Not a number...

At long last, after recommendations and references from everyone from Novelhead to The Simpsons, I've finally seen The Prisoner. It's taken a few weeks, interspersing the 10 DVDs containing all 17 episodes between other rentals, but this afternoon I finally reached the surreal conclusion to this uncategorizable series. Most refer to it as science fiction, and it was on a television special listing the greatest sci fi series of all time that I first learned of its existence. It transcends the label to be something more though, and is closer to the blend of genres that Lost falls into, not surprising given the similarities. In both cases, our protagonists are marooned on a strange island with some secrets revealed, while others are left for us to decipher. And while the creature on Lost is something dark and ephemeral, the Prisoner is guarded by ”Rover”, a terrifying sphere that roars and envelopes anyone trying to escape.

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

Patrick McGoohan was no stranger to the role of secret agent he played on The Prisoner, already well-known for his part on Danger Man. Even if the series is before your time as it is mine, you might know this song. The Prisoner was about a nameless agent who, upon retiring for reasons unknown, returns home to pack when he's gassed, to awaken in a mysterious place known only as The Village. No one in The Village has a name, and McGoohan is referred to as “Number Six”. Some people have speculated that the Prisoner was in fact John Drake, the same character from Danger Man. McGoohan, who was also considered before Sean Connery for the role of James Bond, still denies that there's a connection. It's interesting to note that the “Secret Agent Man” lyrics include the phrase, “They've given you a number and taken away your name”, which is precisely what happens to The Prisoner.

The Village is a bizarre place, a microcosm of society in which it's impossible to tell which people are fellow prisoners, and which are guards. It is run by an individual named “Number Two”, and nearly every episode featured a different person in this role. Number Two's job was to learn the Prisoner's secrets and find out why he resigned. Psychological torture, hypnotherapy, mind exchanges, body doubles, and even placing him in the old West all fail to break Number Six. With each failure, Number Two is replaced. Colin Gordon manages to remain Number Two for two episodes, and Leo McKern is specifically brought back in the final two episodes to make one last attempt to break McGoohan. I wouldn't spoil the ending even if I could. So many episodes toy with the notion of freedom and reality, tormenting the viewer as well as the Prisoner, it's hard to say if the overall resolution really is what it seems to be. Does the Prisoner ever escape? Why does the Butler, played by the late Angelo Muscat, appear in more episodes than any character with the exception of the star? Is a mechanized door in London of any significance? Who was Number One, really? Like Lost, if you watch all the small details very closely, theories can be formed, but neither the writers nor the stars will ever confirm them.

The Prisoner affected pop culture long before I realized what it was. First there was The Foreigner, a Spider-man villain with apparently NO online profile for me to link to! The Foreigner, created by Peter David, was the ex-husband of Silver Sable, a trained assassin and crime lord, and fond of quoting the Prisoner. I was reading the phrases “Be seeing you” and “That would be telling” years before I saw this show. Marv Wolfman has cited The Prisoner as the inspiration for a large-scale limited comic book series, a project that would ultimately become Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even Iron Maiden was inspired to write a song about it. And as I mentioned earlier, The Simpsons even did a Prisoner-centric episode, that included Rover and McGoohan. The first time I saw that episode, most of the references were lost on me and I thought the writers were on drugs that season. Reading the synopsis now, after having seen The Prisoner, it's pretty funny:

Homer: “Oh no, an anti-escape orb!”
[grabs one of the plastic forks from the boat and pops the orb]
“Huh. That was easy.”

[back in the kidnappers' headquarters]
Number 2: “Why did you think a big balloon would stop people?”
Scientist: “Shut up! That's why!”
—"The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"

If you've seen The Prisoner, let me know your thoughts. What does it all mean? Is it a metaphor for society in general? Are we all nameless cogs in a big machine? If you haven't seen it, and you're a fan of science fiction, spy movies, or things like Lost, definitely check it out some time.