Prisoner, The : The Complete Series (1967) [Blu-ray]
Action | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Since its CBS debut in the summer of 1968, the masterful British TV series The Prisoner has captivated American audiences. Now A&E presents a definitive aficionado's edition of the cult classic which is considered one of the most innovative TV series ever filmed for the first time in breathtaking Blu-ray. Fully restored from the original film elements with newly remixed 5.1 surround sound, and featuring hours of bonus material never released in North America, this Blu-ray edition is a fitting tribute to the creative vision of the late Executive Producer and star Patrick McGoohan.

After resigning from a top-secret position, a man (McGoohan) is abducted and spirited away from his London home to a mysterious place known only as "The Village." Village residents, known only by numbers, are held captive because each possesses valuable knowledge. The Prisoner, now known as Number Six, battles to protect his mind - and his humanity - while struggling to discover the identity of Number One and escape captivity.

Episodes in this set are presented in the following order:
(This is the order which is endorsed by Six of One, The Prisoner Appreciation Society and the order in which they make the most sense, continuity wise, not the order in which they were first broadcast)
 1. Arrival - In the episode that started it all, we see a man (Patrick McGoohan) resign from his job as a high level British spy. He heads back to his flat in London and packs his bags to take a vacation, but he's knocked out. When he regains a clear head, he finds himself not in his home but in a strange seaside village somewhere on the coast of England. He looks around for a phone but finds out that he cannot call outside the area. He tries to take a cab, but the golfcart-like taxies don't go outside the town borders. He soon realizes that all of the people around him don't have names, but numbers instead - he is Number Six. After a short while he is introduced to the man in charge, Number Two (George Baker). They talk and Six finds out that the reason he's in the village is that he knows too much. It seems someone wants to know why he left his job and is bound and determined to make sure that he doesn't spill the secret information he has tucked away in his head from his years of experience. Number Six wants to escape, but the surveillance cameras set up all over town make it tough, and then there's Rover, a giant weather balloon that smothers anyone who makes it past the borders of the Village.
 2. Free for All - McGoohan wrote and directed this episode in which Number Six finds that he is being considered to replace the current Number Two. It's time for an election and so he takes up the challenge and runs against Number Two but his real motive is to find out what Number Two is up to and, more importantly, to find out who Number One is and why all of this is taking place at all. Number Six deliberately makes promises to the Village that he knows he won't be keeping just to get under Number Two's skin and it works. Number Two decides that Number Six needs to be tested and the results are nothing short of disturbing. It all leads up to a fantastic twist ending wherein a new Number Two is elected but not in the way that anyone expected.
 3. Dance of the Dead - While taking a leisurely stroll on the beach that surrounds the Village, Number Six comes across the corpse of a man who has been murdered and subsequently washed ashore. He examines the body and discovers a wallet and a radio and he hides the radio in a nearby cave along with the man's corpse. When he returns later, he tries the radio but to no avail so he straps a life jacket onto the dead man and tosses him back into the ocean with a note attached hoping that someone will find it and send help. What Number Six doesn't know is that a former friend named Dutton who is also in the Village has been watching him and is reporting back to Number Two (now a woman, Mary Morris). What Dutton doesn't realize is that he's not as valuable to Number Two as he'd like to believe.
 4. Checkmate - Chess is a popular past time amongst the citizens who make up the population of the Village and when it comes time for the human chess game, Number Six is assigned the position of a queen's pawn. This turns out to be much more than a simple game, however, as when one of the rook's (Ronald Radd) makes an illegal move, he winds up being taken to the hospital. It seems that the organizers of the game don't like it when their chess pieces get out of line, but Number Six clued in to that shortly after his arrival, even if some of his fellow villagers did not. Number Two (now Peter Wyngarde), always up to something, has the queen (Rosalie Crutchley) brainwashed so that she falls for Number Six but it doesn't take Six long to find out that she's got a listening device hidden away in her necklace which lets Number Two hear every word they say to one another. What Number Two doesn't realize, however, is that Six has figured out a way to use the device to aid his latest escape plan which will require him to get the rook on his side.
