Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

With AMC’s six part mini-series remake of The Prisoner debuting on Sunday night, it’s worth taking a few moments to reflect back on the original series which first appeared on television in 1967.

The star of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, had become a TV icon for his portrayal of international spy John Drake in the series know in Europe as Danger Man and in the United States as Secret Agent. The Prisoner was seen by many as a continuation of the adventures of John Drake, but it was actually McGoohan’s attempt to give a new spin on a character he had grown bored with. With the help of George Markstein, McGoohan created a whole new series based on stories he had heard of former World War II intelligence officers being incarcerated in resort-like prisons because they “knew too much”. He took the concept a step further and added an Orwellian/Kafkaesque feel to the series and threw a facsimile of the John Drake character into this nightmare world.

In the first episode of The Prisoner, the main character (we never find out his actual name) resigns from his position as a British spy then finds himself drugged and kidnapped as he tries to leave town. He wakes up in the picaresque setting of The Village (a resort in North Wales that had also been the setting of a prior Danger Man episode) and is told that he will now be referred to as Number 6 and that all the members of The Village go by their number instead of their names. He is taken to meet Number 2, who governs the day-to-day activities in The Village while Number 1 calls the shots from behind the scenes. Number 2 is tasked with finding out why Number 6 resigned but 6 is resistant and refuses to provide any information to his captives. The series then follows a pattern of revolving Number 2’s trying to break the will of Number 6 and find out the information that he is hiding.

Along with this compelling premise, The Prisoner gave us intricately plotted, engaging stories that overlaid elements of allegory and extensive use of symbolism with the show’s over-arching theme of the individual vs. society. The spy-story backdrop delivered episodes of intrigue that worked on many levels and deconstructed the real world to show the dangers of society and how it can crush individual will if left unchecked. This led to dense and sometimes obtuse episodes that demanded the viewers attention and required multiple viewings to fully comprehend all of the messages intertwined therein. The series also added something that was rare those days in the Science Fiction and Spy genres: drama. The episodes gave us more than just predicaments that the hero had to avert, it gave us serious moral dilemmas that the characters had to wrestle with and in so doing really helped move the genre forward as more than just trite fantasy for younger viewers.

Call it a product of counter-culture, but to this day it still amazes me that a show that demonstrated such palpable contempt for establishment and conformity ever managed to find its way to the temple of conformity that is television. On top of that, the series finale provided one of the most surreal hours ever witnessed on the medium of television. McGoohan wanted to provide an ambiguous ending to the series, and he did just that. And the finale, along with the entire series has generated heated debate for four decades.

It is true that viewers today going back and revisiting the show will find it somewhat dated. Still, it is definitely worth the time to watch the full run of the original series, whether you are seeing it for the first time or making a return trip to the Village. It only lasted seventeen episodes (by design, not network tomfoolery), so it is possible to make it through the entire series in a week or two. You can watch all seventeen episodes of the series online at AMC for free, or a recently released DVD box set collects the series and throws in several extras. So whether you plan on watching the AMC remake or not, definitely make the time to go back and watch the original.

Watch Full Episodes of The Prisoner Online at AMC.com

Go to TV.com for more info on The Prisoner including Episode guides and Cast bios

You can also read extensively about The Prisoner and its following at Wikipedia

Buy the complete series on DVD at Amazon.com: