The Prisoner Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (1967–1968) watch online HD

I'm probably in the minority on this episode but I can highly recommend this episode. McGoohan was filming a movie (Ice Station Zebra) so this episode and I believe the episode "The Girl Who Was Death" use body doubles, flashbacks and another actor all together here to get the story told. I watched the Prisoner as a very young lad when it first aired on CBS, and then avidly in High School on PBS in the late 70's, and I don't recall ever seeing this one until I purchased the A&E DVD set. Maybe thats why I like it so much, I have not seen it too many times. I really enjoy the scene where he is driving to his old bosses underground office and then in the weird office lift as they go up with the semi techno music playing and McGoohan's voice thinking to himself thoughts such as "is there a reversal process? Pity if there isn't." lol, classic. The story, like many of these in the series has at least one major plot fault that seems really obvious to me, that being in the end when number 2 knows that Dr Seltzman is now alive in a younger mans body flying away but still over the village, why doesn't he just recall the helo back? A more intelligent ending would have been the Colonol flying away and we hear the Doctors voice in thought saying "I've done it!" But I can forgive it for that as overall I think this is one cool episode and I do also like the actor that McGoohan's mind is placed into, Nigel Stock, he isn't exactly a heavyweight actor in England usually billed as a co star but I enjoy his work whenever I see him. This one is very different from the rest of the series and probably should not be the first one viewed as an introduction, but at episode 12, it is a nice change of pace and will keep your interest in the series to it's best episode IMHO "Once Upon A Time" 9 of 10. Oh by the way if you really start to get into this series like I have, the DVD set has a little bit of extra's but this show is legend in England and they have done a TON of specials on this show which can be found on Youtube.com, look for the one where McGoohan is interviewed on Canadian TV, it's a very insightful one hour show, with great insight to how it was made. Be seeing you.

Originally titled 'Face Unknown', this was made as a 'fill-in' because McGoohan was busy with the filming of 'Ice Station Zebra' for M.G.M. It begins with The Colonel ( Nigel Stock ) arriving by helicopter in The Village. Number 2 ( Clifford Evans ) reveals to him the existence of a 'mind swap' machine, invented by Professor Jacob Seltzman ( Hugo Schuster ), who has gone into hiding. The process cannot be reversed, hence Seltzman is needed.

Number 6 is knocked out by guards, and taken to hospital. When he awakes, he is back in his London flat, all unhappy memories of The Village gone. He looks in a mirror, yet sees a stranger's face - the Colonel's. His fiancée Janet Portland ( Zena Walker ) comes calling, having spotted the Lotus 7 parked outside. A year has gone by, yet he remembers nothing of it. She does not recognise him. He smashes the mirror with his fist. There is only one thing he can do - search for the man who can help him: Seltzman. This is, of course, what The Village want him to do, every step of The Prisoner's quest is shadowed by an undertaker ( William Lyon Brown )...

Stock gives a remarkable performance as 'The Colonel/Number 6', capturing accurately the steely determination of McGoohan's character, while Evans' 'Number Two' is so impressive one wishes he'd been brought back. His 'we could break the security of any nation' speech is wonderfully delivered. Walker shines in her few scenes as Number 6's faithful fiancée.

In their book 'Fall Out', Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore state that nobody has a good word to say about this story. I think it is a brilliant, entertaining instalment, a breath of fresh air coming after a steady run of Village-based episodes. It works even though McGoohan is barely on screen, and veers closely at times into 'Danger Man' territory, particularly the Austrian and London party scenes. Had a second season been made - with Number Six chased across the world by his ex-captors - this is how it might have looked. Clips from previous episodes are put to good use too.

Vincent Tilsley's script was later published, and after reading it, I for one am glad it was rewritten. The original had 'Sir Charles' ( John Wentworth ) reporting to a shadowy figure who is clearly connected to The Village ( Number 1? ). The 'mind swap' machine idea was old hat, a standard spy series cliché most recently done in 'The Avengers' romp - 'Who's Who?' - and whilst a pretty contrived way of explaining the star's absence it is better than having Number 6 vanish in a magician's cabinet ( a thankfully rejected idea ).

Some have grumbled that the Village do not really need Seltzman, when all they have to do to reverse the mind-swap process is to run it again. Obviously this must have been tried, and did not work. Perhaps the subjects died when the reversal was attempted. As for the final scene in which Seltzman escapes from the Village by helicopter ( having first transferred his mind into the Colonel's body ), we must assume that by the time Number Two realised what had happened the chopper had flown beyond the point where it could be retrieved. It is strange that 'Prisoner' fans can devise countless explanations for the bizarre concluding episode, yet seem incapable of ironing out inconsistencies in other episodes.

I have to say that this is by a VERY long way, the worst episode of "The Prisoner". It suffers greatly from the fact that Patrick McGoohan is absent for almost the entire episode. The fact that he was the one and only cast member made his absence all the more notable. I missed his brilliant sense of humour, hilarious one-liners (like "Oh, I'll just go to pieces" in "The Girl Who Was Death" and the sheer talent that comes through in each and every one of his performances.

I usually love body swapping episodes in any series but the main attraction of them for me was seeing what the bad guy is doing in the good guy's body because it gives the actor a chance to flex his acting muscles, not what the good guy is doing in the bad guy's. All the Colonel does in Number Six's body is lie semi-conscious on a bed wearing stupid looking goggles! I thought Nigel Stock was a poor substitute for McGoohan as well. He was a good actor but I never really bought that this was the same stubborn and extremely intelligent and resourceful man that I'd watched in the last twelve episodes stuck in another man's body. In fact, the only time he seemed to be acting or even talking like himself was at the very end when his mind was put back into his own body.

One other thing that bothered me was that Seltzman believed that he was who he claimed to be after just comparing two samples of his handwriting, one written while in his own body and the other written while he was in the Colonel's. It could easily just have been forged. A man capable of inventing a machine capable of swapping two peoples' bodies should have realised that. The final twist, however, was brilliant and I did not see that coming at all.

All in all, the low point of "The Prisoner" but every series has to have one fairly poor episode.

This one tests one's patience when it come to motivations. To start with we must accept the fact that a method has been developed for transferring one's thoughts from one person to another. In an effort to find out why Number Six resigned, his thoughts are transferred to the Colonel's. It is hoped that somehow in a new state, back to his home and his fiancée, he will spill the secret. There are some interesting things that happen as the Colonel invades private territory, not in body but in mind. There are all sorts of secret things going on and it directly involve the pretty young woman who would have married Number Six. The methods for solving codes is somewhat ingenious and the efforts to find the man who made the machine, but it somehow doesn't ring very true. An episode that is too much over the top.

Trivia has it that Patrick McGoohan was off filming "Ice Station Zebra" but the production schedule must be kept. Give the writers credit for dealing with the problem, and mind transference sure is a handy storytelling fix. But if anything, it's proof that you can't have "The Prisoner" without its star. It's a particularly flat episode, and despite its wealth of location shooting, I found myself looking forward to returning to the status quo in next week's outing.

5/10

Number six(Patrick McGoohan) is stunned to find out one day that his body is no longer his own, as he has been used in a new device that has swapped his mind in another man's body, in this case called the colonel(played by Nigel Stock) and now he must find the inventor whom he once knew in order to reverse the process, which is exactly what the village wants, and why it has released him from his prison - sort of- since he most certainly wants his old body back! Easily the least in the canon doesn't look or feel at all like a part of the series, and is even absurd really(with an unconvincing fiancée!), but a neat twist ending compensates.