The Prisoner - 60's TV Genius

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I have recently picked up this 17 episode mini series in a DVD box set, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a little cerebral, thought provoking television. So many disparate elements converge in this work of art, which is what it is. The story revolves around a man who worked for the British (or possibly trans-continental) intelligence sevice who suddenly resigns, only to be kidnapped and placed in an internment camp known only as "The Village", which is actually a little coastal holiday resort in Wales called Portmeirion. This man who is kidnapped is then known by his captors as "Number 6", cue the infamous retort, "I am not a number, I am a free man!". The intelligence network/cabal then set about extracting information from No. 6, played impeccably by the actor and series creator Patrick McGoohan, through various nefarious practices such as agent placement (false friends), drugs, hypnosis, torture, beatings, mind control (very Greenbaum) and even Matrix style virtual world scenarios.

Most spooky is the tracking and capture device that pursues any prospective escapee; called the Rover, it is.....a weather balloon which absorbs the person in question. Call me a weaver, but I find the irony of this image compelling. How much did McGoohan know?

The Village is a brain washed community of oddfellows living in captivity, although most are unconscious of it; each is assigned a number, not a name. They have a false society, false democracy (the election episode is painfully hilarious) and persons within the community can be manipulated with a turn of a switch, as half of them are agents. McGoohan simmers with vengeance throughout as he employs his iron will in resisting the revolving door of No. 2's (Village network controllers) endless plans and schemes to break him and get him back "in the family".

This is pure dystopian genius, with some beautifully subtle touches, which also transcends the need for happy endings. McGoohan was a realist who was quoted in the press in the sixties as saying "freedom is a myth". Watch for the villagers with their curious hand gesture, which I subsequently discovered was the sign of the fish, a greeting gesture allegedly used by the early Christians, followed by the parting expression, "Be seeing you". So creepy at times it's untrue.

I will not spoil this for anyone who hasn't seen it in completion, but it gets pretty beserk by the time we get to the final episode - watch out. It was so controversial at the time that McGoohan went into hiding for a while, and I think he lives in America now, doing the occasional "Colombo" show. His place in history is well earned. I have massive respect for him.

If anyone has seen this series I would love to hear your thoughts as this for me is as good as mainstream entertainment gets; so hard to believe that it went out at prime time in the late sixties. The X-files creator Chris Carter must have loved this.
 
I really like the series too. And don't we all live in the "Village". If I remember Patrick McGoohan was offered the role as Bond, but declined on moral? grounds, and pursued his own series instead.

It also reminds me of similar series, "Nowhere Man", telling a story of a man whose life simply got "erased" within a few minutes, after which, not even his wife or family claim to recognize him, and a mysterious omnipresent "They" chasing him. In a similar way as in the Prisoner, they go to extremes in trying to break him, and getting him to reveal where he has hidden the negatives to a certain war time picture he has taken. He is again relentless in his search for "the truth" about these events.

There is more than meets the eye here too, but similar in both series is that "they" want these people to give something up voluntarily.. be it by breaking them, or by tricking them. Kind of like the psychopath who manipulates his victims to be "willing" food. I will not speculate any more if anyone hasn't seen the series, but unfortunately "They" only allowed for one season of nowhere man to be produced, and the series ends in a cliffhanger.. that also serves a somewhat decent ending.
 
I've been after this series for awhile having heard about it often from some old school geeks. Thanks for the tip, I'll find out it if it is available downunder.
 
Excellent point; the planet has been referred to as a global village too many times now for this to be coincidence. Most of the people you meet out and about, or if you work with the general public, wear that glazed look so reminiscent of the villagers. It's just so damn obvious, the only frustration now is in trying to debug folks through the fine art of conversation, allowing for free will of course. Nobodys' kingdom can be taken by force, after all.

