The Schizoid Man (The Prisoner)

"The Schizoid Man"
The Prisoner episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 5
Directed by	Pat Jackson
Written by	Terence Feely
Original air date	27 October, 1967
Guest stars
Number Two - Anton Rodgers Alison (Number 24) - Jane Merrow
Episode chronology
← Previous "Free For All" Next → "The General"

The Schizoid Man is an episode of The Prisoner.

Plot

In an extremely complex plot of bluff and double bluff, Number 2 brings a lookalike of Number 6, referred to as "Number 12", to The Village. Number 12 (also played by McGoohan, apart from a few shots with a double,) is not a clone, but an "agent" of The Village who happens to bear a very strong resemblance to Number 6. Details in the final scenes of the episode reveal Number 12 to have a family outside The Village.

The real Number 6 is subjected to aversion therapy to alter his tastes and instincts, and then drugged to wipe his memory of the treatment. When he awakes, he is treated as "Number 12", while the lookalike assumes the role of Number 6. The real Number 6 is informed by Number 2 of the plan to break "Number 6" (actually the imposter) by convincing him that he is not Number 6 at all.

The two engage in various challenges to prove which is the real Number 6, the aversion therapy resulting in the imposter behaving more like Number 6 than the real one does. The plot is unusual among the series, as it seems that Number 2's plan is not designed to reveal why Number 6 resigned, but simply to make him accept his place in The Village, having consistently rejected the moniker "Number 6" in the past.

At the end of the episode, the real Number 6 overcomes the imposter, who reveals his name is Curtis. The false Number 6 is then mistakenly killed by Rover. Pretending to be the imposter, he reports to Number 2 that Number 6 is dead. Having "failed", he is put onto the helicopter to leave The Village. Blindfolded, and believing himself to have duped Number 2 into letting him escape, the helicopter returns to The Village, where Number 2 reveals that he had deduced the truth due to his inaccurate answering of a trivial question about Number 12's family life just before boarding.

Additional guest cast

• Supervisor: Earl Cameron
• Number Thirty-Six: Gay Cameron
• Doctor: David Nettheim
• Nurse: Pat Keen
• Guardian: Gerry Crampton
• Guardian: Dinney Powell

Notes

• The character of Alison is unusual in that she is a Village resident/inmate yet is referred to by name not only by Number 6 but by Number 2 as well. She is also one of the only female characters in the series to have any sort of relationship with Number Six in which Number Six reciprocates (their relationship is seen purely as friendship, not romance).
• This is the only episode in which Rover is referred to by name. Prior to this, the device was never referred to by any name, although scripts and the spin-off novels refer to it as the Guardian. It is also the only time where Rover seemingly kills somebody, rather than incapacitating them.

Bibliography

• Fairclough, Robert, ed. The Prisoner: The Original Scripts. vol. 1. foreword by Lewis Greifer. Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 978-1903111765. OCLC 61145235.  - script of episode

Trivia

• The title of this episode was later reused in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of the same name, as Patrick McGoohan (Number Six) was set to guest star as Dr. Ira Graves.
• As the episode featured a doppelganger of McGoohan’s Number Six character McGoohan's stunt double on the show Frank Maher has a lot of screen time in this episode alongside the ‘real’ Number Six.
• The helicopter scene at the end briefly shows a unique (for this series) helicopter, without pontoons, among other differences.
• Number Two first mentions The General in this episode.

External links

• The Prisoner: The Schizoid Man at the Internet Movie Database