The Village (The Prisoner) - Village Infrastructure

Village Infrastructure

There is an extensive network of tunnels and caverns under the Village, connecting many of the public buildings, and a number of secret facilities and support services (plumbing, waste disposal, observation cameras, etc.). These are generally off-limits to all prisoners above, but they appear to be extensively utilised, given the amount of motorcycle traffic observed in them in the final episode. There appears to be a large liquid-filled underground chamber that looks similar to a lava lamp, probably a short distance off the coast, in which Rover resides when it is not being used. The normal background display of the large monitor in Number Two's office is a view of this chamber, and lava lamps are visible in virtually every public building in the Village, giving rise to the speculation that these lamps may have functioned as some extension of Rover itself. This was never directly referred to on screen.

The Village is a self-contained society, and appears to be mostly self-sufficient as well, although no farming areas are ever seen, so it appears that food and supplies are shipped in from outside. It is sprawling enough to contain several hundred prisoners, in a comfort level similar to that of a hotel or a resort. As seen in "The Girl Who Was Death", the population includes several children, implying that some prisoners are so resigned to their fates that they have married and started families.

The Village has its own daily newspaper (The Tally Ho), a cinema, a statue garden, a retirement home, a gymnasium, a fully equipped hospital, taxi service, a radio station (like George Orwell's telescreens in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, the receivers cannot be turned off), a television studio (used mostly for news reports and announcements), a restaurant, a music shop, several other stores, and its own graveyard. In addition, there are extensive recreation facilities. The local economy functions on a credit chit system. The final episode also revealed that the Village conceals a missile launch facility deep underground.

The exact dimensions of the Village are never explicitly defined. Although a map of the Village is shown on screen on several occasions, it only seems to show the core residential and business area of the village, which is shown as being surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges and the fourth by "the sea". The episode "Living in Harmony" reveals that the Village is large enough to house a complete western town mock-up (presumably an area ear-marked for "official" use, and therefore not shown on the Village maps). Other episodes also indicate that the Village includes an expanse of beach and seaside cliffs (with caves). The jurisdiction of the Village over water is said to extend for several miles, or otherwise the range of Rover, the Village guardian system.

There is visual evidence in many episodes that the Village also includes large areas of countryside (with residences) as these are often visible in the distance in aerial shots and views looking out to sea.

• The small Jeep-like vehicles used as taxis in the Village are Mini Mokes.
• The Village's ubiquitous typeface is a modified Albertus.