 5. The Chimes of Big Ben - Number Six, not content to simply conform and spend the rest of his life in the Village as nothing more than a number, meets Nadia (Nedia Grey). She gives him a little more information about things than he had before and he learns that the Village lies somewhere on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Between the two of them they come up with a grand escape plan that they're sure will work, but they'll need a diversion. To keep the others distracted, Number Six enters an art competition and his entry, a wooden sailboat aptly titled 'Escape,' proves to be a fitting way to keep those who would stop them from leaving busy. Unfortunately, Number Two (now played by Leo McKern) sees all and Number Six soon learns that no one in the Village is to be completely trusted.
 6. A B & C - The New Number Two (Colin Gorden) is tired of playing games with Number Six - he wants to know what's in his head and how to get it out and so he uses an experimental drug to tape into his mind. He figures that he'll find out why Number Six resigned in the first place but Number Six is on to things and is able to use his dreams to tell the story his way. From there, over three different nights, we learn how Number Six met A (Peter Bowles), B (Annette Carrell) and C at a party hosted by Madame Engadine (Katherine Kath). Needless to say, Number Two does not get the information that he was looking for, much to his disappointment, while Number Six remains determined to make his way out of the Village.
 7. The General - A mysterious General has hired a brilliant professor to develop a speed learning process by which those in charge can educate the population of the Village quickly and as they see fit. Of course, Number Two (Colin Gorden again) easily figures out how he can use this to his advantage but the professor is not at all impressed by Number Two's plans and so he hopes to be able to destroy his own creation before things get out of hand. Number Six proves to be a handy ally for the professor and the two of them work together to stop Number Two but their plan fails and Number Six is brought in front of the General.
 8. The Schizoid Man - When Number Six wakes up one morning he's surprised to find that while he's still in the Village, he's no longer in his apartment and there have been some rather drastic changes made while he lay resting not only to his surroundings but to his very body and habits! He finds that he is now left-handed and that he isn't Number Six anymore, but Number Twelve. Someone who very closely resembles his old self is the new Number Six, and Number Two (Anton Rodgers this time around) is bound and determined to finally break him and get inside his head. The only thing that the real Number Six has to work with is an unusual bruise on his fingernail. Has he finally snapped or is this all an elaborate scheme put into play by Number Two and his minions?
 9. Many Happy Returns - When Number Six wakes up, he finds that the Village is completely empty, everyone has disappeared. Of course, he sees this as the only chance he'll probably ever get to make a break for it and so he puts together a makeshift raft and sets out across the ocean in hopes of finally regaining his freedom and his identity. Unfortunately for Number Six he runs afoul of some smugglers who swipe the few supplies he was able to bring with him and leave him to die out there in the sea. He blacks out and wakes up washed up on the shore, but he manages to pull himself together and make his way back to London. The first thing he does there is head straight to his old flat but someone else, a Mrs. Butterworth (Georgina Cookson), now lives there. She seems nice enough but Number Six's birthday is coming up soon and the surprise she has in store for him won't be to his liking at all.
10. It's Your Funeral - Number Two (Andre Van Gysegham) has carefully arranged a plot to assassinate a man that he no longer has any use for. Number Six finds out about the plot and he intends to expose it but Number Two manages to make him look untrustworthy after he comes to him with the details not realizing that he's behind it all. Soon, a new Number Two (Derren Nesbitt) arrives in the Village and Number Six figures out that he's been had. What Number Six doesn't realize is that the man he thought was going to be knocked off is not the intended target at all.
11. A Change of Mind - Once again, Number Six is set up when two local toughs start a fight with him and he's forced to defend himself against them. He's brought in front of a committee made up of a few different residents and they all agree that he is without a doubt 'unmutual.' They sentence him to undergo some social conditioning procedures but those in charge pull yet another trick on him by making him think that he's had the treatment when really he hasn't, as they want to make sure that the information in his head stays intact. When Number Six clues in to this, he tries to talk the Doctor (George Pravda) into helping him with his plan to get back at Number Two (this time played by John Sharp).
