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Sunday 31 May 2015

An Olympic Bronze Medallist!


   Number 8, Nadia Rakovsky, attempted to swim away from The Village. But she could not swim so far, despite being an Olympic bronze medallist. Although that was a few years ago, at the age of seventeen. And that would have been in an Olympic indoor swimming pool, and not rough swimming in tidal waters as she attempted to do in this case.
   The picture shows Number 8 having been half drowned and suffocated by a Guardian, it is then aided by two smaller Guardians to bring Number 8 to the beach.
   The two smaller Guardians appear to be acting as “water wings” giving Number 8 buoyancy. More than that, Nadia herself is acting as a propulsion unit, as watching the short scene carefully, you can see her kicking her legs and as she swims along!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

              “The Face of The Prisoner”

bCnU

The Prisoner

    Number 2 is a persistent fellow, and no more than when he and the Prisoner are time-locked in the Embryo Room together. Number 2 was persistent about the Prisoner’s resignation. He had had the Prisoner’s mind regressed to the age of five. Then he took him through his life, hoping to realise what it was that led the Prisoner to resign from his job. 2 jumped the gun at one point, perhaps in his eagerness to have the ordeal over with, when as the Headmaster at the School prize giving day, he asked, then demanded, the pupil tell him why he resigned? “From what sir?” the pupil asked, not knowing what the Headmaster was talking about.
    But as the week passes it would appear that the strain of the ordeal is taking its toll. And in a quiet moment Number 2 asks the question again
    “Why did you resign?”
    “For peace.”
    “You resigned for peace?”
    “For peace of mind!”
    “Why?”
    “Because too many people know too much. I know too much about you!”
    Perhaps the Prisoner’s job was to gather information about people, all kinds of people. Information which ended up in that room filled with grey filing cabinets seen in the opening sequence to ‘the Prisoner.’ But then what price the Prisoner’s resignation? After all, although he resigned and was looking for peace of mind, the fact that people know too much, that, and the gathering of information, would have gone on. And all that happened was, he ended up a prisoner in The Village!

Be seeing you

Bureau Of Visual Records


    At this point in the Prisoner’s first attempted escape, you might think that he would now begin to make an evasive manoeuvre, by steering the Mini-Moke away from the approaching white membranic Guardian. 
  However it appears the Prisoner is too mesmerised by the thing ahead of him to think about that. Had he remained inside the Moke, he would have been safe from the Guardian, because for “it” to overpower the Prisoner by suffocation, he would have had to be out of the taxi. So something had to be contrived in order for the Prisoner’s attempted escape to be thwarted. Had he remained in the taxi, and by out manoeuvring the Guardian, he would have been away in the Mini-Moke. So something had to be contrived, something hard in the sand for the taxi to collide with, thus the Prisoner parted company with the Mini-Moke, and left at the mercy of the white membranic Guardian!

Be seeing you

Saturday 30 May 2015

Be Seeing You!

    “Be seeing you” is a parting greeting used by citizens in The Village, which is used in conjunction with a salute, using thumb and forefinger to make a circle. 

   In a variety of countries the gesture has many different meanings. However Internationally it is a gesture used by scuba divers, meaning “Okay,”
   I have never read, nor heard anyone say who was responsible for the idea of this gesture to be used as a salute in ‘the Prisoner,’ or how the idea of the salute came about. However as an idea of my own, during the filming at Portmeirion divers were used to release the meteorological weather balloons from below the waves at the bottom of the estuary. It is possible that someone saw the divers giving each other the “okay” gesture, and adopted it as a salute used by citizens in The Village in conjunction with the phrase “Be seeing you.”

