eli@uw-june.UUCP (10/04/83)
Someone(s) asked for episode synopsis' of The Prisoner, and
so...
(Reprinted without permission from "The Prisoner Program
Guide," published by The Ontario Educational Communications
Authority, (c)1976)
1. Arrival
A man is abducted from his London home and taken to an
unknown destination. He finds himself in a village that he
has never seen before; a beautiful place, architecturally
puzzling and difficult to identify, with the sea in the
background and mountains stretching in the other direction.
It could be anywhere in the world. The Village is com-
pletely self-contained; so self-contained that no one can
leave it. The man is now the Prisoner.
There are other people there, but no one has a name,
only a number. The Prisoner's house is number six, and that
becomes his number. Why has he been kidnapped? He is sum-
moned to meet Number Two who seems to run the Village, and
he learns that he will be kept a prisoner until he tells why
he resigned so suddenly from his highly confidential job.
He tries to find out who is behind his abduction, but Number
Two refuses to be drawn: "A lot of people who are curious
about what lies behind your resignation. You've had a bril-
liant career. They want to know why you suddenly left."
But the Prisoner won't talk, and the scene is set for the
long struggle as he tries to regain his freedom and his cap-
tors try to make him divulge the information they want.
The Prisoner tries to get away, but there is no escape.
He is taken to Number Two again, but this time it is a dif-
ferent man. Whoever is Number One trusts no one, and his
second in command never remains in power for very long.
2. The Chimes of Big Ben
A helicopter brings a new arrival to the Village. This
one has a name: Nadia. On talking to her, the Prisoner
finds her story curiously akin to his own; all she has done
is to resign. When he tries to find out more about her she
is suspicious, intimating that she believes he may be one of
Number Two's assistants. The Prisoner intercedes with
Number Two on her behalf, and in return for her safety,
agrees to contribute to the arts and crafts exhibition.
Nadia is assigned to him as a personal maid.
Using the exhibition as a cover, an ingenious escape
plan forms in the Prisoner's mind. Nadia now seems ready to
trust him completely, and she reveals that she knows where
the Village is situated.
They manage to escape by sea, and a friendly fisherman
comes to their aid. They are shipped in coffins back to
London, and they find themselves in the Prisoner's London
office. They hear the well-known chimes of Big Ben and are
greeted by familiar faces. The Prisoner immediately under-
goes interrogation... and the critical question: "Why did
you resign?"
The Prisoner hesitates, prepared to give an honest
answer. Then Big Ben rings again...
3. A, B and C
In yet another desperate effort to discover why the
Prisoner resigned, the new Number Two decides to subject him
to an experimental process developed by Number Fourteen, by
which his dreams can be penetrated. Under the influence of
a wonder drug, his subconscious thoughts can be converted
into electrical impulses and finally into pictures on a
television screen.
Number Two is convinced that the Prisoner was going to
sell out, which might explain his refusal to talk. He wants
to know what he had to sell and to whom he would have sold
it. Computed research has narrowed the potential buyers down
to three people, and his dreams must take him to meet each
one in turn. The doped Prisoner is mentally transported to
Paris to meet character A, but his actions indicate that he
would never have sold out to him. Twenty-four hours later,
the process is repeated. The Prisoner's subconscious mind
again takes him to Paris and he meets character B. Again
the results are disappointing. It now remains for the Pris-
oner to be subjected to a third injection and meet character
C.
Before the final experiment, however, the Prisoner dis-
covers the location of Number Fourteen's laboratory and
finds the third syringe. Now, forewarned, he can control
his third dream and he plays a cat and mouse game with
Number Two, who is caught in his own macabre trap.
4. Free For All
Is it a genuine democratic election, as claimed, or
just another trick? The Prisoner views it all with satiri-
cal amusement when the election for a new Number Two is
announced, and the present Number Two suggests that he
should stand as a candidate. He accepts the challenge, how-
ever, and a typical election campaign is mounted. Number
Two is one of the most enthusiastic when the Prisoner makes
his first election speech, and all goes well until, carried
away by his own enthusiasm, he says: "I am a person. I am
not a number. All of you at one time were persons." Number
Two tells him that this is a breach of etiquette and that he
must undergo The Test.
It is a truth test, operated by an electronics machine.
By the time the Prisoner emerges, he realizes that he has
been the subject of exhaustive brainwashing. But he is
still master of his own mind to the extent that he makes a
desperate effort to escape from the Village. The attempt
fails, and the Prisoner is returned to the Village, where he
rejoins the election campaign. He finds himself saying the
things expected of him, and eventually gains an overwhelming
victory in the election. Now that he has control, he can
free his fellow prisoners. But his captors are not ready
for defeat yet.