12. Hammer Into Anvil - Number Two (Patrick Cargill) drives a young woman to the point of suicide and Number Six swears that he will avenge her death. Number Two, however, tells Number Six that if he pushes too far that he will 'hammer' him if he has to. In order to mess with Number Two's head, Number Six comes up with a clever plan in which he tries to convince Number Two that he is in actuality Agent D6 and that he still reports to X04. Not sure what to think of this, Number Two once again tries to break Number Six to get the information he wants so badly.
13. Do Not Foresake Me Oh My Darling - In this particularly complex episode, a scientist named Professor Seltzman (Hugo Schuster) disappears. The people who run the Village want him back and so they transfer Number Six's brain into the body of another man and send him out to get him back. Number Six wakes up in London in his old flat and finds that no one he encounters will believe that he is who he is thanks to the fact that he looks different so he sets out to find Seltzman solo. He traces him to Austria and when he does, and he finds out why he left, he tries to convince him to help him get things back to normal.
14. Living In Harmony - In another exceptionally bizarre episode, Number Six winds up in an old western town where he finds his way into becoming the town sheriff where his first order of business is to help out a lady at a saloon named Cathy (Valerie French). He opts not to carry a pistol as most cowboys would, until some of the inhabitants start killing each other off and he's forced to pick up arms against them. A criminal named The Kid (Alexis Kanner) finally causes enough trouble that Number Six has to have a showdown with him, resulting in Number Six being hauled into court where the Judge (David Bauer) just might be the clue that ties things back to the Village.
15. The Girl Who Was Death - An army man named Colonel Hawke-Englishe is understood to have been killed by a scientist named Schnipps (Kenneth Griffith) who has, quite simply, lost his mind. Schnipps' daughter, Sonia (Justine Lord), believes herself to be the incarnation of death itself, will not let anyone get near her father and has rigged their hideout to ensure that anyone who gets in too close will be killed. Number Six is put back into his former position as an agent and has to track down Schnipps before he can launch a rocket into the middle of London which is capable of laying waste to the entire city.
16. Once Upon A Time - Number Two (Leo McKern this time around) has finally realized that he's not going to easily break Number Six and that if he really wants the information out of his head that badly that he's going to have to resort to more drastic measures. In essence, the kid gloves are off. He brings Number Six in for a round of Degree Absolute which is a contest designed to leave one winner and in which the loser forfeits his life. Number Six knows that if he beats Number Two at the contest, he'll finally learn who Number One is and hopefully be able to set things back to normal and get one with his life.
17. Fall Out - The final episode of the series picks up directly where Once Upon A Time left off, and The Controller (Peter Swanwick) is bringing Number Six to meet Number One. He's given back his clothes that were taken from him when he was put in the Village, and he's brought to a huge room where he faces a committee of masked men and women held over by a man dressed as a judge. The judge tells Number Six and the committee that Number Six has passed the tests and is no longer a number but is instead 'sir' which is how he is to be addressed from here on out. Number Forty Eight is brought in front of the court and found guilty of starting a rebellion, and Number Two is later brought in and is resurrected only to be imprisoned with Number Forty Eight. Number Six is given his belongings back and invited to give a speech to the committee who only drown him out by chanting "I" at a deafening volume. He's let in to the basement and then up the stairs where Number One resides, and when Number Six takes off Number One's mask he finds a second mask ,the face of a monkey. When he pulls that off, he sees his own face. Number Six chases Number One but he escapes, leaving him alone in the control room of a massive rocket which he fires up only to cause a panic in the committee chamber room. The rocket launches, Number Six frees Number Two and Number Forty Eight, but they're not going to make it out easily and there's a whole lot more to figure out before Number Six can set things right. -- Number Six finally escapes the Village. Or doesn't he? Or doesn't he?