Be seeing you

A Favourite Scene In The Prisoner


   “The atmosphere here is very different here from what it was elsewhere.”
    What’s Number 6 talking about? It’s certainly not the password, but it sounds like a password, or a recognition sentence, Like “It’s hot enough for June,” and the reply, “But you should have been here last September.”
  The guardian in red then asks “What’s the password?
   “Gemini” Number 6 responds.
   “That’s not the password,”
   And neither it is to them, obviously Number2 had not briefed them on the Gemini password. But then Gemini is a password between Number 6 and Number 2 alone, so that Number 2 would be able to distinguish between the two 6’s. There was no need for anyone else to know it. 
   Number 6 stands victorious having vanquished his two adversaries in a fist-fight. Although it has to be said that the punches thrown in the fight sequence of this scene are atrocious, never come even close, and if stunt sequence is looked at frame by frame, the punches thrown actually miss by a mile! But that does not stop it from being one of my favourite scenes in ‘the Prisoner,’ even though it does look very “indoors!”

Be seeing you

ESCAPE!


   If Number 6 thinks he’s going to get far on that thing, he’s got another think coming. Mind you he can always cut the grass on the way!

BCNU

Free For All

    A, B and C’ was preceded by an episode of residence and escape, to be followed by a cat and mouse game between Number’s 2 and 6 during ‘’The Chimes of Big Ben.’ One topic not used yet, revolt! ‘Free For All’ is an episode of revolt, on the part of Number 6 that is. “To hell with The Village!” as Number 2 once said, but that was in the so called Therapy Zone, where there was no surveillance, and I’m not at all sure Number 2 meant those words in the first place. But said them purely for Number 6’s benefit, and perhaps to confuse the viewer!
   There is an element of escape in this episode, the watery equivalent of the attempted escape of the Prisoner by Mini-Moke in ‘Arrival.’ And just as the Prisoner was thrown out the taxi on the beach {the cause being that the taxi hits something in the sand} so that he could be confronted by the white membranic Guardian. This time Number 6 abandons the boat, so that the Guardian can subdue him, and then with the aid of two smaller Guardians, take the Prisoner back to the beach. This is the re-use of the same technique used against Nadia who during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ attempted to swim away from The Village, and is eventually returned to the beach by three Guardians which I have to say I find somewhat ridiculous. As for Number 6’s attempted escape, that only comes about because the weak mind conditioning is beginning to wear off!
    ‘Free For All’ is political! It is a satirist commentary on politics. It reveals the flaws in the democratic process. Everyone votes for a dictator, and that’s just what the electorate of The Village did. Seeing as at the end Number 6, then the newly elected Number 2, attempting to force his will upon the people “I am in command, obey be and be free!” But no-one was listening! No-one cared for the man’s idea for freedom.
   In between the election politics of the episode it seems to contain nothing more than scenes designed to fill out the episode. After Number 6’s mind has been conditioned to take him through the election period, he occasionally has to have a “booster,” and is even given a drug by a chemist in the Therapy Zone…why the need to “Top up” the mind conditioning? When in the following episode Number 6 is put through a very extensive mind conditioning period, and there is no need for any further “boosters” of that conditioning! Playing Devil’s advocate, perhaps because in the way Number 6 accepts Number 2’s offer to stand against him in the forth coming election, there is no time for any extensive mind conditioning as with ‘The Schizoid Man.’ And so the condition has to be on-going through the episode.
   The Cat and Mouse night club is aptly named. However had the waitress given Number 6 what he wanted, an alcoholic drink. Then the waitress could have administered the drug, instead of the chemist. Then there would have been no need for the Therapy Zone scene, which is a concocted scene of misdirection and manipulation, in order that Number 6 would drink the drug, when it could have been so easily done before without so much fuss and bother.
   Number 6 may have won the election, and yet as he stands on the steps of the Town Hall he is faced with suspicion and indifference which borders on hostility. And it might have been expected that the new Number 2 should have addressed the electorate from the steps of the Town Hall, even if it was only to thank them for their support and belief in him. This leads into what may be called the endgame, in which power is handed over from the out-going Number 2 to the new Number 2. There is no explanation of how anything works. If Number 2 wants to know anything, he’s only to press a button and ask!
    Eric Portman who enjoyed a very solid film career, is one of the oldest Number 2’s, in fact he was ill at the time, and the sequences in which he appeared had to be filmed line by line. One of my favourite films in which he stars as Magistrate Thomas Culpepper is ‘A Canterbury Tale.’ As Number 2, Portman is impressive. His manner is mellow in approach, a sign of his age and experience. What’s more, and as far as we know, his is the only Number 2 to fly himself out of The Village aboard the helicopter!

