This is a difficult episode to review really, I can't really make my mind up about it. The awfulness of some of it is beyond doubt. Yes, it's the episode without McGoohan!
He was away filming Ice Station Zebra and only recorded one proper scene, shown in the last thirty seconds. Other than that he appears only in flashback scenes taken from previous episodes.
So how do you film an episode without the star man? Easy, the old mind swap trope. The Prisoner has his mind implanted in the body of a portly middle aged Colonel, and released from The Village. The Guardians have used the " Seltzman Process" on The Prisoner to swap his mind, and then release him hoping he 'll lead them to Seltzman himself so he can regain his body. The Village want Seltzman's invaluable reversal process. It's sort of fun watching The Prisoner played by Nigel Stock, Professor Hayter in Dr Who - Time Flight,
" psychotronics Doctor? I call it electronics"
We meet The Prisoner's fiancee, see him back in London, and drive across Europe tracking down Seltzman, who is in hiding in Austria. It's very watchable.
BUT IT'S CRAP!
Why is there an invaluable reversal process? Surely repeating the mind swap between The Prisoner and The Colonel will reverse the swap and put them back in their own bodies. Technically the episode is poor too. Shots of Stock as The Prisoner driving through London are clearly stock footage of McGoohan. The shots of Stock driving through Europe use obvious backdrops, but as The Prisoner's car is a low level Lotus 7 car, the backdrops don't match,and it appears the car is floating ten feet off the ground.
There are scenes that have the body of The Prisoner, unconscious on the laboratory table, with his mind vacated, and presumably The Colonel's in situ, with Number 2 standing in front of it, however a double is used for Number 2 as actor Clifford Evans had long since filmed his scenes and left when McGoohan returned, and it's so obviously a double it's laughable.
Having said all this it's still entertaining in a superficial sort of way.
He was away filming Ice Station Zebra and only recorded one proper scene, shown in the last thirty seconds. Other than that he appears only in flashback scenes taken from previous episodes.
So how do you film an episode without the star man? Easy, the old mind swap trope. The Prisoner has his mind implanted in the body of a portly middle aged Colonel, and released from The Village. The Guardians have used the " Seltzman Process" on The Prisoner to swap his mind, and then release him hoping he 'll lead them to Seltzman himself so he can regain his body. The Village want Seltzman's invaluable reversal process. It's sort of fun watching The Prisoner played by Nigel Stock, Professor Hayter in Dr Who - Time Flight,
" psychotronics Doctor? I call it electronics"
We meet The Prisoner's fiancee, see him back in London, and drive across Europe tracking down Seltzman, who is in hiding in Austria. It's very watchable.
BUT IT'S CRAP!
Why is there an invaluable reversal process? Surely repeating the mind swap between The Prisoner and The Colonel will reverse the swap and put them back in their own bodies. Technically the episode is poor too. Shots of Stock as The Prisoner driving through London are clearly stock footage of McGoohan. The shots of Stock driving through Europe use obvious backdrops, but as The Prisoner's car is a low level Lotus 7 car, the backdrops don't match,and it appears the car is floating ten feet off the ground.
There are scenes that have the body of The Prisoner, unconscious on the laboratory table, with his mind vacated, and presumably The Colonel's in situ, with Number 2 standing in front of it, however a double is used for Number 2 as actor Clifford Evans had long since filmed his scenes and left when McGoohan returned, and it's so obviously a double it's laughable.
Having said all this it's still entertaining in a superficial sort of way.
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