The Prisoner!

It's been a few weeks now since the new Prisoner series finished in the UK, I can't say it was good. It fell flat most of the time, there were a few interesting moments but even the worst series has glimpses of something decent, it doesn't make them watchable.

ITV also seemed to show no interest in scheduling it properly either. The first episode aired at 9.00pm, after which we were told that the second episode would be 'back the same time next week at 9.30pm'. Then it seemed to move around between 9-10pm for the next few weeks until the 5th episode aired and we were told that we'd have to wait two weeks for the 6th and final episode. Well actually the last episode was shown the following week afterall but pushed later into the night and shown at 10.30pm or something daft. Were they trying to stop people watching it?

I wouldn't blame them if so. The series didn't seem to know where it was going. The first episode seemed to portray the village as a physical place from which you can escape, there were armed guards trying to prevent No.6 leaving and they even set Rover on him. In later episodes the prisoner is just free to wander about. He didn't seem too pressed to escape and seemed to take a taxi and drive out into the desert in every episode. The things happening in the real world seemed initially intriguing, my suspicion was that as he could remember events occuring in both worlds there was some kind of parallel universes that were bleeding through into each other. In fact this is what I believed Lost season 6 to be but I was equally wrong about that, maybe I'll cover that in future. It turns out that it was all some kind of dream existance supported by No.2's wife. The series ends with No.6 accepting the 'identity' of a number and takes over the village believing he can make it work fairly. His girlfriend sheds a tear knowing he's been tricked. This isn't so much a remake of the original as a perversion of it. The original Prisoner was anti authority, he would know that power corrupts and wouldn't have taken control of the village. He also wasn't a mug and wouldn't have been hoodwinked by No.2 in the same way. At the end of the original series he is offer the chance to peacefully leave or to take over the village. Given these choices he typically refuses to conform and destroys the village. The Prisoner just gets added to the heap of British things the Americans bungle when trying to make themselves.

Anyway I did feel a bit inspired towards completing something I've had in mind for a long time. This figure is supposed to be the somewhat obscure character of Kellman from Revenge of the Cybermen. It's part of Harlequin's old Doctor Who range now available from Black Tree Miniatures.