Be seeing you

Friday 29 May 2015

The Butler Speaks!


    He’s here again, if in fact he ever went away! I didn’t think he would get a second chance, not after that calamity concerning Number Six the last time. He’s over confident you see, you should hear him on the telephone to Number One. “No I assure you sir there’s no problem. We’re getting one hundred percent co-operation from everyone, and I’m anticipating a truly exciting result……….who sir? Oh the Professor, just a mild aberration I assure you, a couple days rest and adjustment and he’ll be doing everything we need………Yes, yes I will keep in touch sir, in the closest touch, thank you sir. Probably the most important human experiment we’ve ever had to conduct, he treats it like a military exercise.”
   Number 2 should guard his thoughts more carefully, you never know who’s listening! He was like that before when he told that Madam Professor that Number 6 wants what we all want ultimately….to escape, only I never said that!

    Oh well I expect Number One thought he would be a safer bet having nothing to do with Number Six this time. You know what his trouble is don’t you? He underestimates that Number Six! And it was that which brought about his downfall the last time, and I’m pretty sure that if he fails this time there’ll be no coming back for thirds! But I expect as long as he keeps that Number Six at arms length, then no great harm can be done.
    He has to drink plenty of milk, he says it helps good temper. But really it’s to sooth his stomach ulcer. If you ask me he should have asked that nice doctor Number Fourteen to do something about it, an operation or something. Or at the very least she might have worked out a special diet for him!
   Just as well there are all these underground tunnels, otherwise I’d have had a job on my hands pushing this trolley through The Village from my annexe behind the Green Dome.  But poor old Number 2, I feel sorry for him. They call the Green Dome Number 2’s residence, when it’s nothing more than a glorified office. Number 2’s living quarters is in the Town Hall. And he gets to his office, not by enjoying a morning stroll through The Village, or by taxi. He walks, he walks along the underground corridors, sits himself in that black spherical chair, and rises up into his office through a hole in the floor!
   Anyway, Speedlearn, I’ve no time for it myself. But education is a wonderful thing alright. But at the same time, they do say a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. And Number 2’s confidence in the General might be misplaced. Anyway history, it’s a thing of the past!


Be seeing you

Bureau Of Visual Records


    This is the garden of the Professor’s house, Number 6 has been here before. Oh not just attending one of Madam Professor’s art seminars. But in his dreams of ‘A B and C,’ the garden and the house had another occupant, Madame Engadine, whilst attending one of her celebrated parties was taking place!
   But now Number 6 is there for a very different reason, to pay his respects to the widow Madam Professor perhaps. No, not even that, he’s going to the house to poke his nose in and see what there is to uncover. After all the Professor is dead, the General destroyed, so really there’s nothing left to hide! But what Number 6 expected to find in the house, well that remains anyone’s guess.


Be seeing you

Opinion Poll!


   It may be wondered what that opinion poll was all about? It maybe considered that citizens in The Village were allowed public opinion. Perhaps, seeing as how Appreciation Day was approaching, that The Tally Ho was conducting an opinion poll about how successful the current Number 2 had been for the community at large. Certainly he had been perhaps the most industrious of all the Number 2’s to date, acting for the good of The Village as well as the community at large. It is realised that one Number 2 saw The Village as the future of world order, but that’s not the same as carrying out good works such as the electrification of the clocks. The new mural in the library, the new clock golf, together with the golf course, and the blue zone in the post. It may be wondered how the new Number 2 would rate in such a poll, his rating would be high in the minus column if what was to have taken place ever came to light.
    What think you the reader? Was there but one Number 2 who thought about The Village and its community? Certainly the majority of Number 2’s only seemed to have dealings with Number 6. To them it seems The Village and its community as a whole, was nothing more than a side issue. However as the viewer is looking in so to speak, we only see one aspect of Number 2 in his or her dealings with Number 6. We do not see the other side to Number 2’s administrative details, his or her day to day dealings with The Village and the community at large, which must also take up of a good deal Number 2’s time, as well as having to deal with Number 6. Which is one advantage Number 2, who had worked so tirelessly for The Village had, in not having to deal with Number 6 at the same time!
    So if you who are reading this had a voice in such an opinion Poll, about how successful Number 2 had been {taking into account that mostly we only see Number 2’s dealings with Number 6 and not The Village and community as a whole} which Number 2 do you think was the most successful, and why?


