What if Patrick McGoohan was right, what if the Prisoner-Number 6 was never intended to be Danger Man John Drake, what then? I mean such a thing would see ‘the Prisoner’ through a whole new perspective, wouldn't you say?
With the Quinn Martin production of ‘The Invaders,’ we know where it began, it began with architect David Vincent too tired to drive. An empty road, and a lonely closed and deserted diner........ And that could be said of ‘the Prisoner,’ but ‘the Prisone’r is different somehow, and I can't believe that it all began somewhere along that long deserted runway, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
We know where the Prisoner was going, London London London London
But if the Prisoner isn't ‘Danger Man’ John Drake, then it must be that he, like Number 2-Leo McKern before him, had been abducted to the village because he could be of use to them. The village's administration having recognised qualities in ‘the Prisoner’ that would see him in having a future in the Village. Yet the Prisoner rejected the village, rejected the offer of ultimate power, launched the rocket and escaped the confines of the village, and having done so, as soon as he returned to London, went to an office and handed in his letter of resignation to a man who was possibly an exterior agent working for the village.
This would explain where ‘the Prisoner’ had come from, which would mean that it is the episode of ‘Fall Out’ where ‘the Prisoner’ actually all begins, with his rejection of the offer of ultimate power. And not simply with a clap of thunder and a long deserted runway somewhere in the middle of nowhere!
BCNU
In the original ITC press releases, one of the first things that is stated is that the Prisoner is NOT John Drake.
ReplyDeleteOne of the last things that is stated is that it has no connection with The Fugitive either. That show rarely gets mentioned in connection with the The Prisoner but does bear some thematic things in common with it. Most episodes are self-contained and Kimble's screen persona is a taciturn one, like Number Six, but where Six is hard as nails, Kimble is soft and gentle. But they were both survivors.
I always thought that Janseen and McGoohan had moor than a passing resemblance to one another too. A show that ceertainly did owe something to The Fugitive was Run For Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara. That had an opening sequence with Gazzara walking through corridors and a POV of him driving furiously in his sports car. I remember us seeing him, in a race helmet face-on too (just like we see McGoohan - but with no helmet), but this clip doesn't show that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8xT2tW6-Rk
McGoohan was a man living in his own time. He once expressed admiration for Man From Uncle and those agents used to wear numbered badges and go into an unexpectedly high-tech underground base.
All this stuff plainly had moor influence on McGoohan than Kafka ever did - seeing as he said he'd never read a word of Kafka. This stuff would equally also have been in the minds of all his contemporaries too, such as Tomblin, Williams, Shampan and Stafford.
Hello Moor,
DeleteAn interesting comment. McGoohan did indeed state in an ITC press release that The Prisoner is not John Drake. But if it was not for John Drake and 'Danger Man,' then 'the Prisoner' might not have existed, and even if it did, it might not have been filmed in Portmeirion, as some scenes of a variety of 'Danger Man' were. Becasue it was through going to Portmeirion that McGoohan saw it as being the ideal place to put a man in isolation.
Regards
David
BCNU
Yes, I suppose my point is that John Drake had just as much to do with it as many other possible influences.
ReplyDeleteBecause McGoohan had played John Drake with some of his own idealised personal characteristics, and Number Six was his own character from scratch, the similarities were inevitable. However the two characters in the round bear little resemblance in their behaviour. Drake was calm, personable, compassionate, generally friendly and co-operative with the authorities. He also clearly knew what side he was on.
The aspect of this Drake/Six argument that is moot however is the notion that the project started out with McGoohan intending it to be a mere sequel to Danger Man. This idea was largely introduced to fan belief by our old friend George Markstein and his promoters, and says moor about him and them than it does about McGoohan perhaps.
McGoohan was generally quite forgiving about this, as he remarked, that seeing as both characters looked the same, he could appreciate the tendency to conflate them. Many people also conflate his own personality with that of his character too. He had the same problem when he was playing John Drake, with people in bars expecting him to be good at punch-ups.... :-D
Hello Moor,
DeleteIt was inevitable that people would think that 'The Prisoner' is John Drake, seeing as they both looked the same, sometimes wear the same suit of clothes, well that was perfectly natural, seeing as how Drake and Number 6 are played by the same actor, the same suit of clothes from the same wardrobe department. Only yesterday I received a letter from a fan who said that when he first watched the series in 1967, he understood 'the Prisoner' to be a sequal to 'Danger Man.'
McGoohan put so much of his own character into both Drake and the Prisoner. As you say there are differences in the characters, but people do change, and it's not surprisng that the Prisoner was angry at being abducted to the Village, held captive, interrogated. Drugged, manipulated, controlled. Faced with his doppleganger-Curtis, to escape only to find his house, his car {which he built with his own hands} belonging to someone else! To be threatened with having to undergo a luecotomy operation, to have been fooled that he had undergone that operation. Fed hallucinatory drugs, put in dangerous environments, and expected to survive. Then to have his mind changed, to wake up in someone elses body. Regressed to his childhood, and the final manipulation of all, to be faced with himself as Number 1! To have gone through all that, and come out of it the same person, to be unaffected, that seems highly unlikely.
The 17 episodes 'the Prisoner' would be a difficult thing for anyone to experience, only a man of John Drake's exceptional calibre could have survived intact! And if not John Drake, someone very much like him, Patrick mcGoohan perhaps!
Kind regards
David
BCNU