The Schizoid Man (The Prisoner)
Encyclopedia
The Schizoid Man is an episode of The Prisoner
.
, 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.
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
.
Plot
In an extremely complex plot of bluff and double bluffDeception
Deception, beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, bad faith, and subterfuge are acts to propagate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth . Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda, and sleight of hand. It can employ distraction, camouflage or concealment...
, Number 2 brings a lookalike of Number 6, referred to as "Number 12", to The Village
The Village (The Prisoner)
The Village is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner where the main character, Number Six, is held with other former spies and operatives...
. 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
Aversion therapy
Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort...
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 CameronEarl Cameron (actor)Earl Cameron, CBE is a Bermudian actor. He is known as one of the first black actors to break the "colour bar" in the United Kingdom, along with Cy Grant...
- Number Thirty-Six: Gay Cameron
- Doctor: David NettheimDavid NettheimDavid Cosman Nettheim was an Australian actor.Born in Sydney, and brought up in Cremorne Point the eldest son of actor Roy Nettheim and the actress Mary Hosking, he was introduced to the theatre when his parents joined Doris Fitton's Independent Theatre.He...
- Nurse: Pat KeenPat KeenPat Keen is a retired British actress whose career on stage, television and film ran from the 1950s to the 2000s.She is best known for playing strident, bossy middle-aged women in British comedy throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as the character 'Virginia' in the Fawlty Towers episode "The...
- Guardian: Gerry Crampton
- Guardian: Dinney Powell
Trivia
- The title of this episode was later reused in the Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
episode of the same name, as Patrick McGoohanPatrick McGoohanPatrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
(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 MaherFrank Maher (stuntman)Frank Maher was a British stuntman, most famous for his roles as a stuntman or stunt coordinator in a vast range of British TV shows in particular the TV series Danger Man in which he frequently acted as a stunt double for the series star Patrick McGoohan.-Early career:He was born in London on 18...
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 pontoonsFloats (nautical)Floats are airtight hollow structures, similar to pressure vessels, whose air-filled interior makes them buoyant in water. They are most often used to make up the multipart hulls of trimarans, small open catamarans, and floatplanes . Their main purpose is to supply buoyancy, not storage space...
, among other differences. - Number Two first mentions The GeneralThe General (The Prisoner)The General is the sixth episode of the television series The Prisoner. The central themes of this episode are rote learning and indoctrination.-Synopsis:...
in this episode.