http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lt/prisoner.jpg
->'''''Prisoner:''' Who are you?\\
'''No.2:''' The new Number Two.\\
'''Prisoner:''' Who is Number One?\\
'''No.2:''' You are Number Six. (or) You are, Number Six\\
'''Prisoner:''' I am not a number, I am a free man!''

->''I wanted to have controversy, arguments, fights, discussions, people in anger, waving fists in my face.''
-> Patrick [=McGoohan=] discussing the meaning of "Fall Out," the final episode of ''The Prisoner''

A 1967 British ScienceFiction drama with SuperSpy elements, produced by and starring Patrick [=McGoohan=], about the conflict between individuality and authority, cast in the form of an unnamed man's attempts to escape from a surreal {{Dystopia}}n penal colony. Almost uniquely, it had a distinct StoryArc. The episodes had no clear progression, but the series did have a distinct beginning, middle and end in the form of the final two episodes capped off by the GrandFinale "Fall Out".

The characters:

* '''Number 6''': A nameless former spy who has resigned as "a matter of conscience". (He does not elaborate.) The only character to appear in each of the 17 episodes.
* '''Number 2''': A succession of leaders who live in the Green Dome. They all try in their turn to break Number 6. Each episode has a unique Number 2 (or in a couple of episodes, more than one per episode). Only those played by Leo [=McKern=] and Colin Gordon appeared more than once.
* '''The Butler''': A dwarf played by Angelo Muscat who doesn't have a number and serves Number 2. He never speaks. He appears in all but a few of the episodes.

Believed by many to be a sequel of sorts to [=McGoohan=]'s previous series, ''DangerMan'', with the eponymous character -- a/k/a "Number Six" -- actually being ''Danger Man'''s John Drake. Drake and Number Six drive the same car, there is at least one [[CrossOver shared character]], (or possibly just a character with the same name and actor), and Number Six's "civilian" clothes are distinctive outfit usually worn by Drake. Official ''Prisoner'' novels flat out name the Prisoner as Drake. For many years, [=McGoohan=] publicly maintained that the Prisoner was ''not'' Drake, but it is suspected that he was just being contrary (see below).

Some have even theorized that both characters are also the same person as the secret agent [=McGoohan=] played in the film ''Ice Station Zebra''. Certain small differences in behavior between the three characters (for example, Drake does not drink, the Prisoner drinks occasionally, and the ''Ice Station Zebra'' character is a borderline alcoholic) have been taken as hints toward the reason Number Six resigned his job (his refusal to divulge this reason is the MacGuffin for the series; his antagonists figure that if they can break him enough to get that information out of him, the rest will follow).

Another one of the primary topics of fan debate is ''what order the episodes are meant to be in.'' There are five principal orders out there, and to be honest the original broadcast order is the one that makes the least sense.

''ThePrisoner'' is known for its obscure, often confusing subtexts and plot twists, which culminated in a GrandFinale which raised more questions than it actually answered.

A {{remake}}, in the form of a six-hour miniseries with Jim "The Passionate Christ" Caviezel as Number 6 and Sir Ian "The White Wizard" [=McKellen=] as Number 2, ran in November 2009.

