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

I has a game

The Prisoner Challenge: It's Your Funeral

"I won't go for it! Whatever it is. So you may as well stop trying."

"We never stop, Number 6."

In his red dressing gown and glasses, looking more than a little like a Gerry Anderson puppet, this is a fabulous entrance for Derren Nesbitt as Number 2. Or should I say Acting Number 2?

I find this episode combines a slow and padded first half with a complex and interesting second half. And when I say "padded" I really mean it - this is the second (and thankfully last) appearance of 'Kosho' in the series.

The plot begins with Number 6 learning about the 'Jammers' - a group of villagers who have made so much of a nuisance of themselves by wasting the Village guardians' time with false reports or escape attempts that they are no longer believed or even closely monitored.

While Number 6 plays Kosho, Acting Number 2's agent sabotages his watch so Number 6 will visit the Village clockmaker's shop and so get drawn in to Acting Number 2's plan. Number 6 sees the clockmaker is constructing a bomb, and joins his daughter (the clockmaker's, not Number 6's) in trying to dissuade the clockmaker from using it to assassinate Number 2.

When the old man remains adamant Number 6 goes straight to Acting Number 2, who claims not to believe Number 6 because the clockmaker is a known Jammer - though really he is filming the entire scene for use later in his plan.

Number 6, oblivious to the part he is playing so well in Acting Number 2's plan, gathers more evidence - finding out that the bomb will be hidden in Number 2's 'seal of office' - and then returns to Number 2's house, where he finds a new Number 2 (the first time this has happened mid-episode since Arrival).

Andre van Gyseghem plays the other Number 2 in this story, an older man who contrasts nicely with Derren Nesbitt's younger version impatiently waiting in the wings for the old man to make way for him.

It turns out that this old Number 2 has not taken over from Acting Number 2 in the way Number 2's have changed before - in a way not seen before and not seen again in the series, he is Number 2 and Acting Number 2 was only temporarily occupying the position while the old Number 2 was away from the Village.

It is not made clear to the viewer (perhaps deliberately so) if this arrangement is a common occurrence in the Village or what this means for other Number 2's we have seen in other episodes - perhaps they were all Acting Number 2s just filling in for this Number 2?

Whatever the arrangement, Number 6 seems to accept it at face value. The old Number 2 has seen all of the films prepared by Acting Number 2 of Number 6 warning Acting Number 2 (and two other Acting Number 2s whom we have not seen before edited together with film of Number 6).

Number 6 has been set up to look like a Jammer. Difficult as it is to believe that the Village would ever discount one of Number 6's escape attempts as a hoax, he has been successfully framed as a man who cries 'wolf' by warning each Number 2 about fictitious assassination attempts.

But this Number 2 is still suspicious enough to gather his own information and, by the time Number 6 next visits him, has come to terms with the truth:

"Tomorrow, after I've handed over office, I'm to be assassinated."

"For 'assassinated' substitute 'executed'."

"Since it's arranged by my own people you mean?"

"You don't mind?"

"Well of course I mind. It's just that... well, I never thought it would happen to me."

With this self-pity and seeming sympathy for the innocent people who will be blamed for the murder and punished in reprisals, this Number 2 comes across as sympathetic - the first time a Number 2 has been anything other than Number 6's scheming opponent. Contrast the old Number 2 with the slimy and devious Acting Number 2, who fills this role in It's Your Funeral.

At the ceremony both Number 2s are visibly nervous. The old Number 2 understandably so, as he knows he has a bomb on a chain around his neck. Acting Number 2 is also nervous for his future depends on the success of his plan, as confirmed by his superior (Number 1?) in a 'phone call. As always we hear only Number 2's side of the conversation.

Having taken a long time to really get going, the plot is then resolved very quickly - Number 6 finds the clockmaker and obtains the detonator from him. Acting Number 2's henchman tries to get it from Number 6 but he is too late because old Number 2 has passed the seal of office to his successor. 'Acting' Number 2 no longer, now he is nervous for a whole new set of reasons.