This Nowhere Man series sounds interesting; I'll have to check it out once I've replenished my meagre funds. Interestingly, I've noticed a great many plain white vans (or ROVERS) parked around the vicinity of my home in recent months; it began the very morning I received my copy of the Dolan UFO book in the post, although on that occasion it was a blue car with tinted windows (full strength) only at the rear. It's pretty regular now, but they calmly roll off as soon as I peer through the living room window. Anger is a gift, fear is but a lull. There's no turning back now, as if I'd even want to.

You're right about McGoohan and the Bond issue. What a man! Makes me want to slap Daniel Craig with a wet fish. Mainstream "art" is for corperate lackeys; no-one with a conscience need apply.

I sincerely hope the corperate hogs don't try to make one of their Stalinist revisionist versions of these fine shows, as was recently done to the awesome "Wicker Man". From Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee to.....Nicholas Cage!! Ahhh....the law of diminishing returns. The first one features the star of David as a pagan symbol of ritual sacrifice, the remake is all pentagrams if the trailer is anything to go by. I may rent it out along with a sick bag at some point; can you get sick bags on rental?
 
Johnno, it should cost no more than about thirty notes or so (exchange rate permitting, natch) if you have a look on amazon. It is more than worth the expenditure!!!
 
Johnno said:
I've been after this series for awhile having heard about it often from some old school geeks. Thanks for the tip, I'll find out it if it is available downunder.
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http://www.dvdorchard.com.au/Product.asp?PND=104130&TP=&CS=&LN=129550

It is available in your neck of the woods in Region 4. Its a bit pricy though compared to the Region 1 on Amazon (even taking into account the exchange rate).

Not an aussy web shopping guru, but it is to be had, so nose around.
 
rs said:
Johnno said:
I've been after this series for awhile having heard about it often from some old school geeks. Thanks for the tip, I'll find out it if it is available downunder.
Click to expand...
http://www.dvdorchard.com.au/Product.asp?PND=104130&TP=&CS=&LN=129550

It is available in your neck of the woods in Region 4. Its a bit pricy though compared to the Region 1 on Amazon (even taking into account the exchange rate).

Not an aussy web shopping guru, but it is to be had, so nose around.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that!

Such is life downunder when it comes to anythink vaguely technical.........from the humble can opener to a Cray supercomputer. We're a long way away so freight is pricey and get slugged with import and added taxes.

I've never really understood the Zone encoding, I think it was some sort of piracy control feature but all it seems to do is cause aggravation.
 
I sincerely hope the corperate hogs don't try to make one of their Stalinist revisionist versions of these fine shows, as was recently done to the awesome "Wicker Man"
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Hmm, yes. Rarely do they succeed in making good remakes. They often tend to be bloated, and somewhat "soulless". Well, I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but can't come up with any, off the top of my head.

I've never really understood the Zone encoding, I think it was some sort of piracy control feature but all it seems to do is cause aggravation.
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I think it has more to with controlling the market, and companies making more money, than with piracy. Free markets are only "free" in ways that suits business.

Obviously many hardware manufacterers think the zone coding is a bit daft too. I remember my old computer dvd-drive only required me to remove a jumper in order to make it region free. A lot of external players are also sold as region 0, being able to play all region dvd:s, or some just require you to enter a code on your remote, to achive this. I guess patching your firmware driver should also work, but maybe a bit riskier. But if I remember correctly, most, if not all DVD players sold in Australia should be region free? Doing a google search I also found statements like this:

"In Australia enforcement of region coding has actually been deemed anti-competetive and illegal by the ACCC (Australian Consumer and Competition Commission). "
 
Tomas said:
I've never really understood the Zone encoding, I think it was some sort of piracy control feature but all it seems to do is cause aggravation.
Click to expand...
I think it has more to with controlling the market, and companies making more money, than with piracy. Free markets are only "free" in ways that suits business.

