List of The Prisoner episodes

Following is a list of the episodes of The Prisoner, along with descriptions of their content and context.

Whilst everyone agrees on the first and the last three episodes of the 17 produced shows, extensive debate has taken place among dedicated fans trying to determine a "correct" order for the intermediate 13 episodes. The order in which the episodes were originally broadcast in Britain differs from the order in which they were produced. Even the broadcast order is not that originally intended by series star and co-creator Patrick McGoohan. Many have analyzed the series line-by-line for time references, which in many cases provide different—sometimes radically different—episode orders compared to the broadcast order.

Ian Rakoff (assistant editor on two episodes and co-writer of "Living in Harmony") authored a book in 1998 on his experience working on the series, wherein the appendices include a numbered episode guide which reflects the original UK broadcast order, as do the nine-volume Laserdisc releases of the series, also released in 1998. However, the 2006 40th Anniversary DVD Boxed Set released in association with American television's Arts & Entertainment Channel (A&E) uses a different order. The set goes so far as to include a guidebook with justifications for their version, citing—among other reasons—the aforementioned "time references", such as Number Six telling other members of the Village that he is "new here". Given that Number Six is pitted against myriad psychological tricks and mind-altering drugs throughout the series, many do not think that such references are a proper way to postulate answers to such questions as time, while still others feel that such statements represent Number Six's constant sarcastic, adversarial and wry attitude towards his captors.

A new sequence has been established by analyst Joanna Southcott in an unpublished article. This was achieved by grouping the 17 episodes into the completed Series One (13 episodes) and the curtailed Series Two (only four episodes), then establishing the first and last episodes in each series and subsequently working from these ends, filling-in the two sequences using existing and new research. This work has given a suggested sequence for Series One: "Arrival", "Free For All", "Dance of the Dead", "Checkmate", "The Chimes of Big Ben", "The General", "A. B. and C.", "The Schizoid Man", "It's Your Funeral", "Hammer Into Anvil", "Living In Harmony", "A Change of Mind" and finally "Many Happy Returns". Southcott says: "The general idea seems to have been that Series One would start with The Prisoner arriving in The Village, and end with him escaping: he gets back to London and tells his former superiors what has been going on, but since they are apparently the ones that sent him to The Village in the first place, it is hardly surprising that they send him back. And this opens the way for Series Two to begin with The Prisoner back in The Village." The second series is sequenced by Southcott as: "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling", "The Girl Who Was Death", "Once Upon A Time" and finally "Fall Out". Southcott comments: "Whatever meaning we choose, as individuals, to place upon the series, our self-appointed task is made more difficult if we watch the episodes in the wrong sequence. But perhaps that was all part of the idea..."

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