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The Prisoner
"The Schizoid Man"
TV episode
Written by Terrence Feely
Directed by Pat Jackson
Original air date: October 27, 1967 |
A plan to make
Number 6 believe he is someone else is put into motion.
Read the complete story summary at Wikipedia
Notes from the Prisoner chronology
This episode would seem to take place before
"The General" since
Number 6 apparently does not know the General's identity when
Number 2 mentions it near the end of the episode.
Didja Know?
The title
"The Schizoid Man" is a reference to schizoid
personality disorder, a personality disorder which evidences
secretiveness, emotional distance, lack of sociability, and
tendency towards solitude.
Didja Notice?
The woman with telepathic abilities in this episode is
Number 24. A different Number 24 appeared
in "Dance
of the Dead".
The cards used by Number 6 to test Number 24's telepathic
abilities are known as Zener cards after their designer,
perceptual psychologist Karl Zener (1903–1964), who worked with
parapsychologist J. B. Rhine (1895–1980) testing subjects for
extrasensory perception in the 1930s.
At 4:20 on the DVD, a spritzer bottle on the countertop has the
Village's penny-farthing symbol on it.
The camera used by Number 24 appears to be one of the 100 Series
folding cameras produced in Polaroid's Land Camera line from
1963-1966.
The photograph of Number 6 taken by Number 24 has a daily
calendar in the background with the date of February 10. And the
smaller daily calendar next to Number 6's bed at 7:30 on the DVD
shows Wednesday, February 10. The closest February 10 to the
production to fall on a Wednesday was in 1965. Is that the year
the series is meant to take place? It was shot in 1966-67. The
next closest year would have been in the future, 1971. Then
again, in
"The Chimes of Big Ben"
Number 6 retorts to Number 2's confession that he'd like to see
the whole Earth as the Village, “I'd like to be the first man on
the Moon!” and the event of the first man on the Moon passed in
1969, so that would rule out 1971 except that the producers had
no sure way of knowing that would happen at the time. And,
of
course, who's to say the dates kept within the Village are
accurate at all?
The man working with Number 2 in the Control Room is Number 118.
A different 118 was a taxi driver in
"Arrival".
At 6:05 on the DVD, Number 2 asks the controllers to patch the
main screen into Number 6's room with infrared. Infrared is a
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum invisible to the human eye,
but can be used by human-devised instruments to see in the dark.
However, it provides only a two-color image (such as
black-and-white or green-and-white), not the color image seen
here.
The technician who preps the sleeping Number 6 at 6:50 on the
DVD is Number 100. A different
Number 100 is in charge of prepping Plan Division Q in
"It's Your Funeral".
The date on the medical clipboard on Number 6's bed at 7:51 on
the DVD is February 11.
In this episode, the powers-that-be try to get Number 6 to
believe he is actually Number 12, while a look-alike is the true
Number 6. In
"Free for All", a number
of different Village inhabitants can be seen wearing the Number
12 badge on close inspection. Was this just sloppy prop handling
in "Free for All" or is it all
meant to suggest that Number 12 is a significant identity used
by the powers-that-be? Number 6 also colludes with a different
Number 12 in an attempt to escape the Village in
"The General".
Notice there is a suitcase in "Number 12's" closet at 9:25 on the
DVD. Possibly it's there to give Number 6 the impression that,
as "Number 12", he will be allowed to pack up and leave the
Village after his mission there is complete. (In fact, Number 6
does pack and take the suitcase under the guise of Number 12 in
his escape attempt at the end of the episode.) Do the general inhabitants of the Village
also have a suitcase in their closet? It seems unlikely they are
ever allowed to travel somewhere else, but maybe they would be
given a suitcase to suggest it may be possible to leave at some
point in the future if they are cooperative during their
confinement in the Village.
The old man being pushed in the wheelchair at 10:12 on the DVD
appears to be Number 243. The woman pushing him appears to be
Number 38; in
"The Chimes of Big Ben", Number 38 was a different,
elderly woman. Two different Number 243s appears in
"The General" and
"Hammer Into Anvil".
When Number 2 meets with "Number 12" for breakfast in his
office, he offers breakfast items either à la carte or
table d'hôte. These are French terms widely used in the
food service industry.
À la carte is used to describe items chosen separately
from a menu. Table d'hôte is a
multi-course meal
ordered as a single menu item.
Number 6 has been "programmed" to prefer flapjacks for breakfast
as Number 12. Notice that Number 2 has anticipated his choice
before he even arrived for the meeting, just as an earlier
Number 2 did in
"Arrival". This may possibly suggest
that, rather than anticipating Number 6's choice in
"Arrival", he had also been
"programmed" ahead of time to request those items in order to
give the impression of near-infallibility by the powers-that-be.
Number 2 claims that "Number 12" had the nickname Flapjack
Charlie for his love of flapjacks. Does the "Charlie" come from
the imposter's real name? He is referred to as Curtis later on,
so possibly he is Charlie Curtis?
Number 2 mentions a past mission of "Number 12's" in Bucharest.
Bucharest is the capital of Romania. At the time the series was
made, Romania would have been one of the communist satellite
countries of the Soviet Union.
The text of the article visible in the February 10th issue of
the Tally Ho, which "Number 12" picks up at 12:50 on the
DVD, is made up of just scattered phrases from other sources.
The two women who perform a makeover on "Number 12" to make him
look like Number 6 are Number 249 and Number 269.
Two different Number 249s appear in
"A Change of Mind" and
"Hammer Into Anvil".
A different
Number 269 appeared in "Checkmate".
