest in joing No.6 and the Miner in an escape attempt, provided that he is paid for his help. As it happens, the Miner has discovered gold in his tunnel and No.6 offers to pay the 'HOF in gold ore.
   Between the three of them, they concoct an escape plan which involves stealing a helicopter from the village's Helicopter Service Depot, but the plot is foiled at the very last moment, thanks to greed of the miner who refuses to take off without his sack of gold.
    Curiously the script of Don't Get Yourself Killed has the grand looking Georgian house as the residence of No.2. This would have been Portmeirion's pink and white Unicorn cottage, which was originally intended for No2's residence, and not the Green Dome. But there was trouble with the the undergrowth, and the large pair of wrought iron gates getting in the way of camera angles. Also there was supposed to have been a gold mine at Portmeirion at the back of the Hotel. However the idea of a 'Helicopter Service Depot' seems ridiculous, and to be able to actually steal a helicopter suggests very lax security.And for there to have been an actual escape committee, surely that would have been stamped out as soon as one had been formed! Yet thinking about it, there are 'Jammers' in the village, as described in the episode It's Your Funeral, but I don't think the two things are the same. Jammers only talk about their plots to create mischief, they don't actually take action against the village, or attempt to escape!
    Anyway the script for Don't Get Yoruself Killed turned into fools gold, and I feel that the Prisoner series would not have been made all the stronger for this scripts inclusion.. However having said that, I found the script worked rather well, certainly better than that of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, and was quite eerie with the re-education lectures, and I liked very much the slogan "Individuality is the expression of revolt against the community," such a slogan would have fitted in nicley in the episode A Change of Mind!
   There were also several ideas floating about at the time for further scripts for the Prisoner, such as a Magicin coming to the village along with a funfair. And when No.6 is placed inside the Magician magic cabinet.....No.6 disappears!
   Next time there's some "pilot error" in the second unused script the Outsider by Moris Farhi.
I'm Piet Hein
   

They Will Get Me Eventually - Wherever I go!

   "They will get me eventually, wherever I go" are the final words spoken by the retiring No.2 in It's Your Funeral. Is that why at the end of that episode, the new no.2 was surprised to see the departing helicopter suddenly turn back towards the village? Perhaps the departing No.2 thought about it, and wasn't prepared to escape the village, and then be constantly looking over his shoulder.
   But it does take time, to find someone you know, sometimes it's so difficult they have to employ other means, and other people. Take No.73 for example. She was brought to the village because 'they' couldn't find her husband, and so expected 73 to talk, to tell them where 'they' could find her husband. 73 told No.2 that her husband was still over there, wherever 'there' is, behind the Iron Curtain presumably, depending of course on which side of the Iron Curtain you're on to begin with! But it would seem that 'they' knew that 73's husband was with the woman Mariah, No.2 has a photograph of the pair together. So if 'they' had the photograph, presumably 'they' also knew where No.73's husband was. So why not simply wait until her husband goes to see Mariah agan, and pick him up then?
    Professor Jacob Seltzman is another fellow 'they' had problems finding. Only this time they employed No.6 to find Professor Seltzman. And to make sure No.6 co-oporated, 'they' put him through a mind transference process. In other words, fail in the task, and the Prisoner's mind would remain inside the Colonel's body for the rest of his life, and vice versa. Well that's the impression given, although to put things right between the Prisoner and the Colonel, all that had to be done was to put them through the same mind transference process they were original put through. I mean it's hardly rocket science is it!
I'm Piet Hein

Ups And Downs

    Edgar Allen Poe had The Pit And The Pendulum, The Prisoner has the domed Control Room, and a steel See-Saw device! The Pendulum is seen as an intrument of torture during the time of the Spanish Inquision, and this tool was used to convey fear into the inhabitants of the land.. But can the steel See-Saw device of the village underworld, be seen as an intrument of torture? The definition of See-Saw is an up and down, back and forth movement, and I don't think that the two Observers who sit on either end of the See-Saw are being tortured. That fact of the matter is that the use of the Sea-Saw is a technique developed to help prolong the attention duration of an Observer. Usually the duratioin when security is monitoring screens is twenty minutes, then they fail to notice what is taking place on the monitors, and so after twenty minutes duration, it's time to take a break from the monitor.
   However, deep in the bowels of the village, beneath the village, in a cavern, the steel See-Saw device is put to a much darker use, as the two men sitting at either end of the See-Saw are armed with heavy machine guns! The purpose is to maintain security whilst the session is in progress, during the trial of three rebels during Fall Out. Only I have to say that the positioning of the heavy machine guns was not that effective. Oh they were fine when firing upwards, or on a level. But when it came to a target below them......well it was the depression you see, not enough downward depression!
    Only in the village could an innocent childs toy be employed to prolong Observers observational duration. Some might say that it evolves into a symbol of the unfair rise and fall of power, which ultimately becomes a symbol of war, rendering both death and destruction.
I'm Piet Hein

