MUSEUM OF MODERN MYTHOLOGY AND POP CULTURE

THE PRISONER

1967. "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own." Originally a British TV mini-series, The Prisoner was created by actor Patrick McGoohan, and military correspondent George Markstein. Markstein recalled that people with sensitive military and political backgrounds had been incarcerated in a resort-prison during World War II. McGoohan expanded this, creating an allegorical, surreal, science fiction, spy drama, breaking all of the rules of mainstream television. The theme of individualism versus collectivism unfolds with a secret agent who resigns his job, is captured by mysterious forces and placed in The Village. The resourceful Number 6 (McGoohan), is determined to escape and discover the identity of his captors, resisting violence, hypnosis, hallucinogenic drugs, mind control, dream manipulation, identity theft, and other forms of indoctrination. "I am not a number!" he shouts indignantly. "I am a free man!" The series is as pertinent today as it was back in the 1960s. "Be seeing you."

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