Introduction, Background & Context

In the premier episode we’re introduced to all the elements of the show. We meet Number Six and Number Two, get a quick geography lesson on important Village locations and meet the cosmopolitan yet oddly sedate citizens. The Village looks like a generic seaside resort, its stores are stocked with Village-branded products, everyone wears the same style clothes but there’s a palpable sense of mistrust and fear. Everything in The Village seems scripted and staged but no one is sure who’s running the show.

It’s election time in The Village, but how can there be free and open elections in a totalitarian state? In a story that remains surprisingly relevant, Free For All finds Number Six coerced into becoming a candidate in what he thinks is a mock election, running against Number Two for The Village’s top post. Along the way we get an examination of propaganda techniques, the emptiness of political rhetoric, the role of the press in shaping public opinion and the notion that democracy alone doesn’t make a society free.

The gloves really come off in Dance of the Dead as Number Six is drugged and subjected to a torturous interrogation machine each night. Between sessions, Six encounters a fellow spy whom he knew before being brought to The Village and who may hold the key to escape. The action takes place against a surreal backdrop as the villagers throw a carnival and every citizen except Number Six dons an assigned costume. From the role of the justice system within a totalitarian society to the place, both physical and mental, of the individual within it, Dance of the Dead represents a significant ramping up of the attack on Number Six’s sense of identity.

The central mystery of The Prisoner is trying to figure out who are the jailers and who the jailed, who are the pawns and who are the kings and queens. Checkmate takes this issue on when a villager becomes a rogue element and needs to be reprogrammed. Studying the man closely, Number Six devises a methodology that he thinks will expose the jailers. Using it, he enlists several other villagers in an escape bid. But how do you conspire against a society that is itself rooted in conspiracy?

If Dance of the Dead showed that the rulers of The Village were willing to go to extreme mental and physical ends, The Chimes of Big Ben shows the extent of their power and influence. Number Six reluctantly enlists the aid of a recently arrived female Soviet agent and together they concoct a plan. As part of a village art show, Number Six builds an expressionist sculpture out of wood and rope that he calls “Escape.” The title is more than symbolic. After the show he spirits the sculpture away to the beach where he reconfigures it as a crude sailboat and the two take to the open water. Obviously Number Six will wind up back in the village before the episode is over, but the journey he takes and the people he encounters will reveal exactly how deep and wide the conspiracy runs.

Up until this point the various Number Twos have been confident and self-assured but A, B and C presents a turning point. The new Number Two is obviously under a lot of stress. We get the impression that his boss (Number One?) is becoming impatient. Anxious to please, Number Two orders drastic measures. In the show’s most Jungian plot, Number Six is drugged and connected to a machine that is able to access his deepest unconscious mind. Using images and sound, Number Two is able to suggest situations, scenarios and people that are familiar to Number Six in the hope that his dreaming mind will drop its guard and reveal the secret of his resignation. At first it seems to be working, but is it possible that Number Six is in complete control of even the innermost reaches of his mind?

In another first for the series, the same Number Two returns for another go at our hero. This time, a shadowy figure known as The General has developed a speed teaching process that’s being used on all the villagers. A brief, hypnotic television broadcast fills their heads with facts and dates--but is that all the machine is doing? When Number Six discovers evidence of The General’s own rebellion, he goes undercover to try and put an end to the community-wide mind-control experiment. This episode touches on the difference between rote and experiential learning, on the potentially destructive role of television in society and the idea of the education system being used to support a political agenda.

Introduction & Episodes 1 - 7 | Episodes 8 - 17 & Features