5. The Schizoid Man
Number Two tries to make the Prisoner believe he is
someone else by bringing his double to the Village. Put
into a state of electronic hypnosis, the Prisoner undergoes
a form of brainwashing which changes his tastes, his right-
handedness to left-handedness, and even his instincts. He
awakens to find himself looking different with a moustache
and darkened hair. Everyone in the Village, from Number Two
down, greets him as Number Twelve, not Number Six.
Meanwhile, the double has assumed the Prisoner's iden-
tity and is living in his house. Brought face to face with
him, the bewildered Prisoner summons all his will-power to
fight against the steadily mounting evidence that he is
someone else, but finds that everything the double says and
odes provides the Prisoner with more confirmation that his
is Number Twelve and simply imagines he was once Number Six.
"Once he begins to doubt his identity, he'll crack," says
Number Two.
But the Prisoner learns what has happened and how it
was achieved, and begins to manipulate things himself. He
manages to persuade Number Two that he is really the double
and that the Prisoner has met his death. Arrangements are
made for him to leave the Village, his work completed. The
door to freedom is open for the Prisoner at last, but for a
cruel twist of fate.
6. The General
The Prisoner is the only member of the Village commun-
ity to rebel against the latest orders from Number Two.
Everyone is to attend sensational lecture classes introduc-
ing a new kind of schooling which promises a university
degree in three minutes. Success is guaranteed, and the
classes are held by the Professor.
The crash course method, the Prisoner discovers, is a
marriage of science and mass communication, using a sublimi-
nal process by which information is projected through a
"sublimator" at a speed thousands of times faster than the
eye can record. It is imposed directly onto the cortex of
the brain. Whatever the tutor chooses to teach can there-
fore by mastered, and remembered, by his pupils in moments.
The Prisoner sees the danger of this; it is a new way of
controlling men's minds; they will gain knowledge, but lose
the ability to think for themselves.
The Prisoner discovers that the Professor himself is
rebelling, but his attempts to escape are thwarted. His
knowledge is being used, but the controlling power is a mys-
terious, unseen General. The Prisoner demands to see him,
and bullies Number Two into allowing him to put one question
to him. The computer self-destructs, and things return to
normal in Village education.
7. Many Happy Returns
The Prisoner finds the Village completely empty one
morning: the voices are stilled, the houses are empty, and
the shops are closed. For the first time since his abduc-
tion, he sees a real promise of escape. There is no one to
stop him as he builds a raft, and still no one on guard when
he pushes out to sea.
After a long and harrowing journey, he finds himself in
England. He makes his way to London and goes to his old
office where he is interrogated by several top-level offi-
cials. But there is no freedom in escape without explana-
tion. Where is the Village? Who runs it? Why does it
exist? The Prisoner has got to discover the truth, and the
authorities promise him every assistance in his search. He
succeeds in finding the Village, which means ironical
failure.
8. Dance of the Dead
"Never trust a woman, even when she has four legs," is
the Prisoner's cynical summing-up when he finds he cannot
even trust a cat with which he has become friendly. He
can't trust any of the other females in his life either. He
has to deal with three of them: the new Number Two; the Day
Supervisor; and the girl who has been assigned as his
observer.
An electrical treatment to make him talk has to be
called off because of the risk of brain damage, but during
the treatment he discovers that an old colleague, Dutton, is
a new captive in the Village. Dutton is used to try to make
the Prisoner reveal why he resigned, but the attempt fails.
The drama develops against a background of revelry -- it is
the day of the annual carnival.
The Prisoner finds the body of a young man on the
beach. He seizes the opportunity to write a message which
he places in the dead man's pocket, along with a photograph
of himself and a drawing of the Village. In the hope that
the finder may be able to trace him, he pushes the body into
the sea.
But the affair recoils on him in more ways than one, as
he discovers during the carnival. Reaching the evening:s
ball, he finds himself the star turn in the "cabaret" -- the
star of a grim drama as he is placed on trial with the Vil-
lagers as the jury.
9. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
The Prisoner is one of the few people who might know
how to trace the missing Professor Seltzman as he was the
last man to have contact with him before he disappeared.
Dr. Seltzman invented a process by which the mind and per-
sonality of one man can be transferred into the body of
another. The Village authorities know how to accomplish the
transfer, but they can't reverse the process with any
surety. Number Two wants to use the Professor's own tech-
niques to find him; and he uses the Prisoner and an army
colonel to do it.
