The Prisoner - Set 2: Checkmate/ The Chimes of Big Ben/ A, B and C/ The General (Bonus)

The groundbreaking 1960s TV series The Prisoner continues with four more episodes of Number 6's struggle to escape the bizarre, picturesque confines of the Village. In "The Chimes of Big Ben," a Village art competition provides the perfect smokescreen for Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) to hatch a daring escape plan with the help of another new arrival in the Village. Can she be trusted? In a brilliant and memorable performance, Leo McKern invests a humanity--alternately menacing, jolly, and paternal--to the role of Number 2, a quality lacking in many of his successors.

Colin Gordon plays Number 2 as a slightly insecure authoritarian in "A, B, and C," which concerns an attempt to break into and manipulate Number 6's dreams in order to discover why he resigned. Was he indeed "selling out" to the other side? Lively dialogue and a satisfying conclusion bail out what's otherwise a rather far-fetched episode. Gordon returns to the role in "The General," another one that's no slouch in the strained-credulity department: Can an entire university-level history course be delivered to people, via hypnotic TV, in 15 seconds? That's what the Village is experimenting with, but Number 6 smells a rat when he realizes that everyone seems to be reciting the same chunks of history--verbatim. It's a Twilight Zone-esque warning about the dangers of automated mass education, but it falls a bit flat in the end.

"Checkmate" fares much better, exploring the psychology of imprisonment and the difficulty Number 6 has figuring out who among his fellow Villagers works for his captors, and who against. One of the most visually stunning episodes, it opens with a magnificently staged chess match on the Village green, with humans as the pieces, "moved" by two Villagers using megaphones. And Number 6? A pawn, naturally. --Steve Landau

Description
"Checkmate"--A giant outdoor chessboard features unique pawns, human chess pieces. Number Six joins the game, and starts a game of his own. "The Chimes of Big Ben" (broadcast version)--A mysterious new resisdent offers a tantalizing clue as to where they are imprisoned. Together with Number Six, a plan for escape develops. "A, B and C"--Cruel, dream-invading drug experiments on Number Six attempt to reveal why he resigned. "The General"--A powerful, subliminal "educational" technique, Speed Learn, is made mandatory for all Villagers. How will it ultimately be used?

A&E presents the miniseries in a revised order, intended to arrange events in their proper sequence, but having several additional benefits:

-Showing No. 6's increasing level of confidence and command of his situation

-Beginning with some of the more surrealistic episodes (in set 1), thus foreshadowing the surrealistic and allegorical conclusion.

-Keeping the original concept as intact as possible. McGoohan wanted only seven episodes, but was required to do seventeen. A&E groups five of the seven "essentials" together, at the beginning, in McGoohan's prescribed order. All ten additional episodes are inserted before the two that must conclude the series.

"Checkmate" is now one of the early episodes because of a reference to No. 6 being new. It also gives us our first look at the kind of "treatment" one gets in the hospital. I suspect "Checkmate" was originally postponed to save the large-scale escape attempt for later, but I feel it shows that No. 6 still had a lesson to learn. He'd progressed beyond the half-baked escape attempt in "Free for All," but still hadn't learned how few people he could trust. Although I felt the specific reason for his plan's failure was a bit predictable, I also found it interesting in light of how one of the BIG QUESTIONS would ultimately be answered in the final episode. A&E corrects a technical blooper found in the MPI release. "Checkmate" is an episode where the actor who will play No. 2 also performs the introductory dialog. But in the MPI release, the first few lines are done with that "generic" No. 2 (Robert Rietty) before switching to the correct voice -- with a rather obvious splice.

"Chimes of Big Ben" has been moved from second* to fifth -- which makes perfect sense to me. Yes, it also makes sense to put one of the more straightforward episodes at the beginning, but, as A&E points out, "Chimes" takes place over several months and establishes that No. 6 has been missing for several months, so it cannot precede the three episodes that call No. 6 "new." Furthermore, No. 6 has completed his transition from defensive to offensive tactics, and knows his way around The Village, as evidenced by his taking charge with Nadia. Two details that stood out for me were (1) his giving Nadia the nonalcoholic liquor spiel we saw him getting in "Free for All," and (2) his telling Nadia that an attempt to escape by sea has already been tried -- presumably a reference to "Checkmate." And it seems that No. 6 has learned his lesson from "Checkmate." This time, he involves only Nadia in his escape attempt, because she's a new arrival and hasn't been infected by Village mentality -- or so he believes. What I find interesting about the ending is that it combines victory and defeat. No. 6 fails to escape, but thwarts a plan to trick him into revealing information. The ending also suggest that his own people might be running The Village.

And now for the nonessential episodes. "A. B. and C." originally came early -- third* -- at least partly, I suspect, because it's both straightforward and upbeat. No. 6 doesn't escape, but he does make fools of No. 2 and the lady doctor who's been enlisted to help force information out of him. A&E places this episode later because dangerous drugs wouldn't have been used on No. 6 until other methods had failed. I agree with this reasoning, and would add two more points. First, No. 6 appears to have taken as much command of his station as possible. Second. I prefer this episode as an antidote to "Free for All," rather than a setup for the defeatism of that episode. I also find No 2's terrified discourse with No. 1 on the red phone interesting now that I've seen the whole miniseries and thus know who No. 1 is.

"The General" is what I call a "side trip" episode. Departing from the central conflict, it concerns an instant university-level education that's really a scheme to brainwash most of the Village population This episode introduces us to the gray-uniformed, white-helmeted goons we'll see in the final episode, as well as some of the equipment and underground corridors seen in that episode.

