A general and a professor are teaching a speed learning course via the television where citizens of The Village can learn three years worth of knowledge in three minutes. Number 6 realizes this speed learning could be a dangerous form of brainwashing.

Number 6 decides to learn the identity of the general. He finds an administrator (Number 12) who is willing to help him sneak a bit further into the inner workings of The Village than before.

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In this psychological, mind game of an episode, the new Number 2 calls up number 14 in order to perform a medical experiment on Number 6. A sedated number 6 is brought to The Village hospital where he’s strapped to a table. His thoughts are monitored and projected on a large screen. Number 2 and Number 14 can now see that while asleep, Number 6 dreams of his resignation, over and over.

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This episode features the “best” Number 2, Leo McKern who re-appears in the final episodes. He’s a bit more inquisitive to Number 6, striking up friendly conversation while trying to extract the “information”. Number 6 tells Number 2 that he’d like to escape and return to wipe the place off the face of the earth. Number 2 is taken aback by this announcement and seems to wonder if he’s bluffing with such a dire threat. The Village is having an arts and crafts fair, and Number 2 wants number 6 to participate, in yet another conformist exercise.

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One pastime in The Village is chess on a giant board with the citizens acting as pieces. However, the pieces aren’t allowed to make moves on their own, rather, two players in high seats wielding megaphones call out moves of which the pieces must dutifully execute.

During the game, Number 6 resists making the move he’s given. After discussing a potential escape with the woman representing the queen (Number 8 - Rosalie Crutchley), a stout man playing the rook (Ronald Radd) performs the ultimate rebellious act: making a move of his own and without orders. He’s carted away to the hospital by ambulance.

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Episode 3

This time, Number 2 is a woman (Mary Morris). She assigns a new, young girl (Norma West) as the next “watcher” of Number 6.

The Village is having a “carnival and dance” costume ball. Number 2 urges Number 6 to attend. He chooses his “watcher” as his date, who rebuffs him with the statement “questions are a burden” and runs into the Town Hall. He follows but is struck by a force, preventing him from entering.

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One strange thing about The Prisoner is that the exact episode order is unclear. Free For All aired as number 4, while it’s number 2 on the DVD set. This series of blog posts follows the DVD order.

The individual known as Number 2 changes in almost every episode. The new Number 2 (Eric Portman) pays Number 6 a visit, introduces himself, and a young foreign woman, Number 58 (Rachel Herbert), who is cheerful and seemingly a bit dumb. There’s an election for a new Number 2, and Number 6 is more or less drafted into running, with Number 58 as his assistant.

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The Prisoner is a 1967 British television series, starring Patrick McGoohan as “Number 6,” a top-level government agent who resigns his post. As a result, he’s kidnapped and imprisoned in “The Village”, where his captors hope to interrogate him for “information.” The series documents Number 6’s repeated escape attempts and the progressively more extreme methods employed by his captors to break his will.

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My first foray into something to follow up my adventures with James Bond led me into more British spy stuff. The Prisoner is a late sixties show that only lasted 17 episodes. But they’re some pretty tight, compact, and brainy entertainment for sure. Patrick McGoohan starred as Number 6, a secret agent that quit the British service, but since he knows too much, is placed in The Village, which is basically a prison run by forces undetermined.

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