The Prisoner (1968 Mini Series) - Episode order

[brake]

Hi guys,

Is it true that you should watch this series in a different order than chronologically? I remember reading about it a while ago and it was suggested to watch them in a specific order.

Mine just arrived from amazon and I want to get cracking on it but I couldn't really get a clearly defined answer on the order to watch the episodes.

Cheers

EDIT: Taken from here: http://prisoner.gigacorp.net/beginner.html

Apparently the original air dates differ from the production dates?

How to View the Series

There is a lot of heated debate of the order of the seventeen-episode series. Although it is well known how the series was ordered when the Prisoner was orignally aired, most of the air dates did not correlate with production times in any way. Obviously, we have our own opinions on how to view the series. Unfortunately, our justification (in the Theories Page) *SPOILS* many of the episodes. We recommend you view them in the following order:

1 Arrival
2 Dance of the Dead
3 Free For All
4 Chimes of Big Ben
5 Checkmate
6 The General
7 A. B. and C.
8 The Schizoid Man
9 Many Happy Returns
10 Living in Harmony
11 A Change of Mind
12 Hammer Into Anvil
13 Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
14 It's Your Funeral
15 The Girl Who Was Death
16 Once Upon a Time
17 Fall Out

And the original episodes list and air dates taken from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/episodes

And, even MORE recommended orders (episode ordering): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...soner_episodes

[Rizor]

I suppose it doesn't really matter what order you watch the show in (aside from first episode 1st and last 2 last ). There's no strict continuity between episodes. Most of the recommended viewing orders out there try to build a semblance of a story arc but details are all contradictory. If you're a fan of the show, it's fun to make up your own order. Just for kicks, here's mine:

1. Arrival
2. Dance of the Dead
3. Checkmate
4. Free For All
5. The Chimes of Big Ben
6. The Schizoid Man
7. Many Happy Returns
8. The General
9. A, B, and C
10. Living in Harmony
11. The Girl Who Was Death
12. It's Your Funeral
13. Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
14. A Change of Mind
15. Hammer Into Anvil
16. Once Upon a Time
17. Fall Out

[dobyblue]

Interesting, I thought episode 2 seemed a bit odd, I will have to try watching them in one of the other orders.

[brake]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Interesting, I thought episode 2 seemed a bit odd, I will have to try watching them in one of the other orders.

Which order did you watch it in?

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by brake

Which order did you watch it in?

I have just finished episode 1 and was 10 minutes into episode 2 when I had to stop. Then I read this thread the next day.

I had thought the first 10 minutes seemed a little odd, #2 was suddenly Leo McKern? Where did he come from?

I feel like I should just watch LOST, something I can follow, haha, but I'm looking forward to watching this entire series as it has such a following.

[GC13]

Pay attention to the theme. Near the beginning of the actual episode, when they do the "who are you?!?" there is a response "the new Number Two". Not to give anything away, but that line and those that follow had to be recorded a lot. ^_^

Not-spoilery-spoiler follows (unless you counted the above as a spoiler, in which case I can only feel sorry for you ):

[Show spoiler]Seriously, they paid attention to it themselves: when it's not a new Number Two the person doesn't announce himself as "new", which makes it obvious that the default order is very incorrect.

[fms]

I might as well post this somewhere since I gave this a lot of thought and read through a number of other fan orderings as well. I just went through the series, and after viewing it in an already better order than production order, I decided to tweak it a bit further.

My own episode order goes against the common idea in other ordering attempts that they give up trying to break 6 at a certain point: after all, they would resume it in OUAT anyway. My own guidelines were mainly to build up the attempts at mental breakdown, and I’ve also tried to space out the ‘outside the Village’ episodes somewhat. A bit advantage to my order is that there is more variation and the quality episodes are much better distributed – instead of having all Village episodes in the first half and a couple of formal experiments and uneven episodes in the second half.

The first five episodes (where 6 is new to the Village) are rather fixed:
- Arrival
- Dance of the Dead: 6 is new; ending with 2 seems to indicate it’s the second episode
- Free for All (announces plan to discover warders vs prisoners) needs to come before Checkmate
- Checkmate
- The Chimes of Big Ben has a better escape attempt than Checkmate

Then comes a middle batch of episodes that are hard to place and which I am left with after placing the end batch of episodes (see below):
- The Girl Who Was Death: can essentially be placed anywhere – but it has a very weak attempt to get something out of 6, so I think this should be placed pretty early on
- A Change of Mind: is about 6’s integration into the Village (so should again be placed earlier rather than later); they try to use drugs to have 6 break down mentally, but the attempt is entirely non-intrusive (as opposed to other episodes), so I would place this as the first of such attempts. It would also make this the first real victory of 6 over 2
- Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling: very hard to place episode. The surgery is pretty intrusive, but the real plot does not actually involve 6. I’d rather have IYF as the first time it’s not about 6 (since they make a huge deal about it in IYF), but this episode should not be too close to MHR. I would also place it earlier than MHR – which I think makes more sense. In this episode, he’s a year gone, so you can’t place it much earlier. The Colonel may or may not be the same Colonel as the one mentioned at the end of Chimes. Also, one of the advantages to place this not later in the series is that 6 is quite passive and not that smart a spy here.
- Living in Harmony: disadvantage to have two ‘outside the Village’ episodes back to back; but to its advantage it’s surely the best episode to place at the mid point of the series (restatement basic concept). It’s again a plot involving mental intrusion, this time a bit more potentially dangerous than in COM (so also shouldn’t follow COM directly). I wouldn’t place it later in the series to avoid confusion between the Kid and Number 48 from Fall Out.
- It’s Your Funeral: 6 gets to know about jammers’ plots and kosho is introduced (so should come before HIA); main plot again not about 6 – and there is again another character getting away by helicopter (so separate it from Do Not Forsake Me). (The woman who needs candy turns up as an accomplice in MHR, so this is maybe a very obscure visual clue for the viewer.)