Number 6 passes the detonator to the now-retired Number 2 as his 'passport' and blathers at the new Number 2 - preventing him from taking the seal from around his neck - long enough for the old Number 2 to make his escape by helicopter.

"Be seeing you... won't I?" are Number 6's final words to the new Number 2.

While this may have made a good adventure story in its own right, there's something unsatisfying to me about the way this episode doesn't fit well in the series as a whole.

Andre van Gyseghem's old Number 2 is played as sympathetic and almost benevolent, as far from Mary Morris's Number 2 in Dance of the Dead as I can imagine. Once he appears and Number 6 sees it is him that is due to be assassinated - and not Acting Number 2 - his claims that he is only saving Number 2's life to protect the innocent villagers don't ring true to me.

It seems to me that either the old Number 2 must have done just as much spying, kidnapping, brainwashing, etc. as any other Number 2, or else he was never really Number 2 at all - just part of the real Number 2's plan - but neither of these are supported by any evidence on screen. Certainly Number 6 accepts him as Number 2 - had he seen him before, off-screen, before the Acting Number 2 replaced him?

Then there are the Jammers. Unless we are to believe they don't really exist except as part of Number 2's plan for this story, they don't fit in well with the way the Village seems to work in just about every other episode - surveillance is near-total, any dissension is ruthlessly suppressed, and any hint of an escape attempt is instantly crushed. Why would the Jammers be allowed to exist?

It seems as though the answer to this is that they have been infiltrated by Village agents and are occasionally made use of in plans such as this one - which would be a nice idea if it worked, but again we come back to the question of why then do they feature in this episode and not any others?

While ambiguity is often a strength in The Prisoner, here I think it just serves to make this episode less enjoyable. It is also very unevenly paced, as I have already mentioned, which doesn't help it. Overall: unsatisfying, one of the weaker episodes of The Prisoner.

Derren Nesbitt's great in it, but frankly I'd rather watch him and McGoohan in the Danger Man episode Sting in the Tail.

Next: A Change of Mind

The Prisoner Challenge: Hammer Into Anvil

Patrick Cargill, who had already been in The Prisoner as Thorpe in Many Happy Returns (playing the same man maybe?) is Number 2, and this is his episode as much as it is McGoohan's, as this is the one where Number 6 destroys Number 2 by using his own weaknesses against him.

It begins with the new Number 2 interrogating Number 73, a woman in hospital after attempting suicide. Number 6 hears her screams from outside the hospital and goes to help. When he enters the room she jumps out of the window to her death - a shocking start to the episode.

Number 6 is brought - kicking and screaming, by three burly henchmen - to Number 2's house where Number 2 threatens to break him. But, once permitted to depart, Number 6 begins a series of actions that will, ultimately, break Number 2.

• In the shop he listens to all the copies of a particular record that they have in stock while checking his watch. Naturally the shopkeeper, a witness to this odd behaviour, reports what he has seen to Number 2 and gives him his first clue that Number 6 is up to something.
• Number 2 and his henchman Number 14 track him down to the stone boat where Number 6 hides a package. Retrieving it, Number 2 finds it is full of blank sheets of paper. Nothing the Village scientists can do will find anything on the sheets.
• He places a message in Spanish ( a quote from Don Quixote) in the personal column of the Tally Ho to further confuse Number 2 as to his purpose.
• He telephones the director of psychiatry at the hospital and asks for his report on Number 2. Number 2 has been listening in on the call and brings the doctor in to ask him what it was about. The poor doctor denies preparing a report on Number 2 - well, he would - and this only makes Number 2 even more suspicious.
• He makes a request of the Village open-air band but doesn't stay to listen to it. We don't see that he's being observed in this by Number 2's agents but by this point it's clear his every action is being watched even more than is usual for the Village. We only see the poor, innocent band leader being aggressively questioned by Number 2 for the 'real' reason Number 6 spoke to him. From this point Number 2 lets his paranoia get the better of him, playing into Number 6's hands.
• The Village radio broadcasts a personal message from Number 113 to Number 6 wishing him a happy birthday. But it's not Number 6's birthday. And there is no Number 113. Number 2 hears the message and it causes him to remove the Supervisor from his position for allowing the message to go out. Number 2 is now convinced there is a conspiracy against him, but who else is in it?
• Number 6 turns up at Number 2's house saying Number 2 sent for him. He didn't. This paralyses Number 2 trying to understand what this means.