Be seeing you

Quote For The Day

    “Five that’s me.”  
    “Two, four six that’s you. You are six!”
                      {Number 6 and Number 2 - Once Upon A Time}

   Of course they are talking about the Prisoner’s age at the time, which has been regressed to his childhood, back to the age of 5 years. Or on the other hand the Prisoner demands that he is five because his mind has been so conditioned that he can only count to five, alternate even numbers go, two, four, six eight. But with the Prisoner it’s five, five, five, five, that’s him! But perhaps in his former life, his former employment the Prisoner was six, MI6, but with the Prisoner thinking he’s 5, MI5. And yet in one respect we cannot forget the Prisoner’s possible former employment as an agent who previously worked for Security NATO, but later went to work for M9. Of course that’s MI9, but for some reason the “I” for intelligence was dropped for ‘Danger Man!’

Be seeing you

Thursday 28 May 2015

Village Life!


    “You realise that I’m the one who will have to pay for this. I knew it wouldn’t work. Fill him full of hallucinatory drugs, put him in a dangerous environment, talk to him through microphones!”
    “It’s always worked!”
    “Well it didn’t work this time Sony were relying on us to deliver this new virtual reality game, that’s why we gave you the opportunity to show what you could do. You said you could deliver. I should never have relied on you!”
    “It’s always worked before!”
    “But it didn’t this time, did it? Not when it mattered most, when the game was worth winning the most!”
    “Well don’t blame me!”
    “Who else is there to blame? There will be no second chances. Sony will walk out on the deal. I gave them my word that you could make this first virtual reality game work.”
    “Forget Sony. But if you try and lay this cock-up on me, and try to get rid of me, I’ll take my virtual reality game to Spacewar!”
    “I won’t let you walk out on The Village just to take the game to some other outfit. Not after all the money that’s been put into the development of your game.”
    “I beat that guy Six to the draw though!”
    “But you didn’t fire first, you delayed!”
    “If I hadn’t, Six would have woken up earlier, and there would have been no need for your scene in the Saloon!”
    “We could have had it all Kid!”
    “Don’t call me Kid Judge!”
    “Oh shut up and get over yourself!”


Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                “TAXI!”
                        “Local destinations Only!”

BcNu

More Village!

    Recently I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the 2009 series of THEPRIS6NER, 6 episodes which always leave me wanting more Village.  And during that screening there was little or nothing which took my attention to write about. Hardly surprising really judging by the amount I have written on the subject, and the number of the episodes which go to make up the series. So what is left? The pure enjoyment of sitting and watching THEPRIS6NER without having to think about it. In that lies escapism.
   I shall watch THEPRIS6
NER again later in the year, whether or not I shall watch the 1967-68 series of ‘the Prisoner’ I cannot say. I did think that I would watch the series in the library or production order, but I’m not sure. The passion I once had to watch ’the Prisoner’ twice a year, along with individual episodes in between, as I have in the past has deserted me. I don’t know why, I still enjoy writing about the series, and get quite animated when I find something in the series which I had not seen before, or when I arrive at a new idea, theory, or interpretation. Perhaps that is where the solution lies, that visual stimulation from watching ‘the Prisoner’ is something I no longer require, seeing as I busy myself writing about the series in some respect almost every day. And I am still a huge enthusiast of ‘the Prisoner,’ and some would have it that I am doing a good job of promoting The Prisoner’ through my blog. It’s just that I’ve arrived at a point where I no longer need to watch the series. It’s quite on the cards that the next time I watch ‘the Prisoner’ it will be for the 50th  anniversary. Whether via a television screening specially for the event, or video, or DVD.

