THE PRISONER 1.1 – "Arrival"

Writers: George Markstein & David Tomblin

Director: Don Chaffey

Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six), Angelo Muscat (The Butler), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Virginia Maskell (The Woman), Guy Doleman (Number Two), Paul Eddington (Cobb), George Baker (The New Number Two), Angelo Muscat (The Butler), Barbara Yu-Ling (Taxi Driver), Stephanie Randall (Maid), Jack Allen (Doctor), Fabia Drake (Welfare Worker), Denis Shaw (Shopkeeper), Oliver MacGreevy (Gardener/Electrician), Frederick Piper (Ex-Admiral), Patsy Smart (Waitress), Christopher Benjamin (Labour Exchange Manager), David Garfield (Hospital Attendant), Peter Brace (1st Guardian), Keith Peacock (2nd Guardian), Fenella Fielding (Bright Morning Radio Announcer)

After resigning from his job, a man wakes up to find himself trapped in "The Village", a strange place populated by eccentric characters. After being re-branded "Number 6", the man comes to realize he's a prisoner...

"I resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped,
indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

-- Number Six (Patrick McGoohan)

ITV4 are repeating this classic series, so I thought it might be interesting to review The Prisoner retrospectively each week. I'm going to try and look objectively at each episode and note its influences on contemporary sci-fi TV/film, and see how well it's withstood the test of time. Obviously, television has seen many changes and technical improvements in the four decades since The Prisoner began, so while there will doubtless be moments where limitations of the era come into play, or its 60s sensibility causes snickering, I'm going to treat it fairly – but through modern eyes.

Arrival is essentially an entire episode dedicated to outlining The Prisoner's premise and introducing Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan), as well as all the idiosyncrasies of the show. To be brief, a crack of thunder starts the show portentously, as extended opening titles show Patrick McGoohan's unnamed character angrily resigning from his job and returning to his London home in a Lotus Seven to pack his things -- not realizing he's been followed by hearse; the occupant of which, a pallbearer, gases his apartment and renders McGoohan's hero unconscious...

He awakens to find himself in a replica of his London flat, situated within "The Village", a curious, cosmopolitan seaside town where everyone dresses in a brightly coloured, vaguely-nautical style. The man, later to be dubbed Number 6, tries to get his bearings – racing around the small village, and coming up against irritatingly vague or unhelpful citizens. A theme park-style map gives non-descriptive names for local landmarks ("The Mountains", "The Sea", etc.), and no map of anything beyond the Village's boundaries is available.

Number 6 returns to the Village's replica of his London flat, where he's invited by telephone to meet Number 2 at the Green Dome. At the Dome, Number 2 (Guy Doleman) is revealed to be a kindly bureaucrat sat on an egg-like chair in a circular room. From their conversation it becomes clear the controllers of The Village have been spying on Number 6 for quite some time -- having created an in-depth dossier on him. The only information they don’t have is the reasoning for Number 6's resignation – but he refuses to give it to them.

Number 2 insists on giving Number 6 the grand tour of the Village facility from the vantage point of a helicopter – explaining that it's a place where former agents come to either retire or be debriefed. Escape is impossible, as evidenced by Number 2's demonstration of a giant, white, balloon-like machine (later to be named "Rover"), which attacks a rebellious Villager and envelops him.

Of course, Number 6 tries to escape later anyway – on foot – but the Rover tracks him down on the beach and smothers him. He wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed next to a man called Cobb (Paul Eddington), who is clearly an old acquaintance of 6's. Cobb has also been incarcerated and seems resigned to his fate here, but before 6 can collude with him to escape, a doctor (Jack Allen) insists on performing some medical tests...

On his way to the testing room, 6 notices people undergoing some form of collective "brainwashing" in a brightly coloured room. Number 6 passes the doctor's tests fine, but returns to his room to find Cobb has committed suicide. He leaves the hospital (now forced to wear Village-style clothing) and goes straight to the Green Dome to confront Number 2 – confused to find that Number 2 is now a different man (George Baker) – a cold, unfriendly, older man.

At Cobb's funeral, Number 6 notices a beautiful woman (Virginia Maskell), who he learns became Cobb's lover after they met in The Village. The Woman reveals that they were working on an escape plan together, and agrees to help Number 6 escape with her instead. She gives him an "electro-pass" (resembling a wristwatch) that will fend off any Rovers, and allow him access to the only way out of The Village: the helicopter.