Now comes a batch of episodes often placed earlier, but I like to place later on – this order is again pretty fixed through logical or necessary consequence (see HIA). The big advantage is that it has a couple of the best episodes, and builds up in a much better way to the final two episodes.
- The Schizoid Man: a better and more elaborate attempt at mental breakdown. The General is mentioned and 6 doesn’t know who that is yet. He also still attempts to escape at the end.
- Many Happy Returns: 6 is shown that escape is futile. Butterworth returns as lady at party ‘in the know’ in A. B. & C., and Thorpe returns as 2 in HIA (so this places it before those episodes).
- The General
- A. B. & C.: same Number 2 as The General; probably the most dangerous and intrusive drugs attempt until now. Victory of 6 over 2.
- Hammer into Anvil: 6 now knows the Village through and through; 6 also completely ‘deconstructs’ Number 2, so this is his most substantial victory – which is why I feel it should be the last episode before the finale, in which they go for the ultimate attempt to break him.

The final two episodes are of course fixed:
- Once upon a Time: is again separated from the previous breakdown attempt by one episode.
- Fall Out

I'm not a real Prisoner 'connoisseur', so feedback is greatly appreciated.

[nastiesexpert]

There is no true running order apart from the first and last.
The theory in the 2011 post about the Number 2 voiceover is nonsense.

When the show was created there were only 7 stories defined. The rest were added as padding because ITC would not finance just 7 episodes.
The transmission order in the UK is the one usually followed but can also be ignored because at the time late changes were made when episodes intended for broadcast had not completed post production so another episode that just happened to be ready replaced it.

The show had 3 creative minds behind it . McGoohan, producer David Tomblin and George Markstein.
It's pretty obvious that the original premise concocted by the three that resulted in the production of Arrival was completely different to what McGoohan himself had in mind and what ended up onscreen when he took sole charge, as he did with several episodes he wrote and then directed under a pseudonym.
Watch the documentary that accompanies the Bluray and you'll see guest stars and even writers and directors admit they had no idea what the show was about when they took part in it.

Co-creator Markstein admits onscreen he thinks McGoohans idea for the ending was utter rubbish and it's obvious that Fall Out is not the ending to the same series that started with Arrival. McGoohan admitted that he didn't even know what the ending was when the first production block was complete.

Far too much is read into the individual episodes, many of which have no hidden meanings. It's entertaining and there are some clever ideas most are at their best when hidden away in what appears to be standard episodes. When the "real meaning" is brought to the fore it spoils the show and makes little sense when taken in the context of what has gone before.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Living In Harmony and The Girl Who Was Death have scholars trying to find hidden meanings in them but there are none.
These 3 episodes were 100% padding added to the show to make up a run of 17 ( including Fall Out) that Grade wanted to make up the numbers.
Those 3 were written with one stipulation - there could be no new Portmeirion footage and Do Not Forsake had the additional stipulation that the star would be unavailable filming Ice Station Zebra.
So there is nothing hidden - they were a means to an end and pretty dreadful at that and should be taken at face value.

The show is a hybrid. It started as a fascinating spy show with hints of something deeper to be revealed but ended as the obsession of one man who failed to tell his cast and crew exactly what he had in mind so the show ends up as a bit of a mess with some spy episodes, a few of the deeper McGoohan helmed ones and the rest are a mix of filler or episodes put together by a cast and crew uncertain exactly what they were supposed to be making.

To sum up- the running order is almost unimportant. First and last are where they are. Despite being filmed as episode 6 or 7 Once Upon A Time was always intended to precede Fall Out.

The rest can really be watched in any order. Some episodes have elements of the dialogue suggesting that Number Six has been there for a while so should appear a bit later in the run. And I can't recall which way round they should go but there is some dialogue in one of the 2 Colin Gordon episodes that suggest which of the 2 episodes should be seen first.

The running order has been debated for years but all the running orders we had are largely down to the production problems at the time or the whims of schedulers who knew as little about the show as everyone else.

Nothing is gained or lost in watching the show in the UK order.

[Clark Kent]

It's very hard to give a single, definitive viewing order. That is actually part of its mystery and appeal.

[nastiesexpert]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

It's very hard to give a single, definitive viewing order. That is actually part of its mystery and appeal.

It's hard to give a definitive intended viewing order for any ITC show simply because they were made differently to the majority of UK tv shows at the time and were made as films with more than one episode in production at any one time.
But it's only The Prisoner where this is "part of it's mystery".
There isn't any mystery just as there isn't a definitive viewing order

In 1984 there was a C4 documentary called Six Into One : The Prisoner File. Years later McGoohan said he regretted taking part and in fact while the Network Bluray documentary features footage from that doc , including some that never appeared in the broadcast version, McGoohan refused permission for any of the footage of himself to be in the new one. It's a good documentary but not as in depth as the Network one , but we do get to see McGoohan admit several things including that the show was an allegory- which explains the material he made but it doesn't really fit with what the show appeared to be intended as from Arrival.