Be seeing you

Thought For The Day

    I wonder if it’s possible that during discussions regarding ‘the Prisoner,’ that it’s possible to come full circle, and return to the beginning? During ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ Number 2 put Number 6’s file back to the beginning, frustrated by the result, and seeing that they would have to begin all over again. And that chap, what’s his name, who presented Six Into One: The Prisoner file. He was supposed to have sussed the meaning of ‘the Prisoner, what it’s all about etc, etc. But in the end he had all the tapes erased, and set to begin again back at the beginning. Mind you he was far too clever for his own good, going off at a tangent, being led down blind alleys, so that he’d have to back up only to be led along the garden path again and again. What a complete waste of time Six Into One: The Prisoner file was, well that was my personal conclusion after watching it. I felt let down and deeply disappointed by the whole thing. I have it on video tape some place in my ‘Prisoner’ archive, I’ve never watched it.
    But enthusiasts for ‘the Prisoner’ have come on a step or three since Six Into One: The Prisoner File was screened way back in 1984. And I think enthusiasts understand the series better today than they probably did back in those days, even if there are still varying differences of opinion that divides those enthusiasts! As for going back to the beginning again, it could be suggested that the majority of enthusiasts have gone too far, in their deliberations and discussions to be able to say “File Number Six, section forty-two, sub-section one, paragraph one, back to the beginning!”


Be seeing you

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Bureau of Visual Records

   In a scene in ‘Checkmate,’ Number 2 invites Number 6 to go with him to the hospital in order to see what is happening about the Rook. After all Number 2 can’t have Number 6 worrying!

   And yet just after Number 6 climbs into the taxi, we see Number 6 in a taxi coming back from the hospital!
   The trouble is film of a Mini-Moke going in the opposite direction, as though on its way to the hospital should have been inserted at that point. And not a shot of Number 6 with Number 66 {the taxi driver} on their way back to The Village on the day after the Prisoner’s arrival in The Village, having been discharged from the hospital!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                                      “Hospitalisation!”

BcNu

Be seeing you!

   “Be seeing you” is a parting greeting used in The Village, either with or without a salute, indicating that for citizens to be seeing each other again, is unavoidable, The Village being a close-nit community. Besides there is nowhere else to go!
    However with a number of exceptions;
    Three Number 2’s.
    The Butler.
    The Supervisor-Number 26.
    Number 19 {or is it 56} the shopkeeper.
    Number 20 the manager of the Labour Exchange, later as assistant to Number 2 in ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’
    Number 66 the ex-admiral.
    Number 250 a guardian in ‘the General,’ who later appears as Number 93, and again as a delegate of the Assembly.
    Numerous “ordinary” Village citizens in the background so to speak.
   There are a large number of characters who once seen are never to “be seen” again. Perhaps once they are used they are removed from the chessboard! Amongst their number are;
    The maid No.66 who attempted to extract some sort of information from the Prisoner by trying to play on his sympathies, and then with the use of emotional blackmail!
   No.9 who was assigned to No.6 as she had once been assigned to Cobb, but who was no more than a pawn in No.2’s game with No.6.
   The General.
   The little old lady No.38
   The doctor No.14 who used a new drug she had developed to get into No.6’s dreams.
   No.’s 113, 113b and 113c.
   No.24-Alison, who shared a mental link with No.6.
   Madam Professor
   The doctor No.40, the male equivalent to his successor No.22.
   Roland Walter Dutton, but it may be supposed that he went on to spend the rest of his life under medical supervision, seeing the state his mind had been left in from the doctors experiments.
   The doctor No.23, the female equivalent of her predecessor No.40.
   The maid No.21.
   The maid No.54.
   No.14 the ex-Count.
   No.8 the once white Queen.
   No.42 the painter.
   The Guardian working undercover as a gardener.
   The young woman working at the kiosk in ‘Hammer Into Anvil.’
   The man working at the kiosk who wouldn’t sell any sweets to No,36 because all her weekly allowance had been all used up!
    No.100
   No.36 who couldn’t go a day without her sweets.
   No.50 Monique.
   No.51 the Watchmaker, Monique’s father.
   No.118 the eccentric artist.
    No.42 who was suffering from depression, always in tears, but who became a member of the ladies sub-appeal committee.
   No.56 Chairwoman of the ladies sub-appeal Committee.
   I’m sure there are others who could be added to this list, but it gives the general idea. Of course one would not expect a character such as Monique, Alison, Number 8 {the white Queen} or Number 9 who both having once been at the centre of one episode to appear at the centre of another. But who might appear somewhere in the background with other Village citizens. Then again better continuity might have been gained had the doctor Number 40 who appeared in ‘Dance of the Dead,’ gone on to be the doctor in ‘Checkmate’ instead of Number 22.
   The reason for the ever changing face of Number 2 is known, so that it makes it difficult for Number 6 to strike up a relationship with any Number 2. Does that same rule apply for Number 6’s personal maids? As we never see any one of them more than once! As Number 6 once said “The maids come….and they go!” Almost with the same frequency as Number 2!

