Good Morning, Number 6 Forum Episode 1: Arrival

Dan Hiland

Episode 1 Summary: Arrival 10 Years Ago Storm clouds block the sun, thunder crashing and rumbling. Then a ground-level view of a highway appears, no center lines adorning it. The blacktop stretches into infinity, a barren landscape flanking it, the horizon line dividing blue skies above from the road below.   Music swells with the approach of a black and yellow convertible sports car (KAR120C), a man’s confident, determined face behind the wheel, staring at us. Next, an aerial shot shows the car traveling through downtown London. From the front now, we see him turn right down a side street. From above we see him take another right onto a street with large, white painted directional arrows on its surface. His car emerges from shadow into daylight briefly, then accelerates into a dark underground garage, a sign above reading “HEADROOM 7.0”.   Through the windshield we see the back of the chrome headlights, then from the front we see the lights on as the man curves left to a yellow wall-mounted dispenser, which spits out a ticket. Grabbing it, he is off again, then pulls over to park against a curb.   Out of the car he goes, his shadow appearing on a set of double doors, the left one labeled “WAY” and the right “OUT”. Shoving the doors open, his determined face fills the screen as he moves on. From a distance we see him walking toward us along a darkened corridor, camera switching between his striding feet and serious visage. Pulling open a second set of doors to the sound of crashing thunder, the man strides into a smallish, carpeted office. A middle-aged man is sitting behind a desk, fiddling with a small item, two sets of world maps on the wall behind him, groups of countries colored in, for some reason.   The intruder paces back and forth on this side of the desk, shouting and gesturing at the other man, as thunder continues to rumble in the distance. Pulling a sealed white envelope from his suit coat, the angry man slaps it down on the desk. It reads “Private. Personal. By Hand.” Pounding his right fist on the desk top, a tea-filled saucer leaps into the air, the plate beneath it breaking into pieces. Then he turns and leaves for his car.   As he returns home, a black, hearse-like vehicle begins following him, the driver dressed in matching black top hat and funeral garb. Next we see a typewriter close-up, as it embeds a diagonal line of upper-case X’s across the man’s black and white dossier-style photograph- then another diagonal line the other direction.   A machine transports the photo to a waiting file cabinet drawer, where it drops the card inside. The drawer closes, and we see the label “RESIGNED” on the drawer’s face. The man drives up to his dwelling, a small downtown apartment, which he enters, unaware that the black car has pulled up to the curb, some distance back.   As the man hurriedly packs a small suitcase, a colored beach photo indicating his destination, the tall, funereally-garbed gentleman exits the black car and walks up to the man’s front door. A thick vapor begins pouring in through the keyhole, and the man stops his packing, having heard a hissing sound. As he looks out the window at tilting buildings, considering his only escape route, he is overcome by the fumes and collapses on his bed.   Sometime later he awakes, glancing around. It looks like his room. Just to make sure, he goes to the window. Outside is an unfamiliar green courtyard surrounded by unfamiliar, stately looking buildings. He has no idea where he is.    THUS begins the first of a two-part introduction to The Prisoner.     Be seeing you...