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This show provides examples of:
* AllJustADream - The resolution of a number of episodes.[[spoiler:Also the entire premise behind the Village in the remake: it turns out the Village is actually a sort of shared dreamspace on a level deeper than the subconscious]]
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign - An Estonian with a Polish name and a (poorly faked) Russian accent in an episode, in spite of Estonian not being related to either language.
** Hearing an Estonian speaking Russian back in 1967 (or nowadays, for that matter) wasn't exactly uncommon. Same thing goes for Russians with Polish sounding names, Poles with Lithuanian sounding names, Lithuanians with Slavic sounding names, et caetera.
** Poland at the time was a ''de facto'' Soviet republic in all but name.
* TheButlerDidIt - As good a guess as any.
* CatchPhrase - Several. "Be seeing you!", "Why did you resign?", "I am not a number, I am a free man!", "Who is Number One?", etc.
* ColdWar - Subverted. See GovernmentConspiracy below.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome / EarWorm: Gotta love that [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1i0n6kKbKo title theme]]. Not that you have much choice.
* CompanionCube - Rover!
* TheDragon - The multiple Number Twos.
* {{Dystopia}} - The Village, a more subtle example than most.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption - Escape the Village.
* FranchiseZombie - [=McGoohan=] wanted to make only seven episodes, but [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling executives]] wanted 26. In the end, they compromised on 17 episodes.
* GainaxEnding - After footsying around with metaphor and allegory for the entire series, the GrandFinale goes ''completely'' allegorical... so much so that there's actually a fairly good case for calling this trope the FallOutEnding or the PrisonerEnding instead.
* GildedCage - The Village.
* GovernmentConspiracy - Exactly who the conspiracy ''is'' is a complete mystery, and No. 6 is frustrated in early efforts to determine which side of the ColdWar is running the Village. One No. 2 suggests that it really doesn't matter, as the two sides of the ColdWar are becoming increasingly similar.
** ''[[{{Clue}} Communism was just a red herring]].''
* GrandFinale - Where the Prisoner escapes, [[OrIsIt or does he]]?
* HeelFaceTurn - [[spoiler:Leo [=McKern=]'s No. 2]] in the GrandFinale.
* IndividualityIsIllegal - See "A Change of Mind" in particular.
* InstantSedation - The knockout gas in the first episode (and opening title) and a doctor's hypodermic in "A Change of Mind", both used on Number 6.
* LighthousePoint - "The Girl Who Was Death."
* LockedInARoom
* LogicBomb
* LonersAreFreaks - Subverted since in the Village, the fact that Number 6 is a stubborn loner is his greatest strength. Doubly subverted in the episode "Checkmate".
* MacGuffin - The real reason for Number 6's resignation. In two ways:
** Many of the Village minders don't actually give a flying f__k about the answer (and it's entirely possible that they already know) -- what's important is that Number 6 surrenders by telling them.
** Others, like the Number 2 in "A, B and C", set off the plot of the episode in question because they think they'll learn the true reason Number 6 resigned. They never do.
* MindScrew - The series as a whole, individual episodes in particular and the GrandFinale, of course, most of all. Eat your heart out, ''[[NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA]]''.
* NoEnding - [[spoiler:The series ended with Number 6 getting home, flash of lightning, wait... it's the opening credits!]]
* NoNameGiven - The Prisoner's real name (although many fans assume he's John Drake); in fact, he's not even called "Number Six" in the scripts, except by other characters.
** In the episode "Many Happy Returns", [[spoiler:Number 6 called himself "Peter Smith", but this could be an assumed/false name.]]
** In "The Girl Who Was Death", the boxing ring referee announces [=McGoohan=]'s character by name as what sounds like a slurred, quickly spoken "John Drake". Later he calls him (somewhat more clearly) "Mr. Drake". This was probably a deliberate joke by Patrick [=McGoohan=], to go along with his hiring an actor named "John Drake" for the episode.
* OntologicalMystery - Where exactly ''is'' the Village? Who runs it? Does it matter?
* SalvagePirates - episode "[[http://tinyurl.com/4gj59w Many Happy Returns]]". Number 6 escapes the Village on a raft and encounters a fishing boat whose crew steals his belongings. He ends up fighting them and eventually captures them.
* SaunaOfDeath - With Number 6 trapped inside.
* SoundtrackDissonance - Some truly masterful MindScrew examples in the GrandFinale ranging from Carmen Miranda to "Dem Bones" to "All You Need Is Love".
* SpiritualSuccessor - Even if the Prisoner isn't John Drake, the show is at least a spiritual successor to ''DangerMan''.
* SpyDrama - an actually ''dramatic'' drama, not just "will he kill the bad guy and get the girl".
* StoryArc - Number 6's struggle to escape the Village and his growing strength inside it.
* TapOnTheHead
** "The Girl Who Was Death" - Number 6 knocks out two {{Mook}}s with a bop on the top of the head, one with his fist and one with a grenade.
** "Once Upon A Time" - The Butler knocks Number 6 unconscious with a club to the back of the head to stop him from strangling Number 2.
* UncannyVillage - Gotta watch out for those idyllic seaside resorts!
** Or desert resorts in the remake.
* TheVoiceless - The Butler.
* WriteWhoYouKnow - Number Six is to an extent a stand-in for [=McGoohan=], unsurprising given that the series is all about his own views on individuality and authority. A prime example of how TropesAreNotBad.
* XanatosRoulette - Many of the ploys designed by the Number Twos involve ''very'' convoluted chains of events to work.
* YouAreNumberSix - TropeNamer.
* YouCanNeverLeave
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The 2009 remake provides examples that were not seen in the original series of:
* BottomlessPits
* EnemyWithout - Schizoid
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect
* HeroesWantRedHeads
* HospitalHottie - 313
* [[spoiler:LotusEaterMachine]] - [[spoiler:explanation for the existence of The Village]]

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''Be seeing you.''