Be seeing you…….I hope!

Monday 25 May 2015

Making Your own Lava Lamp!

   Yesterday I posted a piece about Lava Lamps being made on the QI television programme. And in having done so I am reminded about Johnny Prisoner, who back in April conducted his own experiment in making his own Lava lamp. What follows is Johnny Prisoner’s report on that said experiment

    
I’ve been reading in a number of newspaper and one particular food magazine which I picked up from Tesco, about how to make your own Lava Lamp. Well I couldn’t let this opportunity slip me by. So having gathered the recommended material, a clear plastic bottle of the 2 litre variety, a small bottle of red food colouring, a bottle of vegetable oil, and Alka-Seltzer. So armed with full instructions, I put on my white lab coat and safety glasses, and eagerly set about the experiment. I filled the bottle with two thirds of water from the kitchen tap, and set about filling the remaining third with vegetable oil. However this did seem rather excessive, and perhaps I thought I would have been better off with a smaller bottle. So instead I added about an inch of the oil. Then I added a few drops of the food colouring, but this was completely inadequate, so I added more. I had to wait a few minutes in order to allow the food colouring to pass through the vegetable oil, which remained on top of the water, and settle at the bottom of the bottle. Then I broke one Alka-Seltzer tablet into quarters and dropped it into the bottle and watched eagerly for the required result. Sad to report, the result was not as predicted. Yes the quarter Alka-Seltzer tablet did fizz, bubbling up in the water and turning the water red with the red food colouring, but the oil remained on top of the water. The idea is that the oil mixes with the water and the Alka-Seltzer’s effervescent effect causes the Lava lamp effect. It didn’t! I then added the other three quarters of the tablet with only the same result. So then I had the bright spark of an idea. I screwed the cap on and turned the bottle upside down in order to make the oil mix with the water, in order to produce the desired effect, and at the same time adding two whole Alka-Seltzer tablets to the mixture. The result was disappointing to say the least! The oil returned immediately to the top of the water, and did not play any part in the experiment whatsoever, it just sat there, leaving the Alka-Seltzer to have an effervescence effect on the coloured water. In short the Lava Lamp experiment was a complete and utter failure!
   So then I had another bright idea, perhaps the experiment needed to be scaled down. Perhaps there was too much water for the Alka-Seltzer to have any real effect. In short, a smaller bottle might be the order of the day. The only trouble was I didn’t have a smaller bottle, but I did have a smaller receptacle at hand, a clear tumbler! So filling the tumbler two thirds with water from the tap, and adding a small amount of the vegetable oil, and a few drops of the red food colouring and allowing time for the colouring to pass through the oil to the bottom of the tumbler, I added half of one Alka-Seltzer tablet, and watched and waited. The result being, that the Alka-Seltzer fizzed away and rose up through the vegetable oil creating a foam on the top. However upon closer examination, I observed that the Alka-Seltzer was having an effervescence effect upon the vegetable oil, but not enough to create anything near the Lava Lamp effect as suggested in a diagram accompanying the instructions. And after two minutes the foam had completely dissipated. But that the Alka-Seltzer was still having its effervescent effect on the oil! Disappointed I sat and wrote up my notes for the experiment. I did not go back to the drawing board, not to the beginning. It would appear that chemistry is not my forte!! It is possible that a different result may be achieved under actual laboratory conditions. However my two attempts were complete and utter failures! As this is supposed to be “school-boy” science, perhaps I am too old! The real nitty-gritty problem is, that the oil refused to drop any lower into the water, or form any sort of individual blobs.
   Oh well, at the very least I now have a good supply of Alka-Seltzer tablets left in the box, which will come in handy for the morning after the night before, when I go on a drinking binge with Tommy Moke.

