A scientist, Number 42 (Bee Duffell, I believe) tries to extract information from Number Six by getting a former colleague, Roland Walter Dutton or Number 42 (Alan White), to call him while he is under hypnosis. Number Six is too suspicious and Number Two (Mary Morris) abandons the plan. Number Six awakes with no memory of the incident. He meets a black cat, which is actually a spy for Number Two. It is suggested that he get a girlfriend. He chats up his observer, Number 240 (Norma West), and learns that there will be a carnival held in the Village.
That night he tries to escape again, only to be stopped by Rover on the beach. He spends the night there and finds a dead body washed ashore in the morning. There is a radio on the body and he tries to get a signal. At first there is only static, but then there is a cryptic message about the moon rising and everything turning to silver. He is warned that the appointment cannot be fulfilled as there are other things to do, but If our torment is to end and liberty to be restored, it can only be through pain. Number Six puts a buoy on the corpse and sends it out to sea with a note. In a cave, Six meets Dutton, who says he has told his captors all he knows but they think he is keeping secrets and it will get worse for him.
The carnival is a costume ball in which everyone has an identity but Number Six, who is only given his dinner jacket to wear. He finds out that Dutton is to be executed. In the morgue, he finds the body he sent out to sea. Number Two (dressed as Little Bo Peep) says that the body will be made to look like Number Six so the world will think he died at sea.
He is put on trial for hiding the radio. Number 240 is the prosecution and Number Two is his defense. Number Six asks for Dutton to be called as a character witness, and the man appears in a jester’s costume, obviously brain-wiped. Number Six is sentenced to death. He makes a break for it and is pursued by villagers until he hides in a back room. He damages a teletype machine which he believes is to communicate with Number One. Number Two appears and remarks that the Villagers chasing him don’t know Six is already dead. Number Six declares that he will never be part of the Village. The teletype begins operating and Number Two muses about how very uncomfortable that would be for Number Six.
The episode was written by Anthony Skene and directed by Don Chaffey. The order in which the episodes appeared is problematic This one is theoretically the fourth to be produced but the eighth to be broadcast. But some think it should be the second episode because Number Six mentions being new in the Village. What I have done is to follow the list on the official DVD box set, which is also the American Sci-Fi Channel order, just to make it easier. The music box theme in the episode is by Robert Fanon and is called Drumdramatics No, 2. It came from the U.S. Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. The title Dance of the Dead refers to Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens. Number Six points out that a trial by three judges and no jury is the same as in Robespierre’s Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.