Later, Number 6 manages to get inside the helicopter thanks to the electro-pass and takes off, flying high above the buildings. Unfortunately, Number 2 and his colleagues are watching his every move on large screens – with one technician assuming remote-control of the chopper and setting it back on terra firma. Number 6 is forced to disembark. Back at the Green Dome, The Woman is revealed as being in cahoots with Number 2, who also finished a discussion with Cobb – who's very much alive and happy to have been of service and "mustn't keep my new masters waiting".

The actual storyline is pretty thin by modern standards, with the introduction of a duplicitous Woman coming too late for it to have much impact. Of course, audiences are more sophisticated now than they were in 1967, so it's worth remembering that the lunacy of the production design (from the fantastic Portmeirion, to the vibrant costumes), together with the unfathomable reason for Number 6's predicament, would have been difficult enough for 60s audiences to grasp – without pasting on too much of a complicated plot.

The result is a neat, efficient and entertaining introduction. It sets up all the basic ingredients to the series with flair, economy, and a surprising level of stylishness. It's easy to imagine the broad changes a contemporized Prisoner series would undergo (as modern life already has vague Orwellian tendencies, so it would undoubtedly be much harsher than a perplexing stay at a day-glo "holiday park"), but The Prisoner's themes are perhaps more relevant today than ever before. And anyway, a prison's still a prison; even if it does have gold bars and crazy murals sprayed on the walls.

There's a kooky charm to seeing McGoohan tear around The Village, past trumpet-playing oddballs and chess-playing sailor-types, before hitching rides on Mini Mokes. It's stylistically very, very 60s. But that's part of its appeal. It all resembles a psychedelic dream you might have after listening to The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album a few too many times.

Patrick McGoohan is a cipher in the role here; intentionally, but I longed for something more human, beyond the desire to just get just of the nut-house. But McGoohan has a superb twitchiness, with his lower-lip forever curling into a half-smile, or perhaps just biting his tongue at the annoyances he's presented with?

From a 2008 perspective, it's good fun to catch little references or ideas that modern shows have borrowed, stolen, reference, or have just been influenced by. The way the Villagers all froze in unison reminded me of a similar scene in The Truman Show (where that film's citizens/actors are brought to a synchronized halt by feedback in their earpieces), and the produce-names stamped on cans in a cupboard have an echo in Lost with that series' DHARMA-issue food.

Overall, The Prisoner is a show you can read a lot into – and have great fun doing so, even if you'll perhaps never know the truth. Unlike similar shows (Lost could be called The Prisoners, couldn't it?), a lot of time has passed since The Prisoner finished. In 41 years, people are still debating its meanings, and its creators have never given definitive answers to every fans' question. Which is as it should be...

The series might look quaint and slightly ridiculous at times, but its sinister cheeriness actually gets progressively more alien and creepy as the decades roll by. It's difficult to see how any of the proposed remakes (UK TV update or US big-budget film) could ever improve on the fundamentals here – beyond making it slicker, faster, with CGI Rovers, blah-blah. It’s still a very prescient show; although I'm not sure we've heeded its late-60s warning about people becoming imprisoned by the whim of government and advertisers...

Trivia

-- At the press conference to launch the show, Patrick McGoohan answered all the media's questions from behind some prison bars.

-- Ron Grainer, the composer of the show's theme tune, also composed the themes to Steptoe & Son and Doctor Who.

-- Number 6's birthday (19 March 1928) is the same as actor Patrick McGoohan's.

-- The catchphrase "be seeing you" was also a catchphrase in Danger Man, which also starred Patrick McGoohan. It's long been speculated that Number Six's real identity is John Drake -- the special NATO operative from Danger Man. Official novels of The Prisoner often refer to Number Six as "John Drake". However, star/co-creator Patrick McGoohan vehemently denies that Six and Drake are the same person.

-- The Portmeirion building used as Number Six's house sells merchandise for The Prisoner these days.

-- The world television premiere was actually in Canada (on CBC), just prior to the UK airing.

-- Number Six's distinctive black-white uniform was based on the sports uniforms worn by students of Mill Hill School in London, which Patrick McGoohan lived opposite whilst developing the show.


First Aired: 1 October 1967