The Prisoner Challenge: Living in Harmony

One of the strongest episodes of the series, Living in Harmony stands apart from the rest of the series in more ways than one, firstly by managing to tell the whole story of The Prisoner in a single episode, and secondly by being set - for the most part - in a different time and place; the American 'Wild West' instead of the Cold War Village.

There are not even any of the usual Prisoner titles. It begins with a sheriff (McGoohan) resigning by handing in his badge and gun to a Marshal, a direct parallel to the resignation scene shown as part of the usual title sequence.

Ambushed by a group of men, knocked out and taken away slung over a horse, 'Living in Harmony' appears on screen as the only title. "Harmony" is the name of the town (village?) that the former sheriff is taken to.

"Welcome to Harmony, stranger," is the first dialogue of the episode.

The music stops when he enters the saloon. Now I'm no expert on westerns, but I know this for one of the clichés of that genre, and it is already clear by this point that this is being played as an all-out western, to be taken as such just as much as it is an episode of The Prisoner.

Valerie French as Kathy

David Bauer as the Judge

Alexis Kanner as the Kid

There he meets Kathy, the friendly barmaid, the corrupt Judge that runs Harmony from his table in the saloon, and the creepy Kid, one of the Judge's henchmen and the best gunfighter in the town. The Judge is quick to offer the former sheriff a position in Harmony.

"I'm not for hire."

"You turned in your badge..."

"And my gun."

"What were your reasons?"

"My reasons."

"You've already taken a job?" the Judge assumes. "Who with?"

"'With whom?'" The question is evaded, not denied.

"Look, I'm offering you a job. Harmony's a good town."

He refuses but, just as with the Village, leaving Harmony isn't easy. When the townsfolk turn ugly he's taken into "protective custody" by the Judge, locked up, and another man is lynched in his place.

It's an ugly, menacing scene that reminds me of the closing moments of Dance of the Dead when the screaming mob of villagers pursue Number 6.

A first abortive escape attempt with the assistance of Kathy - sister of the lynched man - parallels the ending of Arrival. But when he is brought back to Harmony the Judge puts Kathy on trial for helping him escape, and she is found guilty by this crooked court. The price for releasing her is the former sheriff has to work for the Judge.

He doesn't give in straight away, but the Judge applies more pressure by putting the Kid in charge of the jail, with the unspoken threat that Kathy isn't safe from his unwelcome attentions.

Reluctantly he takes up the post of sheriff once more, but at the same time refuses to touch the gun the Judge offers him:

"I agreed to wear the badge but not the gun."

"It's a start," admits the Judge. "You'll find this a rough town without a gun."

But even when the Judge sends his men to beat up the new sheriff, he still refuses to carry a gun to protect himself.

Meanwhile the Kid is showing signs of becoming ever more unhinged and obsessed, killing a saloon patron for being over-friendly with Kathy, the object of the Kid's obsession.

When the Judge has a man killed for talking to the sheriff, it doesn't provoke the sheriff in the way the judge hoped - instead of pushing him into taking up the gun, he plans an escape with Kathy. But while he sets things up by taking out the Judge's lookouts on the edge of town, the Kid murders Kathy in a jealous rage.

When Kathy fails to make their rendezvous, the sheriff returns to town and sees the Kid leaving the scene of the crime. Finding Kathy's body, finally he is pushed into taking up the gun the Judge provided for him.

In a shootout the Kid is finally out-drawn. The sheriff goes into the saloon and the Judge congratulates him. But Kathy's death means the Judge has nothing holding the sheriff to him, and he informs the Judge he has quit. This provokes a revealing response from the Judge:

"Nobody walks out on me. I'm not letting you join some other outfit. I'll kill you first."

The former sheriff out-shoots three of the Judge's men before he is shot by the Judge himself. Clutching his head, he collapses to the ground. It seems as though the Judge has carried out his threat to kill the man rather than let him leave Harmony.

But this is not the end of the episode. Number 6, his hands to his head, wakes up. He is in the saloon, lying where the sheriff collapsed, being confronted by a cardboard cut-out of the Judge. He runs around the abandoned town of Harmony until he hears familiar Village music and soon finds himself back in familiar surroundings.