The Prisoner awakens to find himself in his London
home, but when he looks in the mirror, he finds that he has
the body of the Colonel -- all he has in common with his old
self is his hand-writing. How can he persuade people that
he is really the agent who went missing a year ago? His
fiancee doesn't recognise him, and nor does her father, who
used to be one of his superiors. His urgent mission is to
find Dr. Seltzman and get himself changed back. The
Prisoner manages to trace the Professor and tells him what
has happened. Both men are kidnapped and returned to the
Village. Number Two is ecstatic. But can the Prisoner and
the Colonel be changed back into themselves? The attempt to
do so has unexpected results.
10. It's Your Funeral
Cry wolf often enough, and no one will believe you when
the cry is genuine. This simple maxim provides the Village
authorities with a weapon to use against the Prisoner when
an assassination is being planned. The Prisoner is the only
one of the Villagers likely to prove a stumbling block in
the way of the murder. Somehow he has got to be discredited
so that no one -- not even the intended victim -- will heed
his warnings.
Number Two puts into effect an elaborate plot, by which
the Prisoner learns who the victim is -- Number Two himself.
The Prisoner warns Number Two, not because he care about
him, but because he thinks that the assassination will be an
excuse for massive reprisals. Number Two pretends not to
believe him. But on his next visit, the Prisoner finds that
another Number Two is in residence -- an elderly Number Two
who has returned to the Village, and it is his life that is
in danger. The attempt will be made on Appreciation Day,
when the retiring Number Two hands over the great Seal of
Office to his successor.
The Prisoner discovers the method: the explosives will
be inside the seal, detonated by remote control. The Pris-
oner is the only person who can prevent the killing, and he
has got to find the radio-operated transmitter before the
button can be pressed.
11. Checkmate
Chess is a game of subtle moves, and the Prisoner
wonders just what they are aimed at when he is invited to
take part in an unusual game being played in the Village.
The "board" covers the whole of the courtyard; the chess
pieces are human beings -- their moves indicated by two men
in charge. The Prisoner takes his position as the Queen's
pawn. Any deviation from the rules of the game is swiftly
punished, as the Prisoner learns when a rook tries to make
an independent move and is taken off to the hospital for
treatment.
The Prisoner finds a way of distinguishing the prison-
ers from their warders, thus enabling him to get together a
nucleus of people he thinks he can trust, including the
unfortunate Rook. Number Two becomes suspicious and sets
the Queen, who has been programmed to believe she is in love
with the Prisoner, to watching him. To alert the authori-
ties to any attempt to escape, Number Two gives the Queen a
locket which is really a bugged detector-transmitter. Ulti-
mately, the Prisoner is able to turn it to his own uses by
taking the detector components for the radio he needs for
his escape bid.
Having assembled those he can trust, the climax is
reached when they get to a motor boat. but in this world of
suspicion, the Prisoner finds that the one man he cannot
trust is the one he trusted the most -- simply because that
one man could trust no one, not even the Prisoner.
12. Living in Harmony
Give a man love, then take it away. Isolate him. Make
him kill and then face him with death. And he'll crack.
This is the idea behind the latest effort to make the Pris-
oner divulge his secrets, and the setting is a Western town-
ship called Harmony.
The Prisoner finds plenty to interest him in Harmony.
There's Cathy, a loverly girl who is interested in him from
the start. There's the Kid, who is obviously psychopathic
and who takes an instant dislike to the Prisoner. And
there's the Judge, who runs the town in a dictatorial
fashion and asks the Prisoner to take over as sheriff. The
Prisoner refuses the job, and as a result is placed in jail
under "protective custody." He manages to escape with
Cathy's help, but is caught and Cathy is put on trial for
aiding a criminal. Only when it becomes clear to the Pris-
oner that Cathy's life depends on his becoming sheriff, does
he accept the job. The Judge tries to make him wear his
guns, but the Prisoner refuses. The next step to provoke
the Prisoner is to get the Kid to "rough up" Cathy. But the
Kid goes too far and kills her; the Prisoner gives way at
last and it's time for a reckoning with the Kid.
Even the best laid plans, however, can go awry. The
Prisoner is still not broken. But the postscript, when the
truth about Cathy, the Kid and the Judge is revealed, con-
tains unexpected tragedy.
13. A Change of Mind
Instant social conversion is the process by which hos-
tile members of the Village have their attitudes changed,
and the Prisoner is the next on the list for this sinister
treatment. This is the latest move on the part of Number
Two to find out why he resigned. The attractive Number
Eighty-six is one of the instruments used to trick him into
joining the forces of the "unmutuals" who are reformed by a
treatment combining drugs with ultrasonic waves directed
against the brain and changing the mental process.