NOTE: For some reason they release the shows out of order from when they orginally aired. I found the through-line of the show, the foreshadowing of the original order to have much more emotional effect. If you can, try seeing them in the following order (i.e., the original UK broadcast order):
 1. Arrival,  2. The Chimes of Big Ben,  3. A B & C,  4. Free for All,  5. The Schizoid Man,  6. The General,  7. Many Happy Returns,  8. Dance of the Dead,  9. Checkmate, 10. Hammer Into Anvil, 11. It's Your Funeral, 12. A Change of Mind, 13. Do Not Foresake Me Oh My Darling, 14. Living In Harmony, 15. The Girl Who Was Death, 16. Once Upon A Time, 17. Fall Out

User Comment: David Downing (David.H.Downing@comcast.net) from Paoli, PA, 26 October 2003 • Since its initial telecast, back in 1967, this enigmatic classic has evoked every reaction from awe to contempt. Given the amount of serious critical attention THE PRISONER has received, and given that a whole society has been created in its honor, I'd say the awe has won out, and I vehemently agree that THE PRISONER deserves to be honored as one of the truly artistic programs created for commercial television.

However, I can also understand the frustration many viewers have felt. Over the course of its seventeen episodes, this offbeat spy thriller becomes further and further offbeat until it ultimately transforms into surrealistic allegory. I confess I'm not sure whether this transformation was intended as a complete surprise, or whether you were supposed to know where the show was going, but in either case, I think you can better appreciate the series if you can see the earlier episodes as preparation for what's to come.

THE PRISONER's title character is a British secret agent (series creator Patrick McGoohan) who may or may not be SECRET AGENT's John Drake. The story begins with him suddenly and mysteriously resigning, then just as suddenly and mysteriously being rendered unconscious and transported to a place known only as The Village, the location of which is known only to those who run it. The Village is a prison camp, but with all of the amenities of a vacation resort,. Attractive dwellings, shops, restaurants, etc. exist side by side with high-tech methods of keeping order and extracting information from those who won't give it up willingly.

Those who try to escape get to meet Rover, a belligerent weather balloon capable of locomotion, and seemingly of independent thought. It appears (to me anyway) that the authorities can summon Rover, send it away, and give it instructions, but that it acts more or less on its own initiative. Rover deals with fugitives by plastering itself against their faces, rendering them either unconscious or dead, depending on how bad a mood it's in. Twice, we see it haul someone in from the ocean by sucking them up into a whirlpool it creates.

Citizens of The Village, including those in authority, are identified only by numbers. Our protagonist is known only as No. 6 throughout the entire series. The Village is run by No. 2, who in turn reports to an unseen and unidentified No. 1. No. 1 is apparently an unforgiving boss, because No. 2 is always being replaced.

Shortly after he arrives in in the Village, No. 6 is informed, by the reigning No. 2, that he should count on remaining there permanently. If he cooperates, life will be pleasant and he may even be given a position of authority. If he resists -- well, the only restriction they're under is not to damage him permanently. To satisfy his captors, No. 6 need only answer one question: `Why did you resign?' His question in turn is, `Who runs this place? Who is No. 1?'

Most of the episodes deal with No. 6's attempts to escape, and/or his captors' attempts to break him, although there are a few side trips. Several episodes suggest that No. 6's own people may be involved with running The Village. Some of the episodes are fairly straightforward, while others leave you with questions as to exactly what went on. It's important to note that several of the more obscure episodes -- for example, `Free for All' and `Dance of the Dead' -- are among the seven episodes that McGoohan considers essential to the series.

And then we come to the final episode, `Fall Out,' which promises to answer all the burning questions the viewers have been anguishing over for seventeen weeks -- and which so frustrated and angered those viewers back in 1967 that McGoohan had to go into hiding for awhile. Of course, I can't reveal any of the really important details, because, as No. 2 says in the recap that begins most of the episodes, `That would be telling,' and as all of us IMBD contributors know, `telling,' is frowned upon. However, to come back to the point with which I started, you should be prepared for a resolution of an entirely different nature than the one you'll probably be expecting -- a resolution that forces you to rethink your entire concept of the Village, and of the intention of the series. If you aren't ready, you'll be frustrated. If you are, you can accept THE PRISONER is the spirit in which it was offered.

Summary: You MUST come prepared for this enigmatic classic.

[CSW] Once is enough for me.
--- JOYA ---

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