No.2 "Not the professor, no problem. He has an adoring wife and an even more attentive doctor"
No. 6 sees a man being chased on the beach. It's The Professor, who has developed a new educational tool called Speed Learn, where a three year university course can be subliminally learned in three minutes. 100% entry, 100% pass is the boast. But The Professor works for The General, and rebel No.12 has the professor's taped warning to the villagers that speed-learn is an abomination. Does No.6 want the villagers to hear this message, which ends with the rallying cry "destroy The General". But who is the general?
The script was written by experienced TV writer Lewis Greifer using a pseudonym. It's an interesting plot, very well constructed. We have a subliminal education tool that seems benign but given it's instigated by The Village, it must have some nefarious purpose. Who is The Professor and his wife (neither of whom have numbers, as she states they voluntarily went there)? Who is The general? What is their connection? Can No.6 trust No.12? Is he a rebel, or is this some other diabolical plan to trick No.6? The plot is intricate but has an inevitable progress with the odd twist and turn (the professor's dummy in the bed) to keep up the suspense. It's just a shame the final reveal of The General should be so disappointing, a stock TV Sci-Fi cliché, the Super Computer.
The acting in this episode is very good, especially from the three leads. McGoohan is dogged and determined but with a wry humour, especially in his dealings with No.2. Colin Gordonreturns as No.2, having already been seen in the episode A.B.and C., though he says in the opening credits he's the new No.2 (in the earlier episode he said I am No.2). Quite a few theories have been spun about the fact that, alone except for Leo McKern, he appeared more than once as No.2. Indeed, there's a viewing order based on this. However, the simple explanation is that another actor was originally hired and Colin Gordon was a late replacement. There is a reference in the script when No.2 says that he and no.6 are "old friends". It's nice to see him anyway as he's a superb actor. Unlike his first appearance where he appeared harassed and under pressure, here he's coldly confident, even arrogant, and totally in control.
John Castle is superb as No.12. Notice the reuse of that number (it was No.6's doppelgänger in the previous episode). he also is confident and a little arrogant, and yet he inspires confidence in him, even No.6 takes a slightly submissive role when dealing with him. He's a forceful and subtle actor who'd made a splash with his small role in the Antonioni film Blow Up in 1966, and was another example of Rose Tobias Shaw's excellent casting for this series.
Peter Howells is completely in character as The Professor, note his speech to his TV audience explaining speed-learn, Betty McDowall nicely shifts between concern for her husband, and outrage at No.6's invasion of her privacy (and his unflattering portrait of her). In a surprise small role, we have ex-William Tell (another ITC show) himself Conrad Phillips, who is excellent as the unctuous and officious doctor, controlling his patient with medical arrogance, "and after a sleep ands some mild therapy you'll work twice as hard" he says in best doctor as gaoler fashion, another portrait of The Village's suborning of medical ethics to state coercion.
There are two major themes tackled here, both of concern to 60s audiences (and for later generations too). The first is the use of subliminal conditioning, a major component of the fear of brainwashing and advertising in both totalitarian and capitalist societies. There was a genuine fear that subliminal messages would be inserted into entertainment, either to promote thought control or to sell products, and that it would be used by psychiatrists (who were actively investigating this at the time in an attempt to understand how the brain processes information). The Speed-Learn technique here is subliminally grafted onto the brain, which is why everyone repeats the history text verbatim.
Which ties in with the second theme, Mass education and rote learning. As this episode clearly shows, rote learning this way leads to a mechanical repetition of 'facts' without their context. Notice how easily No.12 demonstrates this to No.6 when he asks him the question "what" rather than "when". This mass education instils what the state wants the citizen to know, it tells them what to think, but doesn't teach the skills of how to think. There's no context given to the so-called historical facts, and no attempt to demonstrate the methodology of the fact gathering, or a critical look at how history is interpreted. That's because The Village wants "cabbages" says No.6, to which No.2 replies "yes, knowledgeable cabbages". This critique of mass education is not new, The Chartists in the 19thC opposed a liberal-based education of their children as unnecessary and irrelevant. they didn't want their children taught the classics but taught work skills and trades as they would be of more use to them in their future lives.
There's a nice touch of humour and a sense of the bizarre in this episode, especially in the whole Town Hall sequence. There's the quaint old-fashioned costuming of long frock coats and top hats, and the wonderfully incongruous hand grabbing "Pass Machine", the device in which a ghostly hand slowly reaches out from a box and snatches an offered token. This was actually a well known novelty bank. It was offered during the 1966 holiday season as the Thing bank, a piece of merchandise relating to the TV show The Addams Family (1964). Copies of this bank are still available. And I just love the professor's house, wonderful art direction and set design and dressing. I'd move in!
Then we come to the one disappointing aspect, The General, and how it's defeated. The super-computer (which has not aged well, it looks retro rather than futuristic, as we no longer use those type of bank computers anymore) and how it's defeated. It's a stock Sci-Fi device beloved of TV and film exponents, and in such an original series as The Prisoner it stands out like a sore thumb as a cliché. And No.6's question that no machine can answer is also a cliché - "Why?". That's not actually a question in proper grammatical terms (it's what kids do), he could at least have written "What is the meaning of life"? It shows a laziness at the end of a script that until then was intriguing and fresh. And what about that curious ending, No. 6 enters the professor's house after he's dead? What was that all about? Again, I think Greifer (or script editor Markstein) had simply run out of steam by the end and wasn't sure what the final resolution should be.
So, a good episode, well written and acted and designed, let down at the end, hence I've marked it down. Could do better.
Incidental Music
VILLAGE rating (out of 6): No.5
Cast
The Prisoner ................................................................. PATRICK McGOOHAN Number Two ................................................................. COLIN GORDON
The Butler .................................................................... ANGELO MUSCAT Number 12 ................................................................... JOHN CASTLE Professor ...................................................................... PETER HOWELL
Announcer ................................................................... AL MANCINI Doctor ........................................................................... CONRAD PHILLIPS
Man in Buggy .............................................................. MICHAEL MILLER Waiter ........................................................................... KEITH PYOTT Man at Café and First Top Hat (two separate roles) .... DINNEY POWELL
Supervisor..................................................................... IAN FLEMING
Mechanic ...................................................................... NORMAN MITCHELL
Projection Operator ...................................................... PETER BOURNE
1st Corridor Guard ....................................................... GEORGE LEECH
2nd Corridor Guard ...................................................... JACK COOPER
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