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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Is This The Face Of Number One?

  Is this the face of No.1? If we are to take Fall Out at face value, then it must be. Why No.1? Well he doesn't want to spend all his time couped up in that rocket all the time. Perhaps he wanted to get out and about for a while, certainly The Schizoid Man episode would give him the opportunity to do just that, and what better way to do it, than to impersonate No.6. Obviously he would have had to give himself a name, Curtis. Yes I know, there is a whopping great hole in this, and that is Curtis and No.2 have worked together before, or at least that's their story, who are we to know really? We don't even know how No.2 received his instructions for The Schizoid Man. If via No.1, then No.2 could have been told anything. No.1 might even have been impersonating Curtis, but that might be stretching a point just too far.
   No, for me I like to think this is the face of No.1. Out and about in the Village, enjoying a little freedom which The Schizoid Man affords him. Perhaps he wanted to get his hands dirty for a change, to gain some hands on experience with No.6...........Well he's getting that alright!
   He doesn't look so happy, so cheerful here does he? He persists with the idea that he is No.6. He certainly looks like No.6. But No.6 doesn't go about wearing a cream blazer, and he hasn't worn his badge, not since he took it off outside the hospital the day after his arrival in the Village.
   I suppose you are going to say that there is another flaw in my idea that this is No.1, that Curtis died at the end, suffocated to death by the Village Guardian. Well we only have No.6's word for that. Perhaps 'Rover' had only suffocated Curtis into a state of unconsciousness, and his pulse was only faint. Or of course there could be another reason, that Curtis wasn't dead at all, that No.6 was looking after No.1. Who headed back to the relative safety of the Rocket as soon as he was able!
   Well one has these thoughts, and with such thoughts they are better written down so that they may be seen in their true proportion. But either way, this is the face of Number One. And if it is Curtis who died at the end of the Schizoid Man, who is No.1, if it isn't Curtis or No.6? I mean how many look-a-likes, or dopplegangers can No.6 have?   I'll be seeing you.

8 comments:

  1. Hello David

    In ancient Pompeii there is a site called Villa of the Mysteries where there is an illustration of an ancient Greek initiation ritual where in looking into a bowl, that was a concave mirror, that the initiate had drunk wine from with the intention of seeing his "true face", behind him was placed a hideous mask that reflected in the bowl causing an effect of shock.

    Perhaps 'The Village' was using such a device as a 'flash mask'. This was the device that was to be used in a rejected script by a character called 'Mike X' to hide his identity.

    Here is a link to a site where in 'scene 4' you can see the ritual referred to.

    http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/timelines/rome/empire/vm/villaofthemysteries.html

    It could be argued that 'Curtis' is the 'real' name as it seems he shares a history known to No.2 and so could not be No.1 as they both seem accountable to higher ups, judging by the dialog.

    Sincerely

    Mr. Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Mister Anonymous,

    That's an interesting comment, and having read it have learned something new today, which I thank you for. I'm not that familiar with the unused scripts, I shall have to refresh my memory. And thank you for the link, I'll have to take a look.

    Ah yes, well that's the flaw in the idea that Curtis is No.1, that Curtis and No.2 do it seems, share a history, that they have worked together before. However I have to explore every avenue. Yet it has to be said that way back in the late 1980's there was the theory that Curtis is No.1. And that theory holds water if one looks at 'Fall Out' as the final throw of the dice for the Village administration, the final manipulation of the Prisoner-No.6. What if Curtis wasn't suffocated to death by the Village Guardian - that Curtis was put in hospital, held in close confinement, and then brought out again so that in the final manipulation of No.6 in 'Fall Out' the final act to face No.6 with himself as being No.1 who had been persecuting both himself and others in the Village, in order to break him? No, oh well "File Number Six, subsection one, paragraph one, back to the beginning!"

    Regards
    David
    BCNU

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello David

    Perhaps this is the face of No.1.

    http://www.acbm.com/concours/prisoner/images/rover/etouff.jpg

    In the first draft of The Arrival script No.6, when the MK1 Rover appeared, "Who's driving it?". No.2 answers "That would be telling.".

    It would be telling us that the force behind the "corrupt authority" that "vanishes when we get rid of No.1" (PMcG when speaking of Rover)was No.1 trying to put his own stamp of authority on any who defy him as the image that emerges from Rover is the face of not the 'victim' but that of No.1 ... in all his madness as we see him in Fall Out.

    This would imply that Mr. McGoohan knew who was No.1 from the series inception.

    Sincerely

    Mr. Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Mister Anonymous,

    The top picture has to be that of No.1, because it's Patrick McGoohan, it's as simple as that.
    It's an interesting quote from the original script, but I wonder why No.1 himself would be the driver of 'Rover' Mk1?
    Was not 'Rover' trying to stamp his authority in 'Once Upon A Time' when No.2's chair rose up through th floor of his office, to find it occupied by the Village Guardian?

    McGoohan probably always thought who No.1 was, I don't think there would be any doubt in McGoohan's mind. In my own opinion, McGoohan had a large and at times over-inflated ego, so who else could McGoohan have made No.1 but himself. It was simply a question of how to end the series, that was the problem.

    Regards
    David
    BCNU

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello David

    Hello David

    http://vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/wizard-of-oz2.jpg

    I am suggesting that Rover is nothing more than The Village version of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

    "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!!" I am the great and all powerful OZ (No.1).

    Rover is the result of the conditioning we see in Change of Mind where a Village inmate is shown images of Rover and No.2. Overlay the image of the face of No.1 and Rover becomes an manifestation of No.1's authority over the whole of The Village.... much like the Universal images of 'Big Brother'.

    In the play 'Moby Dick Rehearsed' Captain Ahab says that he is interested in 'The thing that lies behind the mask'. that is in the form of the white whale... No.6 is interested in what lay behind The Village mask that is Rover...in both the case of the white whale and Rover, what is the 'driving force'.... 'Who is driving it?'

    In both the case of the white whale and Rover (either version) it is 'the evil inside of us'called No.1.

    Sincerely

    Mr. Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello David

    For reference:

    The Wizard of Oz

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE

    Sincerely

    Mr. Anonymous

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Mister Anonymous,

    Thanks for the link.

    David

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello Mister Anonymous,

    I can see where you are coming from with the Great Oz and No.1, certainly there seems to be some influence in 'Fall Out' from 'The Wizard of Oz.' As it happens the film was one of McGoohan's favourites.

    Certainly 'Rover' is a show of force, but I don't see it as a manifestation of No.1's authority over the Village. In fact when we see McGoohan's face for the man being suffocted by the Village Guardian in 'Arrival,' I see it as being a great pity, because it breaks the continuity of the scene!
    And that is an interesting parallel drawn up between 'Rover' and the white whale Moby Dick. But this is with hindsight, I'm not so sure that they had time to think about all this kind of thing during the production of 'the Prisoner.'
    One can read all kinds of things into 'the Prisoner,' draw many parallels, but that does not make them right. However having written that, it doesn't make them any the less interesting. And that is the attraction of 'the Prisoner.'

    Regards
    David
    BCNU

    ReplyDelete