Be seeing you

Do We Know Where Seltzman Is?

    Number 6 survived that three-way mind transference. Professor Seltzman survived that three-way mind transference, so why not the Colonel? Because the impression given, with his last words “You must contact Number One. Tell him I did my duty” is that the Colonel died. Which is perhaps the best thing that could have happened to him. Because with Seltzman having escaped The Village, his mind housed in a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonel’s, that leaves the Colonel’s mind housed in the aging body of Professor Seltzman! And then what? The Colonel couldn’t have been allowed to leave The Village in that state, so he would have had to remain there, to live out the rest of his life in the Old People’s Home.......unless! Unless they used the Seltzman machine once more {There being no reason why the machine’s use should not be continued in the way it had already been used} to put the Colonel’s mind in another younger man’s body, perhaps that of someone who had recently died. They could have used Roland Walter Dutton, seeing his mind had totally gone! But even then that would leave the Colonel’s mind in yet another person’s body, which is yet another imperfect state of mind to be in. On the other hand, why not make use of this situation. Put the Colonel’s psyche into a person of their choosing, then use him to infiltrate the Intelligence Agency of any government in order to gather information……… well perhaps that would be a fate worse than death. So perhaps it is just as well the Colonel died. But why did he die when both Number 6 and Professor Seltzman survived the three-way mind transference? Perhaps the Colonel’s mind couldn’t take the shock a second time. Or maybe Professor Sletzman’s body just gave out, being too old. And yet the Professor’s mind inhabited a body perhaps not to his liking, the Colonel’s, who was then free to continue his experiments in peace.
  So after these past forty-eight years of experimentation, possibly application through a number of mind transferences, do we know where Seltzman is?

Be seeing you

The Time of The Prisoner’s Birth

     That was one piece of information that was missing from the Prisoner’s personal file, well that and the reason behind his resignation. But the omission of that time of his birth was quite deliberate. Number 2 thought that if the Prisoner gave away that one simple piece of information away, then the rest would follow. It didn’t!
   Four thirty-one am, nineteenth of March nineteen twenty-eight. I’ve nothing to say. Is that clear?”
    It’s not like the Prisoner to give any information away. However he may have assumed that they actually knew the time of his birth. After all having worked for British Intelligence he would have been conversant with interrogation techniques, and how to put up a resistance against them. So there was really no danger in giving them that one piece of information. Because other than that he had nothing else to say, nothing! And no more did he. Not until a quiet moment during the deliberations between Number 2 and Number is in ‘Once Upon A Time.’
   “I resigned for peace.”
   “For peace?”
   “For peace of mind, because too many people know too much, I know too much about you!”
   And that was that, Number 2 had been told, because Number 6 was in no mood to repeat himself. All that time of coercion, interrogation, trickery, and a number of extreme measures carried out against the Prisoner, and all they managed to extract were two short pieces of information, one of which they knew already!

Be seeing you

Sunday 24 May 2015

Thought For The Day

   Number 6 once described people who were brought to The Village as knowing too much or too little. Knowing too much can be clearly understood, as anyone who resigns his or her job cannot be left around with so much important information in their heads. But knowing too little, probably because what little they do know is enough to see them put in The Village. As they say, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. So perhaps if someone didn’t know too much or too little, but just the right amount, would see them safe from abduction to The Village!

