Arrival

Playing suave, efficient British intelligence operative John Drake, Patrick McGoohan rose to international fame in "Danger Man" (dubbed "Secret Agent" in the United States), the most realistic espionage television series of the spy-crazed 1960s, far more John le Carre than Ian Fleming even if McGoohan had been offered the role of James Bond in "Dr. No." (Obviously, he refused.)

However, McGoohan tired of the ultimately formula role and turned to creating a new approach to what was to him still a fascinating subject, the spy trade, particularly as the Cold War was still in full swing when his new series, "The Prisoner," premiered in the UK in 1967. With its 17 episodes in total, "The Prisoner" was really an extended miniseries and not intended to be a story in perpetuity, but even this relative handful of episodes remains provocative and controversial.

Indeed, debate still rages over whether McGoohan's protagonist in "The Prisoner" is simply John Drake from "Danger Man" (although one "Danger Man" episode, the chilling "Colony Three," does presage the concept behind "The Prisoner"); there is even contention about the "correct" running order of the episodes. However, there is no dispute that "Arrival," written by series' script editor George Markstein and David Tomblin, is the premiere of the premier television spy drama "The Prisoner."

Amidst the fanfare of Ron Grainer's stirring theme music, the expository tableau of how "The Prisoner" came to be that emerges: McGoohan drives to a London office complex, angrily pounds his resignation letter into the desk of a silent, impassive man (Markstein), then drives to his stylish townhouse, where dapper operatives tailing him apply knockout gas and disappear him. (An abridged version of this tableau became the visual component to the intro for almost all subsequent episodes.)

McGoohan awakes in "the Village," a bucolic seaside hamlet ringed by forest and hills ("The Prisoner" was filmed at the Italianate tourist village of Portmeirion, Wales), and quickly discovers that none of the villagers, including himself, are addressed by name, only by a number; his is Number Six, and when he meets village chieftain Number Two (Guy Doleman), you're not paying attention if you don't realize that Number Six must be a very big fish.

In fact, Number Two acknowledges that he has sensitive knowledge that makes him very valuable to other powers, which is why they want to know why he resigned. But who are "they"? Which side is running the Village? Number Six gleans that many of the residents at some point became a liability or a danger similar to him--but for whom were they working?

Following an escape attempt that lands him in the hospital, a result of running afoul of "Rover," the surreal white globes that police the Village, he sees an old colleague, Cobb (Paul Eddington), drugged or delirious, who soon jumps out the window. At his funeral, Number Six meets his lover (Virginia Maskell), who offers him an "Electropass," a device that would enable him to operate the Village helicopter, seemingly the only way out of town. But can she be trusted? Can the fetching maid (Stephanie Randall) cleaning his quarters and laying a sob story on him be believed? Why is there suddenly a new Number Two (George Baker) running the Village? And who is the silent, diminutive Butler (Angelo Muscat) gliding along the periphery? But as Number Six sees written on the wall of the labor exchange, "Questions are a burden to others; answers, a prison for oneself."

Apart from period furniture and fixtures, "The Prisoner" has dated very little because instead of focusing on Cold War mechanics, it delved into the psychology driving it, motives and ambitions and fears and betrayals inherent in human society that are timeless. And it all begins with "Arrival."

First episode of the classic British series that stars Patrick McGoohan as a mysterious British secret agent who, as the opening credits show, angrily resigns from service for undisclosed reasons, but it because of those reasons that he finds himself knocked out by a gas, then taken to a remote and regimented place called the village, where he is told by number two(who can change without notice...) no one has names, but numbers, and he is assigned the number six, which he utterly rejects, and vows to escape from this "prison", but that will prove to be most difficult indeed... Solid way to begin the series establishes "Six" quite well indeed, with fine acting and atmosphere throughout, creating true viewer interest in what this is all about.

"I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!"

And so begins "the Prisoner", a pilot episode that hits the ground at full speed, the unnamed secret agent furiously slamming down his resignation and storming off - only to be gassed and awakened in a cheerily conformist seaside resort. And it never really slows down; this is bursting at the seams with plot and setup, infused with a primal energy as Number Six (Patrick McGoohan, stripped of individuality) saunters, paces and seethes with contempt. Who exactly did he work for, and why was his exit so bitter? Who runs the Village? What happens if he gives up their so-coveted information?

And what a peculiar place this is, as mystifying as it is idyllic, menacingly patrolled by a weather balloon. The world-building that goes on here is fantastic.

It's no wonder this show was a hit; it practically dares yo not to tune in next week.

9/10

Love how the title sequence with that terrific Ron Grainer theme welling up behind it encapsulates in three minutes the who!e premise for what was to follow.

A top-level secret agent (possibly John Drake- a case of art imitating life imitating art?) angrily resigns his position but is then kidnapped and placed in an apparently sleepy but ultra-modern village in an unknown location where he is expected to acclimate himself to the mundane unchanging way of life and also to give up information as to why he resigned. This brings him into contact with the ever changing Number 2, the village controller tasked with breaking the new Number 6 as the new arrival is termed and what follows is a succession of episodes where the individual puts himself against the system, not only asserting his own free-will but resisting the constant intrusion into his own privacy.

This classic scene-setter introduces Patrick McGoohan as the blazered, scowling, fiercely resistant Number 6 determined to beat every new Number 2 and eventually escape the Village. He tries every conventional method in this first chapter to get away only to be thwarted every time especially when he learns of the existence of "Rover" an absorbent roaring sci-fi bubble which acts as a sort of guard dog for the premises.

McGoohan is magnificent in the lead role in one of those rare TV shows which comes along and is completely unlike anything which has gone before. It baffled much of the public when first broadcast but makes more sense in today's more enlightened times.

Give it a chance and it will imprison your interest for all 17 episodes.

I've always recognize Patrick McGoohan as a great British actor, even he quite often playing bad guys, in this new series ( at least for me) that I've never hear before, I've bought by Box-set for the main character, my first impression has a bit disappoint in this opening episode, when he as British secret agent is fed up with something and offers his dismissal, afterwards he was kidnapped to an unknown place called simply by the Village, where supposedly is impossible to escape, he was taken to be interviewed about their exactly reasons to let him drop out of the secret service, however the number six as they re-named him, didn't want give any information and trying run away from there, many them failed attempts, there he meets a former secret agent at hospital in the same condition , later he found dead, suddenly appears a widow's agent that has an unerring scheme to leave there, acceptable introducing series, what's coming up next, thus we can say more!!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD/ Rating: 7.25