Number 14 is still on Number 2's side, and he takes Number 6 on at 'Kosho,' the ridiculous game involving trampolines and a small pool of water. This is a pointless scene that only serves to break up the flow of the episode as Number 2 is overcome by his paranoia and systematically alienates himself from those around him.

• Number 6 buys a cuckoo clock and turns its case into a trap for a pigeon (meanwhile the Village bomb squad is kept busy disposing of the unnecessary clock part. Upon discovering it is only a clock the expert subtly indicates it is the panicking Number 2 that is 'cuckoo'). The pigeon is used to carry a coded message, which the Village intercepts after shooting down* the pigeon. The computer decodes the message for Number 2.
• Number 6 goes to the beach and signals the horizon with a mirror reflecting sunlight in morse code. With no receiver being detected by all the technology at the Village's disposal, and the computer unable to decode "Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake baker's man," Number 2 cannot trust that those around him aren't in on the conspiracy against him.
• The last loyal follower of Number 2 is Number 14, until Number 6 whispers to him at the cafe, making sure the meeting is observed by other villagers so Number 14 reports himself to Number 2 rather than have someone else inform on him. But Number 2 is by now so paranoid that he doesn't believe Number 14's story, and he accuses Number 14 of working with Number 6 and being a traitor.

Number 2 suspects everyone, even the silent butler who he demands get out of his house. But I think the butler knows he'll be here long after this Number 2 is gone from the Green Dome.

Number 14 goes to Number 6's house and fights with him as relaxing music plays in the background (it's not incidental music; Number 6 was listening to it when Number 14 arrived - a nice little touch that gives this scene a touch of surrealism), until Number 14 is defenestrated.

With Number 14 out of the way, Number 6 goes to see Number 2, who is all alone in his house (the butler having packed his bags and left). Number 2 confronts Number 6 with the 'fact' that he is a plant sent by their masters to spy on Number 2.

To this Number 6 suggests that, if true, then Number 2 is either a traitor or a blunderer for interfering with someone sent by their masters. Number 2 is broken completely and he begs Number 6 not to report him. Number 6 says "I don't intend to. You are going to report yourself."

Number 2 calls his superior (Number 1?) on the big red telephone...

I think this is a superb episode, with one of the strongest stories of the series showing Number 6 defeating Number 2, despite all the advantages he possesses as head of the Village, by using intelligence and trickery and not by violence or force (what fight scenes there are in this episode are incidental to the story).

Scenes showing Number 6 undertaking some seemingly random and pointless activity are revealed to have their effects on Number 2, piling up and systematically causing him to suspect and then alienate those around him because he thinks they must be covering up what Number 6 is really doing. He just cannot see what the audience has been in on throughout - that the only purpose of Number 6's actions are to have exactly that effect on him.

Aside from the unnecessary Kosho scene, this is overall a pretty tightly-paced episode. It's very well executed from the initial scenes showing us, the audience, that this Number 2 is a nasty piece of work and Number 6 is justified in breaking him, through all the stages of Number 6's campaign against him to the final scene of Number 2 reporting his own failure to his superiors.

Crucial to the success of this episode is Patrick Cargill's performance as Number 2. He begins as an aggressive, confident new Number 2 who thinks he can succeed where previous Number 2's have failed. But he also has his underlying insecurity that Number 6 is quick to spot and exploit, changing the confidence into paranoia and the aggression is turned against his own side.

Patrick Cargill's performance shows all of this, and each scene we see his breakdown progressing further. His emotional, over-the-top acting contrasts with McGoohan's complete cool throughout, and this combined with Number 2's central importance to the story, makes his Number 2 one of the most memorable to me.

Next: It's Your Funeral

* Don't worry, pigeon-lovers: the pigeon survived. They only used minimum strength on the laser gun so as not to destroy the message.