Obviously many hardware manufacterers think the zone coding is a bit daft too. I remember my old computer dvd-drive only required me to remove a jumper in order to make it region free. A lot of external players are also sold as region 0, being able to play all region dvd:s, or some just require you to enter a code on your remote, to achive this. I guess patching your firmware driver should also work, but maybe a bit riskier. But if I remember correctly, most, if not all DVD players sold in Australia should be region free? Doing a google search I also found statements like this:

"In Australia enforcement of region coding has actually been deemed anti-competetive and illegal by the ACCC (Australian Consumer and Competition Commission). "
Click to expand...
The whole point behind region coding is that a DVD to be sold in the USA will retail for $20 (for example). Now if you want to sell the same DVD in China, it is like a whole day's pay, so the DVD market in China would not exist. So they sell the exact same DVD in China for $2. The media industry presumes that a few dollars from China is better than no dollars from China.

The pharmaceutical industry takes the same tactic and the its the same logic behind why two people sitting next to each other on an airplane can have paid radically different amounts for the same seat. It is euphemistically refered to as "yield management" - screw the customer for as much screwing as they will tolerate.

Now what is to stop you, living in good ole' USA from buying the DVD in China for $2 and "stiffing" the media industry out of their well deserved $18 profit?

Region codes.

Australia is in Region 4 (same as Central and South America, go figure). There are very few places that enforce region free, New Zealand is one. All Kiwi players are region free by law. They are also PAL which is why Americans don't flock to New Zealand to buy players.

Needless to say, this law ENRAGES the media industry, so their solution is to change the DVD standard so that region encoded disks will not play on region free players (which, by the way, violates the whole definition of "region free").

BTW, a way around this is to have several computers. A little known secret about computer based DVD software is that "out of the box" it is region free simply because the software has no reliable way to determine where you live. After you start playing DVDs, it figures out that "you have played 9 of the last 10 DVDs from Region 1" so it thereafter enforces Region 1.

You could have 7 computers, each "trained" to play a region and you would be able to play any DVD from anywhere.

The computer industry would really like it if you bought 7 computers... :O
 
The Prisoner,WOW i remember it use to be shown on a sunday afternoon in the 60s when i was but a mere whippersnapper (child) Never missed an episode.My parents visited the actual village ,which is in Port Merrion in Wales.One can actually do a touristy thing there.I think patrick Magoohan "Number 6" was once offered the part of James Bond and turned it down.

"Rover" the giant bubble that came out of the water if you tried to escape the village was very scary indeed.

Well worth getting a hold of if possable.
 
Great points, rs; my laptop DVD player is currently screwed up after I mistakenly put a region 4 Bill Hicks disc in there, and the screen just went black. Damn.

There are some nice little snippets of trivia related to The Prisoner. The iconography of the penny farthing bicycle represents McGoohan's mistrust of modern technological development, a la Gurdjieff. He felt we were becoming slaves to our own designs. An old insight, but truth is ageless.

McGoohan also composed the awesome theme tune via the oldest instrument known to man....the fine art of whistling. Whistling is cool, and may the geek inherit the earth, if he be pure.

Episode 5, "The Schizoid Man" is a remarkable exploration of identity and how it can be screwed around with by "thieves in the night".

In all seventeen episodes there is a wonderful opportunity to view the pathocratic mindset by way of the words and deeds of the repective No. 2's....the milk drinking man is particularly sinister, while Leo McKern is in full RSC fiendo mondo mode in episodes 2, 16 and 17, if I remember correctly.

Apparently the No. 6 cypher was McGoohan in "revelations" mode. He was, and no doubt still is a mighty intellect with spirit to match.

I think I'm going to watch an episode now; it's one of the few reasons to use my television set now that the laptop player is buggered. Oh well.

rabbit, it shames me to say that i have yet to visit Portmeirion, but I will soon.
 
I liked the series, but found it tiresome and going nowhere after about nine or ten episodes. Not sure where it could have gone had it continued. It does open the mind to questions and brings up ideas that are incredible to most, though.
 
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