In Number 2's house he sees the Judge (Number 2), the Kid (Number 8) and Kathy (Number 22), alive and well. When he departs these three begin their recriminations about the failure of their latest project. But while Number 2 and Number 8 argue, Number 22 is simply upset.

She leaves and makes her way to the Harmony set, the scene of 'her' murder. But Number 8 is there waiting for her. Calling her "Kathy," he strangles her. Number 6, who is looking around the Harmony set, hears her scream and comes running. He punches out Number 8, but Number 22 dies in his arms saying only "I wish it had been real."

Number 2 arrives on the scene and Number 8, calling him "Judge," kills himself in front of Number 2. Number 6 walks out of the room, leaving Number 2 there with two bodies, and the saloon doors swing closed behind him.

This is just a brilliant episode - an exceptional story played straight with four outstanding performances at the centre. It works as both a western (up to the point at which the sheriff is killed) and as part of The Prisoner series once the 'Virtual Reality' aspect is revealed.

The execution of the Virtual Reality, with cardboard cut-outs and strange electronic headsets contrasting with a very realistic set to stage it within, looks quite dated now, but I can't help but think that this must have been very ahead of its time in 1967, with VR being at about the level of the mindswapping of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling in terms of sci-fi concepts.

It is the performance of the actors that sells its plausibility to me - however the VR looks, the idea that they could get so caught up in their roles that it results in two deaths is conveyed very believably. Alexis Kanner in particular I would single out - as the Kid he was creepy and menacing and had no lines, but when he speaks as Number 8 just the way he says "Kathy" conveys everything it needs to about his fucked up mind.

I am given to understand, though it is difficult for me to appreciate in 2010, that this episode hit so close to home in the USA that it was banned at the time of The Prisoner's first showing there, due to the Vietnam war and the political situation of the time and the strong anti-war message of this story.

I would say that Living in Harmony has the same message as the rest of The Prisoner, but it is not difficult to see why this one episode would be singled out - more than any other by far, it speaks the language that Americans would be familiar with, westerns being far more a part of their culture than in the UK. And so it would hit much closer to home than episodes set in and around a welsh village...

For me the cleverest part of the episode is the way the western story parallels the overall story of The Prisoner, from his resignation to his death - a point still to come for Number 6 but a possible future nonetheless. The fate of the sheriff is surely the fate that awaits Number 6 if he resists the Village indefinitely.

One of my two favourite episodes, second only to one...

Next: The Girl Who Was Death

The Prisoner Challenge: Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

This is a potentially interesting story that seems to promise to reveal what Number 6 was doing before he resigned, giving an insight into his character by having him played by another actor for the great majority of the episode.

But the introduction of Janet - Number 6's fiancée - to the series goes so contrary to everything established previously about Number 6's character that this, combined with the absence of McGoohan, does not feel like The Prisoner we know.

Nigel Stock does an admirable job in Number 6's place but he is working against the material and he is constantly in the shadow of McGoohan's portrayal. He gets a couple of strong scenes, first of which is the scene where he confronts Sir Charles Portland, who seems to be Number 6's former boss and father of his fiancée (never mind that he, like Janet, has never been referred to before in the series).

Sir Charles counters every attempt by Number-6-in-the-Colonel's-body to convince that he really is Number 6 with the argument that any information he provides to establish his identity could have been extracted from the 'real' Number 6 and learned by him.

Sir Charles's skepticism is contrasted with Janet's faith in Number-6-in-the-Colonel's-body, in a moving scene where he is forced to rely on her trust in him even though he looks different. This pays off for him.

As a one-off spy/sci-fi drama this could have been decent, looking at the question of identity and how something like Seltzman's machine would affect it, and the role of trust in such a scenario, but to me it doesn't fit The Prisoner.

The nadir of the episode, production-wise, must be the ridiculously bad wig on Nigel Stock's stunt-double during the fight scene before he and Seltzman get taken to the Village. I don't normally notice things like this but this was a particularly obvious example.

On the positive side there are a couple of amusing in-jokes, such as Sir Charles asking to see slide "number 6" during the pre-titles sequence, or the man in Austria greeting Number-6-in-the-Colonel's-body with "Oh, welcome to the village sir."

