Project: The Prisoner: The Village Technical Manual by Tim Palgut (book review).
Very occasionally, I take a look around to see what ‘The Prisoner’ fandom is producing. Hence, coming across this softcover, ‘Project: The Prisoner: The Village Technical Manual’ by Tim Palgut. In truth, it’s more a book of technical illustrations of the Village and its various aspects, some of which are still classified. No doubt to ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. There are some text pages, but it does make for a fairly quick read.
A couple of things did raise an eyebrow. ROVER is now an acronym: Reactive Orang-alert Vigilant EnforceR. Not entirely sure I’d trust that, but then there has always been a certain amount of deception surrounding the Village. The old peoples home (no apostrophe) doesn’t appear to have any lifts and only two stairwells. Clearly, the infirm are not especially well catered for. It’s noted that the Village tends to have around 300 residents, but there’s no distinction as to how many are prisoners. Everyone is watched.
There is also the traditional Village map and an explanation of how much your units are worth for buying certain items. More secretive, of course, are the underground tunnels, allowing staff to move quickly between different parts of the Village. We also see Number Two’s underground work chamber, and why people move up and down on dollies when tracking prisoners. There’s even something that looks like an IBM machine, though who would want to be the one to fire that up?
An odd curio, but if you’re looking for a book to add to your Prisoner collection, then it’s worth a look.
GF Willmetts
April 2026
(pub: panqnedia, 2023. 90-page large softcover. Price: £15.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-9929054-2-2).
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