Increase Vigilance Call From New No.2

    What's all this about an increase vigilance call from the new No.2? What's the village got to be afraid of? Who is No.2 afraid of? The village seems to be an idyllic place to live. If you give them what they want, they tend to leave you alone, and look after you, for as long as you live.
   I've seen them, citizens lounging about in bathing suits, bikinis, on the beach sunbathing, and playing beach ball, and around the swimming pool. Not actually in the swimming pool you understand, but in a boat in the swimming pool. Because the triangular swimming pool is made of stone and concrete, filled with water form the estuary, brrrrr that's gotta be ice cold to actually swim in! But the fact of the matter is, citizens of the village do get recreational time, in which to enjoy themselves. It's only those who defy the village administration, those who refuse to talk, that find life in the village hard and difficult. But I'm getting away from the point. Here is an article written by No.2 for The Tally Ho newspaper. Actually it's No.6's copy of the newspaper, you can tell that by the circled word with the question make over it.

   So, judging by what No.2 has written, he was paranoid long before the episode of Hammer Into Anvil came along. No.6 realised that, and simply played on that paranoia.
   "The security of the community must be protected," well that's fair enough, otherwise the way of life in the village might be gone forever. And then what would those citizens, born to the village, do, having known nothing but the village. The outside world would be as alien to them, as the village is for those who are brought there!
    No.2 goes on to say that "We must be constantly on our guard against enemies in our midst." Well who might they be, well No.6 obviously. No.2 also went on to say "We do not necessarily know where our enemies are, or who they might be. Therefore it is the duty of all of us to be on constant look out against traitors who, behind out back, seek to undermine and destroy us." Well No.6 again really. Yet under this description, No.2 finally placed No.14, his loyal assistant, whose only crime was wanting to help, to 'get on' in the village, and possibly achieving promotion to the position of No.2 one day. If only No.2 had placed his trust in the one real man No.2 could trust, No.14, then the outcome might have been different. Certainly an end could have been put to No.6's war of nerves with No.2. Mind you, I did think at one point that this No.2 might have got it right for once. That No.6 was actually a plant. Placed in the village to spy on them. After all John Drake of Danger Man was 'planted' in Colony Three, a typical English village behind the Iron Cutrain, and used for the training of agents to become typical Englishmen and women.

 I have often wondered what happened to this particular No.2, the hammer! Somehow I suspect he was not allowed to leave the village, certainly not in his broken state of mind. It's quite possible that this No.2 ended up residing in the phsychiatric ward of the Hospital!

 I wonder also who he was? Could he have been Thorpe from Many Happy Returns do you think? After all, there was no love lost between the Prisoner and Thorpe, who would, I'm sure at the time, have been an ideal candidate for the position of No.2. So who is to say that Thorpe was not recruited to the village as the new No.2? It might be that Thorpe would have taken great pleasure in being able to  'hammer' No.6!
   The only trouble is, there is no evidence of No.2 being the former Thorpe of a previous episode Many Happy Returns, only the fact that both roles are played by the same actor - Patrick Cargill. But of course there's no-one to stop me from my thinking that Thorpe and No.2 are one and the same. Even if the actor Patrick Cargill was still alive to say one way or the other! Although I do believe that Patrick Cragill understood that Thorpe and No.2 were not suppoosed to be the same character.
I'm Piet Hein

As I Understand it..................

    During The Chimes of Big Ben, while reading Nadia Rakovski's personal file, No.2 discovered that at the age of seventeen she was an Olympic bronze medalist, a swimmer. So which Olympics would that be at, 1948 perhaps? Then in The Schizoid Man, whilst in the gymnasium, Curtis tells No.6 that his fencing is good agricultural stuff, meaning that No.6's fencing ability is good enough, but would hardly get him his place on the Olympic team! So, if Curtis is living the life of No.6 in the village, taken his place in fact. When Curtis is talking about his place on the Olympic team, is he talking about himself, or as No.6, having read his personal file? If No.6, then that means the Prisoner was once a member of an Olympic fencing team!
    It doesn't make sense, well when you look at it there's still a great deal in the Prisoner which doesn't make any sense, is even beyond comprehension, still defying interpretation some forty-four years later! But why oh why does No.2 of Once Upon A Time have but one week to gain the reason for the Prisoners resignation? Mind you, No.2 on that occasion was fortunate to have a week. No.2 of A B & C only had three days! If it's really so vital to gain the reason behind the Prisoner's resignation, why not give No.2 more time and support? Or failing that, No.1 could simply have asked the Colonel while he was in the village during The Chimes of Big Ben. But even better than that, the Colonel, or Fortheringay, could have brought the Prisoner's letter of resignation with them, and that would have been that! Because the reason why the Prisoner resigned would have been contained within that letter, of which the Colonel would eventually have been the recipient.
     Then there's those chaps in a cave during that episode of Free For All, sitting in chairs around a pulsating village guardian. What's that all about then? And how did No.6 know the village guardians name, when he called 'it' Rover in The Schizoid Man? Was No.6 simply giving it a dogs name, seeing as how it guards the village, like a guard dog. And if so, why did No.2 pick up on the name used when No.6 telephones him to say that No.6 is dead, Rover got him? And the members of the local Town Council in Free For All, No.6 asked them who they represent? Who elected them? To what place and people do they owe their allegiance? Whose side are they on? But no answers were forthcoming, so No.6 pressed on after showing the members of the Town Council a copy of The Tally Ho.........Can you laugh? Can you cry? Can you think? Well apparently they can talk, as in this section of photograph taken in the Council Chamber while No.6 was in conversation with No.2.

