Talk:Rover (The Prisoner)

Television Low‑importance

	Television portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Bignell, Jonathan. "The performing lives of things: Animals, puppets, models and effects." (2019): 43-60.
"The Prisoner - Ästhetik des Fragments im Kultklassiker", p. 300, 302-303, 311
"The spectacle of The Prisoner"
"The Prisoner and self-imprisonment"
Be Seeing You - Decoding The Prisoner, throughout but especially p. 46, 51
Nellis, Mike. ""I am not a number!" David Davis, The Prisoner and the critique of surveillance." Surveillance & Society 6.1 (2009): 48-51.

Untitled[edit]

"A much-used joke in these references consists of a character using a sharp object to pop it." In one episode someone shoots a rover with a rifle a few times. If I remember correctly it appears unharmed; is anyone more sure of this? I think it would be relevant to the idea of popping them. Wootery 12:27, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DOGOON. [1] -Ashley Pomeroy 18:28, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Rover is shot at several times without incurring any obvious damage (apart from visible bullet holes/marks) in the episode The Chimes of Big Ben, so it seems unlikely that it could actually be popped (within the continuity of the series, of course). However, if one wishes to get really analytical, it's possible that the whole "shooting at Rover" thing was faked by The Village, since they deliberately allow Number Six to escape in this episode, and Rover getting shot would make it all the more convincing. 128.100.8.114 (Comment from HJH)

Reversal of Footage[edit]

Perhaps this article should mention that the effect of Rover's movement was created by filming the balloon being pulled from behind and then reversing the film? (This is why everyone stands still whenever Rover passes, and why people running from Rover aren't shown in the same shot as it until it overcomes them.) 128.100.8.114 (Comment added by HJH.)

6000 Weather Balloons?[edit]

That seems an extremely high number for a short television series. Can someone verify this value? Catbar 03:03, 2 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. 6000 over the course of a 17 episode series is fantastically high. That's over 350 per episode for a prop that hardly ever appears. I think that without some kind of documentation or evidence that it should be safe to remove it. Monkey Bounce 01:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect that the number encompasses all props used in the series, and not just the Rover balloons. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 09:31, 13 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Star Wars Reference[edit]

In the book Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina in the short story "Dr. Death: The Tale of Doctor Evazan and Ponda Baba," Dr. Evazan has a trained Meduza named Rover, which is described as a blob-like organism with eyestalks that electrocutes and then engulfs its prey. I'm not sure if this is a reference or not, but it seems to be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pressondude (talk • contribs) 22:10, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Headmaster[edit]

In the episode "The Schizoid Man", the article incorrectly claimed that Number Six referred to the Rover as "The Headmaster". It's pretty clear that "The Headmaster" is actually Number Two. I've removed the error. Scientastic (talk) 16:11, 15 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think he rover is smart, it knows the person is thinking and doing. How is it? rover is then like the human like the smart mind. Right? or perhaps is of a robot+rover like the AI movie. What do you think? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.33.208.179 (talk) 03:41, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Correction needed[edit]

Rover "could coerce, and, if necessary, disable inhabitants of The Village", all inhabitants, not "primarily Number Six".Royalcourtier (talk) 09:44, 30 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Source of name[edit]

In rewatching the show, I can't seem to see where the name "Rover" comes from. Am I missing it, or is this really just a fan-derived name or something? DBalling (talk) 22:35, 28 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's mentioned by name in The Schizoid Man - when asked about the death of the false No 6, the real Number 6 says "Rover got him", or something like that. 92.14.223.30 (talk) 20:41, 20 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Notability[edit]

@QuicoleJR I fully support the tag. As for eventual AfD, I did a BEFORE and it's unclear - I didn't have time to read stuff that comes up on GScholar, there are mentions of this, and reading is required to see if they meet SIGCOV. @Daranios, @Jclemens, in case either of you feels like doing the reading and listing a good source or two here, preventing an AfD? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 09:10, 16 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Starting to collect: In the first hits I got from this Google Scholar search, "The spectacle of The Prisoner" and "The Prisoner and self-imprisonment" have shorter commentary, while "The Prisoner Ästhetik des Fragments im Kultklassiker", p. 300, 302-303, 311, has about one full page, agreeing with and expanding on the other two. (I especially like the comparison of the Rover with Harry Potter's dementors.) Daranios (talk) 15:06, 18 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Daranios If you think you found enough but don't fee like expanding the article, feel free to change {{notability}} to {{sources exist}}. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 01:06, 19 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]