The Prisoner - a 1967 TV series from UK

This is one of my favorite series from the 1960s. Even as a young man I appreciated the social commentary. There is a synergy or collinearity between this story line and "The Matrix" - the idea that things are not what they seem and that one is really a prisoner in a "velvet prison". I purchased this on Blu Ray and rewatched it all. It was filmed in 35mm so the translation to Blu Ray disk is like a movie. Its brilliant.

<spoiler alert>

The whole attack balloons didn't make sense at the time and it still does not make sense (to me).
 
I had the DVD box set many years ago, and I agree it is a brilliant series. The lead actor who played No. 6, Patrick McGoohan, was also the series creator and lead writer. It was his great career achievement, I always thought the use of weather balloons as roving security probes was a sly nod to the UFO phenomenon, maybe I'm stretching a bit on that one though. I think I'll re-watch this again this year, thanks for bringing it back to our attention.
 
This is one of my favorite series from the 1960s. Even as a young man I appreciated the social commentary. There is a synergy or collinearity between this story line and "The Matrix" - the idea that things are not what they seem and that one is really a prisoner in a "velvet prison". I purchased this on Blu Ray and rewatched it all. It was filmed in 35mm so the translation to Blu Ray disk is like a movie. Its brilliant.

<spoiler alert>

The whole attack balloons didn't make sense at the time and it still does not make sense (to me).
I associate the ballon with today's killer drone. Its task is to control or kill the targets. It's a natural "futuristic" tool that is an integral part of the surveillance system, the "All SEEING EYE". The EYE is the equivalent of what we see today with the security cameras and all the other gadgets that spy on us. Monitoring is one function but then you also need a tool to physically influence those being observed, that is the balloon/drone's function.

Quite clever that something like this was chosen, as the then sci-fi movies already had robots. So choosing a balloon is a highly creative choice for such a function.
 
Notice the hand gesture when they part !!! In episode #1 you can see it clearly at 6:59 min point.

Here is how it looks when done by celebrities,
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Probably just a coincidence ,

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I associate the ballon with today's killer drone. Its task is to control or kill the targets. It's a natural "futuristic" tool that is an integral part of the surveillance system, the "All SEEING EYE". The EYE is the equivalent of what we see today with the security cameras and all the other gadgets that spy on us. Monitoring is one function but then you also need a tool to physically influence those being observed, that is the balloon/drone's function.

Quite clever that something like this was chosen, as the then sci-fi movies already had robots. So choosing a balloon is a highly creative choice for such a function.
I get this, and I got it at the time, but sorry, the "balloon" image just doesn't work for me. There is no way there could be a "mechanism" inside. Its a nit, I will agree. (Perhaps the fact that I am an engineer by profession influences my opinion... ;-) )
 
I knew about this series back in the eighties, when as a child I received the Iron Maiden album "The number of the beast", as a Christmas present, and under a certain controversy in my family, because it was said that these music bands were "satanics", and well there was a song on the disk called "The Prisoner" that contained an intro of this series with the voice of the controllers and the protagonist, the number 6.

I couldn't see the series until the arrival of the internet, and it's very entertaining, there are many scenes that inspired Andrew Niccol, for example, to create The Truman Show script. ;-D

 
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