As you can see two members of the Town Council are having a chat. And the chap standing at his podium is taking the whole matter very casually. This is a sort of Caught on Camera moment.
I'm Piet Hein
   

It Doesn't Make Sense!

     If anything, the Prisoner series is full of differential anomalies. Take Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, there are more holes in that episode, than which appear in the village of the 2009 series! First of all 'they' are looking for Professor Jacob Seltzman, and there is a question about whether or not he has perfected a "reversal" process, so that the minds of two men can once again be rightly housed in their own bodies....................... But a reversal process isn't required, all that needs to be done is to put the same two subjects through the exact same process they were originally put through. Where's the problem? I mean it's hardly rocket science is it! And if the Administration for The Village are looking for Professor Jacob Seltzman, how did they acquire a "Seltzman" machine in the first place?

This is No.73, who has been brought to The Village, instead of her husband, because the Administration doesn't know where her husband is! 73 is interrogated by a sadistic No.2 at the outset of Hammer Into Anvil. No.2 wants 73 to tell him where her husband is. Apparently he's still "over there." When pushed further on this matter she says "Oh somehwere there,2 without being too precise, suggesting her husband might be behind the Iron Curtain, he had some work to finish. No.2 then asks if her husband was devoted to her, to which 73 replies that her husband is devoted to her. Then No.2 taunts 73 by showing her a photograph of her husband with the woman Mariah, at which 73 shuts her eyes tightly against, shaking her head in dispair. Well I find it highly ridiculous that 73 was brought to The Village in order to get her to tell them where her husband is, when they are able to take a photograph of her husband caught in flagrante dilicto, with the woman Miriah! What's more I can reveal that there was no inflagrante in that photograph. In fact 73's husband isn't even in that photograph shown to her by No.2, and if she had only kept her eyes open, 73 would have seen that for herself. Now, I can reveal to you, exactly who it is in that photograph........Oi, just a minute! What are you doing?.............That's my text, you can't just come in here and shread it like that! "Sorry Piet, but you were about to reveal something which I wish to remain secret, for the time being. Now write about something else. Here, write about this!"

..........What's this? Ah, it's a transcript of the maiden speech made by the electoral candidate No.6. Well that's what it appeared to be on first glance. But after reading it, I find it isn't anything of the kind. Nor is it a transcript of the interview carried out by No.113, in the Village taxi with No6 on his way to the dissolution of the out-going Council. This is a piece of manipulative journalism, made up from bits and pieces said at different times, and much of it reinterpreted and written in different words! But isn't that what the press does? Makes things up, twists things, puts a different interpretation to what is told to the press?  
    All you have to do is read the following transcript of that interview between No.113 and No.6.
No.113 "How are you going to handle your campaign?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Intends to fight for freedom at all costs." "How about your internal policy?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Will tighten up on village security." "How about your external policy?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Our exports will operate in every corner of the globe." "How do you feel about life and death?"
No.6 "Mind your own business."
Nol.113 writes "No comment."
    No.113 putting his own answers to his own questions, thereby distorting the truth, that No.6 doesn't care to answer questions, and doesn't the press get to work quickly. Because moments after the interview with No.6, No.6 is given a copy of the latest edition of The Tally Ho by the vendor of the village newspaper outside the Town Hall. The headline of the newspaper is, No.6 Speaks His Mind, which has absolutely nothing to do with either his maiden speech, or the ineterview with No.113. As someone, somewhere, has already written this article for The Tally Ho. So that even No.113, in putting answers to his own questions put to No.6, counts for nothing, in the undemocratic state of The Village!
I'm Piet Hein