Number 2 gives "Number 12" the password of Gemini to
tell him apart from the "real" Number 6.
Gemini
is Latin for "twins" and is also the name of one of the
twelve constellations of the Zodiac associated with Castor and
Pollux from Greek mythology.
During the scenes in which Patrick McGoohan plays against
himself in the same shot, there is usually a faint line visible
in the film between the "two" actors. This is due to one half of
the film being exposed to shoot the first McGoohan role,
then blacking out that half and exposing the other half for the
second role, so that the final print makes it appear that two
McGoohans are acting with each other.
Number 2 does score a victory of a sort by getting Number 6 to
proclaim, "I am Number 6." Remember that at the beginning of
every episode we hear him say, "I am not a number, I am a free
man!"
While observing the two Number 6's in the recreation room from
the Control Room, Number 2 speaks with Number 106, who seems to
be Haitian, about Number 12's mastery at mimicking Number 6. 106
says, "In Haiti we'd say he's stolen his soul." Haiti is a small
Caribbean country on the island of Hispaniola. Number 106 seems
to be alluding to the Vodou religion practiced by many of its
inhabitants. A different Number 106
appears in "A Change of Mind".
As the two Number 6s pick up foils for a round of fencing, they
toss a few quotes from Hamlet back and forth. Just as
they say, the quotes are from Act 5, Scene 2. They are said by
Hamlet and Osric in the play, written by William Shakespeare at
the turn of the 17th Century.
At 19:10 on the DVD, the set of the recreation room appears to
have been erected inside the "dome" (Control Room) set. Notice
that the dome and struts are visible above and behind the
truncated rec room walls!

The imposter Number 6 vaguely compliments "Number 12's" fencing
skills while at the same time chiding, "...but hardly worthy of
my place on the Olympic team." The two also discuss being an
Olympic boxer (McGoohan himself was a skilled boxer in college).
Does this mean that the real Number 6 participated in the
Olympics as both a fencer and a boxer?
You'd think it would have been mentioned in
"The Chimes of Big Ben",
seeing as how the character of Nadia in that episode is said to
have participated in the Olympics as a swimmer. The modern
Olympic Games (inspired by
the ancient Greek Olympics c. 776 BC-393 AD) began in 1896,
featuring amateur athletes engaged in numerous sports
competitions in representation of their home countries.
A poster on the bulletin board outside the rec hall states that
a concert of folk music will be held on August 15. That's quite
some time away to be announcing a simple folk music concert in a
confined environ like the Village considering it's supposed to
be February in the current episode.
During an impromptu boxing match outside the rec hall, the fake
Number 6 says to the real one, "Make up your mind. Are you
orthodox or a southpaw?" An orthodox (right-handed) boxer leads
with the left foot and fist, while a southpaw (left-handed) does
the opposite.
The men who hold the fake Number 6 during his "interrogation"
are Number 256 and Number 106. Later in the episode, an entirely
different Number 256 is seen...a female nurse! And, once
again in "The General", two different
Number 256s are seen in one episode! Is there something about
badge 256 that it never stays with the same person for any
length of time? A single instance of yet another 256 appears in
"Hammer Into Anvil".
When the imposter Number 6 has his thumbprint scanned in
Number 2's office, the image that comes up on the large
screen does not quite match the one on file. Yet, when
it appears on the smaller screen observed by Number 2
and "Number 12" they match exactly! |
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Large wall screen |
Monitor screen |
When "Number 12" calls Number 24 at 25:26 on the DVD, we learn
that her name is Allison.
At 30:39 on the DVD, the exterior intro shot of the scene is
erroneously of Number 6's apartment. It should have been "Number
12's" apartment.
If you freeze frame at about 41:07 on the DVD, as
"Number 12" is thrown against the breakfast counter in
the kitchen, you can see in the background that what
would seemingly be a wastebasket (only partially
visible) is labeled like the ballot boxes seen
previously in
"Free for All"! Perhaps
this was Number 6's way of stating the value of the
ballot box in the Village, especially after his
experience in
"Free for All"? |
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Number 6's wastebasket |
Ballot box from
"Free for All" |
At 41:48 on the DVD, the breakfast counter is seen to basically
be just a board laid over the mini-refrigerator and a portion of
cabinet against the wall when the two Number 6's bump into it on
their way out of the apartment.
This is the only episode that mentions Rover by name (both
Number 6 and Number 2 say it). In scripts and the early novels,
Rover was referred to as the Guardian. Obviously, "Rover" is a
much cooler name.
Allison is seen to have a copy of the book The Mind Reader
in her apartment. A few books by that name have been published
in the real world, but the author's name here is not shown and
the cover does not match any existing publication I've been able
to find.
Number 2 mentions the General in this episode. Number 6,
pretending to be Number 12 makes the mistake of saying he'll be
reporting to the General, which makes Number 2 a bit suspicious.
You see, at this time, Number 6 did not know that the General is
actually a computer that makes recommendations about the Village
and its inhabitants (which we learn later in
"The General").
To take "Number 12" out of the Village, a different helicopter
than usual is used in this episode. It's registration number is
FBOEH. A different helicopter is seen in the landing shot
though, at 48:43. And the interior shots of Number 6 sitting
inside are different as well; notice that green tape is seen on
the left-hand window pane behind him and some kind of white
patchwork on the right-hand pane.
The men who help Number 6 out of the helicopter at the end of
the episode are Number 22 and Number 60 (or 66, it's hard to
tell). A different Number 22 is one of the exhibition judges in
"The Chimes of Big Ben",
and
two different 22s are seen in "Dance of the Dead".
A different Number 60 appears in "A Change of Mind".