AUTOREN:

INTERVIEWS:

AYE, AYE, AYE...! - I, I, I...

There is a gap of several months between the production of episode 12 (16) and 13 (17) which may explain some of the inconsistencies. "Once Upon A Time" which was to be the last episode of the first installment clearly is now the penultimate of the series.

Instead of producing 26, as common in TV business, only 17 episodes were made under considerable pressure of time. It was McGoohan who wrote the script of "Fall Out" virtually alone in one night. Kenneth Griffith himself wrote his assembly speech. And a lot of acting was done on the spot out of the situation. Almost the last third of the episode is without any dialogues.

"Fall Out" resumes the trial. But it’s all different now. Number Six has gotten through the ordeal with Number Two.
It may be in gratitude or just mocking him for having proved his individuality Number Six is now sitting on a throne in front of an audience of hooded figures donning black-and-white face masks who represent certain roles: "nationalists", "reactionaries", "dissidents" etc. Number Six is now addressed "Sir" by the President of the assembly who then proceeds to speak about revolt. Bringing forward two examples - Number 48, an impetuous youth and one established, Number Two, who had died the episode before, reanimated (or - as nothing really is the way it appears to be - wasn’t he dead at all?) it becomes evident that the true essence of revolt is that of Number Six’.

The German title "Demaskierung", in fact, is misleading because nothing there is demasked that isn’t already an image, a mask, a picture-puzzle. And the trial is a farce initiated by the (then up-to-date) Beatles’ song "All You Need Is Love" with Number Six, the Supervisor and the Butler walking down a subterranean corridor lined with jukeboxes leading towards and into a huge cavern. There the action is terminated by some rude although rather stage-effect gunfighting. It is up to Number Six to make up his mind: to govern or to leave. In the key scene he is allowed to speak to the assembly. As he starts his very first word is interrupted by the masked knocking on their tables and shouting repeatedly: "Aye, aye, aye - I, I, I...!" to leave his speech unheard in the noise. Within the assembly, community, society there is no use for someone like Number Six. "You’ve made us realize our mistakes", says the President. And Number Six leaves, events getting out of control. The entire Village is evacuated, helicopters rise to the sky and so does a rocket but due to the weak optical effects not much more credibility is generated here.

Eventually he gets to meet Number One who turns out to be his other "self", or else something different. For sure, many viewers wouldn't accept this as a solution conforming to TV series' standards or as an appropriate one, in fact they don't until today.

As the episode ends we see Number Six, Number Two, Number 48 and the Butler back in London, Number Six driving his Lotus down the empty highway just like it happened in the very first scene...

This closing episode is certainly a wrap-up and everthing but a conclusion or resolution of the events previously seen. Maybe it was developed under the pressure to put an end to it, one way or the other. We will probably never know.The background of these fireworks of ideas is anarchism and social rule. Even those experienced in university seminars will find both final episodes pretty hard stuff to swallow. And the best of it all: this is television entertainment!

ZDF (the German TV station that first aired THE PRISONER in 1969) probably was in a state of uneasiness. Because NUMMER 6 was shown on Sunday nights around 11 p.m.