The twist at the end - the three-card-trick performed by Seltzman with three minds - is clever, but again I have to come back to the fact that in the context of The Prisoner, as established by previous episodes (as far back as Arrival), Seltzman-in-the-Colonel's-body is hardly going to remain free for long.

This brings to an end a run of weaker episodes. I think The Prisoner was perhaps losing its way somewhat by this point, even if a lot of the flaws with Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling can be put down to the lack of McGoohan both in front of and behind the camera - I can't imagine him approving of the inclusion of a fiancée for Number 6, even if the only time they kiss it's another man doing the kissing.

Next: Living in Harmony

Dear Ceiling Cat

For Caturday I would like a Forever Active Mobility Vehicle.

I don't mind about getting two for the price of one, or about free insurance or 3 year warranty, but can the free home demonstration please be done by Paul Darrow?

Yours sincerely,

Big Gay Longcat

The Prisoner Challenge: A Change of Mind

This episode has a lot of potential but I think the whole is less than the sum of its parts because the main plot is the weak link - Number 6 foils the plan of John Sharp's Number 2 and turns it against him far too easily.

It begins well, with scenes showing us the tools and techniques the Village uses to enforce conformity among the villagers. The supposedly impartial committee, which is of course controlled by Number 2 from behind the scenes however much he publicly denies it, declares Number 6 "unmutual" (a fabulous term and the most memorable part of the episode) and he is ostracised by the villagers.

It goes wrong when we see the next step beyond being declared unmutual - "instant social conversion," an operation to remove aggression from a person rendering them permanently incapable of rebellion.

But Number 6 is too valuable to the Village for something permanent like this to be done to him, so the operation is faked using drugs with the intention that Number 6 will think he has been 'converted.'

But he sees through this really easily, and swaps his drugged tea with Number 86's. While she is drugged and suggestible Number 6 hypnotises her into turning the tables on Number 2 and declaring him to be unmutual at a public meeting.

I think it may be the case that the writer knew what he wanted to achieve, he just didn't quite have the skill to pull it off. Number 2 being hoist by his own petard allows Number 6 to win against him with a sense of poetic justice, but the execution of this plot element is just not up to the high standard I would expect of The Prisoner as a whole.

The real strength of this episode are in its themes - the pressure to conform in society and the subversion of otherwise benevolent groups by corrupt elements, both of which are as relevant today as they must have been in 1967.

The stand-out scenes for me are when Number 6 defies the committee and the 'social group' they send him to, for which he suffers the consequence of being declared unmutual. And, of course, that chilling word itself...

Next: Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

The Snows of Terror

I watched lots of Doctor Who last night, all early stories with William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Susan and Ian and Barbara with him. Duncan was having another 'Doctor Who Night.'

First we watched An Unearthly Child, when the Doctor met Ian and Barbara for the first time. They didn't like each other at first but they became friends after escaping from cavemannys and Ian was very clever at making fire. Cats don't know how to make fire - that's what mannys are for!

Second was The Aztecs, which had a great baddy in it, he was like Richard III from Shakespeare with his plotting. Barbara wanted him to lose his job as High Priest of Sacrifice but he just wanted to keep it and the mannys he sacrificed liked being sacrificed anyway. He won in the end but the Doctor and the rest got away in the TARDIS.

Last was the one I had been looking forward to - Keys of Marinus by Terry Nation! It was a great story full of exciting bits and a baddy called Tarron (which sounds like Tarrant!) who wasn't a baddy in the end. They had teleport bracelets like in Blakes 7 and all the mannys who were watching with me were shouting at the mannys in the TV for them to escape the danger by using them but they couldn't hear because they were in the TV.

I will do a full review of Keys of Marinus some time. I called this post The Snows of Terror because that is the name of one of the episodes of Keys of Marinus, but also because during the night it was snowing a lot outside our home and there was lightning and thunder and it was very scary for us cats.

Don't worry, we are alright now since Scary Cat went "rar" and scared the lightning away.

Nom

"Thus it was that Men called King Felagund, whom they first met of all the Eldar, Nom, that is Wisdom, in the language of that people, and after him they named his folk Nomin, the Wise."

-- Quenta Silmarillion

I has another game