Be seeing you

Exhibition of Arts And Crafts

                  “The Lotus Position!”
                 “A car for the freedom of the open road!”
BcNu

Making a lava lamp - QI: Series L Episode 11 Preview - BBC Two


QI


  “Comedy quiz show full of quirky facts, in which contestants are rewarded more if their answers are 'quite interesting'.”

Presented by Stephen Fry, with permanent guest Alan Davies.

   Have you ever thought of making your own style of Lava Lamp? Click on the link below, then sit back and watch.


Alan, Stephen, David, Ronni and Jimmy all make a lava lamp.

   

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It’s Inexplicable!


    In a scene in 'Arrival' the ex-Admiral can be seen sat at a table on the lawn of the Old People’s Home, as he waits for a chess opponent. And yet, moments later as the Prisoner and Number 2 look upon the Stoneboat the ex-Admiral can be seen walking across the quayside!


   And yet again only a few moments later, as the Prisoner and Number 2 walk back across the lawn, there is the ex-Admiral, an excellent chess player, is still sat at the table waiting for an opponent to play!
   Quite obviously there are two ex-Admirals, as later seen by the pool and fountain in the Piazza. Not so inexplicable as first thought, and one matter easily cleared up. Mind you it looks as though The Village is best for those two young women down there sunbathing. Doesn’t look as though much harm is befalling them, then again perhaps it’s those who are doing the harm!

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Saturday 23 May 2015

THEPRIS6NER

    Checkmate already? So soon the finale of the series!
   The Village is expanding, and newcomers to The Village arrive by bus. The only thing is they first got on the bus in The Village!

   In the original series Number 6 as the local candidate standing for election is interviewed by Number 113 and photographic colleague Number 113b. In The Village Two is interviewed by a reporter for the local newspaper along with his photographic colleague. It is probable that they are interviewing Two about his “More Village” policy, and the newspaper might be The Tally Ho, we just do not know.

  Speaks for itself.

   Helen in New York is comforted by Curtis, as she suffers her own Village death. At this point her son 11-12 is suffocating M2 to death with a cushion!



   No matter what The Village, there is always the suicide rate to consider. 11-12 unable to bear what he had done, an act of matricide. That his life is confined to The Village, when for 11-12 Village is not enough!
   Observe the chessboard, it seems to have been reduced over the years!

    He’s the one, Six is the one The Village needs. We want Six, Six is the one, we want Six, Six is the one.
    Two wants to give Six The Village, it's his way for escape. But what surprised me was, the ease with which Six finally accepted The Village. Each episode is a challenge set for Six by Two, this is much in the same way of the original series, each episode being an ordeal for Number 6, to win or lose. In the original series Number 2 did not always succeed in his challenge with Number 6, and it's the same for Two in THEPRIS6NER. And ultimately Two will fail unless he has a challenge that will completely undermine Six through his own beliefs. Six only wants to do the right thing, and that is what will give Six to Two, and did. Because Six is the One!

    “It took me all this time to see how beautiful it is,” Six says. “It has to be possible to do this the right way-make a good Village.” 313 sheds a single tear.
   And so it is that this final episode of THEPRIS6
NER, it and the series as a whole, has gone by all too quickly for my own personal liking. In the final scene, the new Two sits with 313/Sarah on a sand dune in the desert. He says that is has to be possible to do it the right way, to make a good Village. He thinks he could do it, He thinks he has to try, whatever the cost. But I don't think 313 shares that thought, as she sheds a tear. But for who, herself, or for Six who dreams of making a good Village? Seeing as it’s Sarah, 313's abused counterpart in New York who will have to dream The Village, I don't give much for Six's chances!
    "There are people here. Good people. Whatever they've lost. Funny isn't it. It took me all this time to see how beautiful it is. What if...oh it has to be possible to do this the right way. Yeah. Make a good Village. I think I could do it. I think we have to try. Whatever the cost."

  Breathe in....breathe out.....Village life goes on.
More Village when I next watch the series!
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