The Prisoner is taken to the ultrasonic theatre where
he is operated on by Number Eighty-six. He is treated with
a bombardment of ultrasonic beams on his frontal lobe, which
may result in permanent dislocation, according to the doc-
tors. Twenty-four fours have to elapse before the treatment
can be continued. The Prisoner is very wary of attempts to
drug him, and when Number Eighty-six make the attempt, he
switches cups. Under the influence of the drugs which were
meants for him, she accepts the Prisoner's suggestion that
she should change sides.
The Prisoner tells Number Two that he now has peace of
mind, and that he would like to tell everyone how grateful
he is for removing the "unmutual" stigma. Number Two sees
victory in sight. But the Prisoner has a deep hypnotic sub-
ject in Number Eighty-six, whose announcement swings public
opinion against Number Two in a sensational manner.
14. Hammer into Anvil
The Prisoner swears to avenge the death of a girl whose
appeals for help when being persecuted by Number Two are
just too late for him to save her life. In a community in
which no one can be trusted, Number Two is vulnerable to
implanted suggestions that the Prisoner has, in fact, been
brought to the Village to spy on him on behalf of his supe-
riors.
The Prisoner brings Number Two to a state of increasing
terror as he pursues his relentless policy. He gradually
builds up the impression that he is in touch with the out-
side world to suggest that he is reporting on Number Two.
In doing so, he puts suspicion on each of Number Two's most
trusted servants, each of whom is dismissed in turn. Number
Two becomes more and more hysterical until finally he is in
a state of complete mental and physical collapse. Every man
has his breaking point.
15. The Girl Who Was Death
Something has to give when a girl is a born killer and
a man is a born survivor; so the Prisoner has a worthy
opponent when he pits himself against the lovely, but
lethal, Sonia.
The Prisoner takes over from the victim of an unusual
"accident," which resulted from investigating the activities
of a crazy scientist who is planning to destroy London. He
is soon aware that the killer intends that he should suffer
a similar fate. His would-be assassin is Sonia, and she is
certainly ingenious. Each time, she leaves a clue, in event
of failure, which will lead him to their next rendezvous.
He finds himself in a wrestling bout with with a killer;
facing death in a tunnel of love; on a fairground carousel;
in a ghost village. It's just one hair-raising even after
another.
For Sonia, each failure is not only a challenge to
further effort, it brings with it the realization that if
she does hill him, what will be left for her? Life would be
a bore. Won't he join her father and herself? After all,
her father is the scientist he is seeking.
16. Once Upon a Time
One man must break, and for the loser it is the end.
The choice lies between the Prisoner and Number Two. In
taking the ultimate step, in taking the Prisoner through the
degree absolute, Number Two is well aware of the personal
risk he is running.
An electronic process prepares the Prisoner for the
ordeal that lies ahead -- a week or more of savage, relent-
less interrogation. He knows his mind is being regressed as
Number Two takes him through the seven ages of man; taking
him back to babyhood, early childhood, growing up, school
days, first job, the war years and the top secret job that
he held until the day he resigned. But the secret in his
mind remains locked. However innocently phrased, there is
no answer to the question, Why did you resign?
Day after day the ruthless, penetrating questioning
continues, with one man's will pitted against the other's.
They reach near exhaustion; the mental battle becomes a phy-
sical fight, but each is unyielding. But one has got to
break, and breaking may well mean death.
17. Fall Out
This is the hidden, mysterious world beneath the sur-
face. The trial is being held in a vast rock cavern. The
session has been called in a matter of democratic crisis,
and the delegates in attendance represent the Old Folk, the
Youngsters, the Activists, Pacifists, and every other shade
of opinion in the Village. The President announces that the
community is at stake: "And we have the means to protect
it."
The Prisoner faces the court. He has survived the
ultimate test and must no longer be referred to as Number
Six, or a number of any kind. "He has," the President
announces, "gloriously vindicated the right of the indivi-
dual to be individual." Number Two is brought to court to
face the man who defeated him. The Prisoner has one vital
question to ask him: "Did you ever meet Number One?" The
answer is a surprise. The President pays tribute to the
Prisoner, the man who has revolted, resisted, fought, held
fast, overcome coercion and who has gained the right to be
an individual. The President faces him with his final chal-
lenge: "As a man magnificently equipped to lead us -- lead
us or go!"
What will he do? Freedom beckons. But freedom is not
only a physical thing; it lies with man himself.