Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Arrival

The Prisoner (2009 remake)A man wakes up in the desert, with only vague, fleeting memories of his previous life in New York City. He goes into hiding when he spots a hunting party in pursuit of an elderly man; he manages to reach the old man and help him to safety, but the old man is babbling something about 554 and the Village. When his younger rescuer reveals that doesn’t understand this, the old man says it’s a miracle… and dies.

The younger man, still unable to remember much of anything about his life before these events, wanders until he finds signs of civilizations: a grouping of mostly-identical homes. He has found the Village, but he quickly learns that no one who lives in the Village seems to acknowledge even the possibility that there are places beyond the Village. And he can find no escape himself – the Village seems to be surrounded on all sides by vast expanses of desert. Everyone living there has a number for a name, and this quickly leads the man to go looking for 554, who turns out to be a waitress at a diner. She knew the old man as 93, and he constantly talked of escaping the Village. Pursued by the hunting party from the desert, the man tries to make his escape, but is cornered and then wakes up in a hospital. Everyone there knows him as 6, but thanks to his scrambled memories, he can’t correct them with a real name. He only knows that he must escape the Village… and he quickly learns that the Village’s leader, a man known simply as 2, will do nearly anything to stop him.

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), John Whitely (93), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12), Jessica Haines (554)

Notes: With the classic-series-style furniture and jacket, lava lamp and the drawing of Big Ben, 93 is strongly implied to be Number Six from the original series. (Nine minus three also equals six.) In an NPR interview, series star Jim Caviezel says that the intention was to have Patrick McGoohan play the role, but McGoohan, who died in January 2009 several months ahead of the new series’ premiere, was too ill to take part. Over the years, numerous revivals of the series had been mooted, including a big-screen revival starring Mel Gibson, and indeed even this revival of The Prisoner had been dead in the water at one point, with the original UK production partner balking at the expense involved. The original Prisoner has also inspired several shows directly, most notably Nowhere Man (1995-96) and Lost (2004-10), whose creators both admitted to being heavily influenced by McGoohan’s original series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Harmony

The Prisoner (2009 remake)Having proven obstructive in a series of interrogation sessions thinly disguised as counseling, 6 is introduced to a man known as 16, who is supposedly his brother. Disturbingly, 16 seems to have photographic proof of this family connection, but 6 vehemently denies it: surely 2 has put 16 up to this charade for his own reasons. 16 tries to return 6 to the normalcy of his old job, driving the family-operated tour bus around the Village and for quick sightseeing tours into the desert. On one of these trips, 6 spots what appears to be a large boat anchor in the sand – evidence of a body of water whose existence everyone in the Village denies. One of his passengers is intrigued as well. 16 wins a trip to the legendary Escape Resort and invites 6 to join his family; while there, 16 reveals that he is not, in fact, 6’s brother, and decides to join 6 in his quest for a way out of the Village.

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Jeffrey R. Smith (16), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12), Jessica Haines (554), Warrick Grier (1955), James Cunningham (70), Leila Henriques (Winking Woman)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, the pointed anti-war western pastiche Living In Harmony – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Anvil

The Prisoner (2009 remake)2 recruits 6 to join his legion of “undercovers” – Village residents who spy on other Village residents. The undercovers don’t try to determine if someone is guilty; they assume guilt and then try to find out what their subject is guilty of. 6 vows on the spot to find ways to turn this new assignment against 2, but even 6 is surprised when he learns about the culture of surveillance that exists within the borders of the Village: children are taught spying techniques, and virtually anyone could be a spy. 6 worries about the fate of the dreamers, Village residents who have inexplicably drawn sketches of such things as Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty. Anyone caught remembering the world outside the Village doesn’t have a long life expectancy; anyone caught associating with 6 may have an even shorter life.

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Jeffrey R. Smith (16), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12), Vincent Regan (909), Warrick Grier (1955)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, Hammer Into Anvil – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Darling

The Prisoner (2009 remake)A gaping hole leading to nowhere has opened up in 147’s back yard. 6 is curious as to what caused it – the best explanation anyone seems to have is that it’s not the weather – and even wonders if it’s a mean of escaping the Village. At the same time, 6 is being pressured to take part in the Village’s matchmaking program, and while he’s skeptical at first, he’s stunned to find himself matched to a woman who he remembers encountering in New York City. Only now she’s blind, and has no memory of life before the Village – or of 6. One of 147’s children disappears into the hole while playing, never to emerge again. As it seems as though wedding bells may be ringing for 6, the hole may be ringing in the end of the Village.

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Jeffrey R. Smith (16), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Schizoid

The Prisoner (2009 remake)6 discovers that someone who looks like him is stalking the Village. 313 says that 6 was in her apartment last night, and 147 claims that he and 6 got into a vicious argument. 6 even sees his double and tries to follow him, only to be cornered and attacked. His doppelganger urges him to follow the only course of action that will allow him to escape the Village: kill 2. A warning is issued by 2 that there is also a 2 impersonator on the loose, a disheveled man who looks like him but claims to have no number: one of the highest crimes possible in the Village. 2’s double and 6’s double are on a collision course. Or are they?

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Jeffrey R. Smith (16), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, The Schizoid Man – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation. That episode of the original Prisoner series proved to be memorable to writer Tracy Torme, who bestowed the same title upon one of his episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
New Series Prisoner, The

Checkmate

The Prisoner (2009 remake)6 is falling ill, and 313 confirms the grim diagnosis: something is slowly killing him. 147 tries to get him help, but 2 seems content to sit back and watch his adversary wither away as more new arrivals – who seem to have no idea that they came from outside the Village – roll in on a bus. But as 2 concentrates all of his time and energy on watching 6 die, his own family is wiped out, and the mysterious holes to nowhere continue opening in the ground. What happens to the Village when 2 doesn’t feel like being in charge anymore?

written by Bill Gallagher
directed by Nick Hurran
music by Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Ian McKellen (2), Jim Caviezel (6), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Ruth Wilson (313), Lennie James (147), Rachael Blake (M2), Jamie Campbell Bower (11-12), David Butler (Shopkeeper / Access Man), Renate Stuurman (21-16), Hanle Johanna Barnard (23-90), Leila Henriques (Curtis’ PA), Wolfgang Weissenstein (Butler)

Notes: The new Prisoner episode titles hearken back to episodes of the original – in this case, Checkmate – even though there may not necessarily be a direct story correlation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green