The Prisoner (1967 series)

A group of "men in black" interrupted while observing or contemplating "Rover" in The Prisoner (1967 series)...

Strange, hooded figures attending trials in the episode "Fall Out" of The Prisoner (1967 series)...

Summary

"No man is just a number." The 1967-1968 Prisoner (known only as Number Six) is a former government agent who abruptly resigns from his job and has been imprisoned in a beautiful and charming-yet-bizarre and enigmatic community -- a mysterious seaside "village" that is isolated from the mainland by mountains and the sea. Presumably wanted for the top-secret information he knows, Number Six is hunted, yet thwarts his captors at every turn. However, he's still trapped in the village by floating, glowing "rovers," mysterious, balloon-like devices that capture those who try to escape.

A poorly-received 2009 reboot/update/sequel set in a sort of "Dreamlands" was also made.

Details

• Release Date: 1967-1968; 2009 (reboot mini-series)
• Country/Language: UK, English
• Genres/Technical: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Adventure, Mystery (conspiracy/spy), Art/Experimental
• Runtime: (generally formatted for a 1-hour BBC television slot)
• Starring: Patrick McGoohan; Ian McKellen, Jim Caviezel, Ruth Wilson (reboot)
• Creator: Patrick McGoohan
• Producer/Production Co: Patrick McGoohan, David Tomblin, BBC, Incorporated Television Company ITC, Everyman Films; Granada International, ITV Productions, Out of Africa Entertainment (reboot)
• View Trailer: (1967), (2009)
• TVTropes: (1967), (2009)
• IMDB Page: (1967), (2009)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: (not rated) (original equivalent to a TV-PG for Violence and perhaps some mild Adult Content)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)

Really not at all "Lovecraftian", though the flawed reboot does an interesting take on the Dreamlands, both series include the rather bizarre and unexplained "Rover" monsters which may or may not be alien in origin, and there is an odd scene in the episode "Free for All" of the original show in which a small cult of the "men in black" who guard the Village are seen either closely watching/guarding "Rover" in a statue-filled cavern, or worshiping this alien representation of the Village's totalitarian authority, or both.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• (review needed)

Synopsis

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)

The Prisoner (known only as Number Six) is a former government agent who abruptly resigns from his job and has been imprisoned in a beautiful and charming-yet-bizarre and enigmatic community -- a mysterious seaside "village" that is isolated from the mainland by mountains and the sea. Presumably wanted for the top-secret information he knows, Number Six is hunted, yet thwarts his captors at every turn. However, he's still trapped in the village by floating, glowing "rovers," mysterious, balloon-like devices that capture those who try to escape.

Notes

Associated Mythos Elements

• TO DO
• race: "Rover", a strange, largely unexplained guard of the Village in the form of an animated white bubble-blob-balloon-thing of perhaps extra-terrestrial (or perhaps subconscious) origin
• cult: human guards in the Village appear to be closely watching or perhaps "worshiping" Rover in one scene of "Free For All"
• cult: a strange, hooded and masked group appear in bizarre sequences at the trial of Number Six in the episode "Fallout", sitting at desks with nameplates that identify them as members of senseless and identical and indistinguishable individualistic factions, and where they drown out individualistic testimony by shouting "I!"
• location: "The Village", a surreal and isolated location where spies, politicians, and other threats to national security are sent for observation and questioning; it's implied to be an allegorical state of mind rather than a literal place
• setting: the Dreamlands

Keeper Notes

• A group of investigators, each with secrets to conceal, awaken in a mysterious, surreal, totalitarian village somewhere in the Dreamlands, governed by someone who wishes to reveal those secrets....