Description
The location of the Village is unknown; clues in the series as to its whereabouts are contradictory. In "Many Happy Returns", it is said to be on the coast of Morocco or southern Portugal, possibly an island, and is located by Number Six in this area while making reconnaissance passes in an aircraft. Prior to this, in "The Chimes of Big Ben", it is claimed to be located in the vicinity of Lithuania and Poland, on the Baltic Sea, though this may be part of an elaborate plot by whoever controls the Village. (The episode states "in Lithuania, 30 miles from the Polish border".) In the unbroadcast version of the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben", Number Six constructs a device that allows him to work out the Village's location; this scene was cut presumably to remove the reference to navigation by stars which would have allowed an estimation of the Village's region, at the least, thereby undermining the storyline of the episode (if not a key element in the entire series). This version of the episode is not considered part of the series canon.
Finally, the series finale episode, "Fall Out", strongly suggests that it is located in England near London, and shows a sign for a road which is in Kent. Number Six and other characters are able to drive from the Village (or at least the Degree Absolute interrogation facility which may or may not be attached to The Village) to central London, indicating a location in Great Britain. Although a line of dialogue in "Many Happy Returns" has a character speculating that the Village is on an island, this is never confirmed in the series, and in fact all given locations (save for that in "Fall Out") should be considered unreliable evidence given the fact they are mentioned as part of a deception aimed at getting Number Six to reveal why he resigned from his secret British government job.
The Italianate architecture of the Village is somewhat deceptive as the interiors of the buildings are frequently Georgian, 1960s 'Mod', or in a number of instances, an oddly sparse kind of 'ultra modern' design. Throughout the Village, music plays in the background, nearly all of it alternating between rousing marching band music and lullabies, periodically interrupted by public announcements. The media and signage consistently incorporate sailing and resort themes.
The Village has a logo in the form of a canopied penny-farthing bicycle (commonly referred to as an "Ordinary") which appears on almost everything, including the daily newspaper called the Tally Ho. Exactly who operates the Village is deliberately obscured. Ostensibly, the Village is run by a democratically elected council, with a popularly-elected executive officer known as "Number Two" presiding over it and the Village itself, although internal dialogue indicates that the entire process is rigged. "Work units" or "credits" serve as currency in its shops, and are kept track of with a hole-punched credit card. Although various members of the community in the Village hold down jobs or even own businesses, most, including Number Six appear to be unemployed, and yet can afford a quite comfortable lifestyle, suggesting some form of allowance system of work units to Prisoners.
The exact size of the environs of the Village is never established on screen. Besides the townsite, which is known to include a hospital building, there are forested, mountainous and coastal areas. The Village is large enough that one episode ("Living in Harmony") established that an entire Old West town and environs was built somewhere in the vicinity. In "Arrival", "Many Happy Returns" and other episodes, Number Six actually views the Village from the air, yet is apparently unable to spot any surrounding towns or cities. In other episodes (depending upon the camera angle), buildings can clearly be seen on the far side of the bay. Nevertheless, all maps of the Village seen in the series display little beyond the central townsite, indicating that the village is surrounded on three sides by mountains (said mountains are seen by No. 6 in "Arrival") and sea on the fourth, though the map does show a road leading off the map which may connect to the other areas, such as the Village hospital which is depicted as being in a field-like area away from the core Village (at least in some episodes like "Arrival"; in others, such as "Chimes of Big Ben", it is shown to be overlooking the central plaza of the Village).
Read more about this topic: The Village (The Prisoner)
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is possible—indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic—to give in advance a description of all ‘true’ logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)