This is one place where I would debate A&E's order. Yes, "General" must come after "A. B. and C." because it features the same No. 2, who states the "No. 6 and I are old friends." But should it come IMMEDIATELY afterward? A&E theorizes that No. 1 said, "Okay, you get one more chance," but he could have just as easily said "You're fired," then later, "I'm calling you back in," as implied by the original order*. A&E also claims "General" must precede "Schizoid Man,"because the No. 12 in "General" has been there "a long time," and so can't logically appear after the recently-arrived No. 12 in "Schizoid Man." This makes it wrong to put "General" IMMEDIATELY after "Schizoid Man," but the insertion of several episodes in between would solve the plausibility problem.

The bonus material in this set is limited, but that's not a major problem, considering it includes four episodes. I do wish, however, that the alternate version of "Chimes of Big Ben" had been put here instead of in set 1.

*In both the U.K. and U.S.


"W. H. Y. Question mark." "Why?"   October 16, 2003
Axel Law (Wichita, KS, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Back in 1967, an allegorical television show emerged that has yet to be topped by any other English television series. The show: The Prisoner. Starring Patrick McGoohan, he plays the role of No. 6, a former secret service agent who resigned for unknown reasons and then finds himself knocked unconscious and trapped in a seemingly peaceful place called "the Village." Each episode features a new No. 2 (with a few exceptions), who watches his every move and strives to find out why he resigned. The only superior is the unseen No. 1, the supposed ruler of the Village. The only other characters that reoccur are The Supervisor (also called Controller), played by Peter Stanwick, and The Butler, played by Angelo Muscat.

In "Checkmate," the Prisoner is inspired to gather other people who still have their individuality after watching a chess game in which people act as the pawns in the game and are told to move by the chess player. The question asked in this episode is whether or not we are pawns in life. This harks back to the pilot episode "Arrival," when the retired admiral tells a woman that "we're all pawns."

In "The Chimes of Big Ben," a russian agent (?) is brought to The Village and is in the same exact position that the Prisoner's in. He decides to cooperate in the arts & crafts show so that she'll not get hurt... but of course, he still is defiant towards Number 2. One of my favorites in the series, he is hesitant on whether or not he should trust this beautiful russian prisoner.

In "A,B, and C," the Prisoner is sedated and captured in a laboratory. The new Number 2 uses untested drugs to probe through his dreams to find out why he resigned. An interesting plot point at the end keeps this from being average, as we find out that the Prisoner did not intend to sell out.

In "The General," the same Number 2 returns, this time utilizing a "speed learning" program (run by the Professor, sort of...) in which everyone learns something in merely 15 seconds. What Number 6 soon realizes is that one merely memorizes the information as opposed to learning it. This one's hard to analyze, but I think McGoohan tried to convey the message that technology is getting the better of us, and the technology is interfering with the growth of knowledge (either that, or we are misusing the technology to that effect.).

The Butler never speaks. He always serves his master faithfully and unconditionally. In the "Prisoner Companion" that came with the DVD set (or if you get the "Fall Out" volume), it is stated that the Butler represents all the little people in the world who blindly follow the strongest leader just so they'll be alright. I agree with that. What's up with the Bicycle? We see it on the number badges, the signs, and practically everywhere else in the Village. Could it mean that technology is getting the better of us (as supposedly stated in "The General"), or could it mean that we should slow the growth of technology? I agree with the latter, although the first possibility could be a true statement.

"Questions are a burden to others."
"Answers are a prison for oneself."
Two phrases used prominently throughout the Village. These two are probably individuality at its most basic. Without questions, you cannot build on friendships or even just simply gain knowledge! Without answers, one simply doesn't know and is forever confined in secrecy. This leads someone to think for themselves and form opinions. Naturally, opinions are not allowed in the Village.

A great series with messages in each episode. Preferably, I give every episode 5 stars, but I highly recommend getting the megaset and watching the series all the way through as opposed to the individual volumes.


Some great episodes here.   January 26, 2002
Jim Toms (W. Frankfort, IL (USA))
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Of the 17 episodes produced for the show, near midpoint there seems to be a slight shift in No. 6's plan from one of outright escape to making things miserable for No. 2. However, with the possible exception of "The General", escape is still uppermost in No. 6's mind in the episodes of Set 2.

In "Checkmate", No. 6 witnesses the manipulation of a human pawn in a giant, outdoor chess game. No. 6 attempts to determine who is a true "villager" like himself and who is a planted guard on the island. Through the relationship with the pawn, No. 6 thinks he's found himself an ally in escape. But has he?

"The Chimes of Big Ben", arguably one of the best of the series, allows No. 6 to meet a beautiful woman prisoner who has already been foiled by Rover (you know, that giant bubble thing). No. 6 agrees to help No. 8 escape and he does so by entering in a village sponsored arts and crafts exhibition. This is fun to watch. Be sure to pay close attention as it all unfolds at the end and No. 6 realizes some crucial details he had overlooked before.

A great episode, "A, B, and C", has No. 2, played well by Colin Gordon, using drugs to get at No. 2's past. Hardly possible in real life but definitely fun and intriguing on the screen.

Finally, "The General" is the weakest of these four episodes but it should be said that there's no such thing as a bad episode from this show. No. 2 has decided that mind control through something called "speed learn" and operated by a giant computer called "The General" will eventually cause No. 6 to reveal that information that they so desperately want ("Why did you resign?!"). Enjoy these episodes and watch them in order along with the others in the series. This is TV at its best.