Be Seeing You

The Prisoner was a 17 episode British television show that aired in the late 60's. It starred Patrick McGoohan and was set in "the Village".

A man with no name (you never do learn his identity-he is only referred to as #6) resigns from the secret service, and as he prepares to leave his home is gassed, waking up later in The Village. As Number 6 tries to learn where he is, why he is being held captive and escape the Village, those in charge there try many methods to break his mind and learn why he resigned and what he knows. Many others are trapped in the Village...some broken and some still resisting. All cannot leave. It is a place where"Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a burden to one's self."
Set in the strange town Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales, using the Hotel Portmeirion for a lot of it's set...well this show is quite strange. There is a great amount of social commentary and it's always been a favourite of mine. I pop the DVDs in every once in a while and get lost in strange spy science fiction. I love it.

I am quite curious, as this weekend the first episode of a miniseries remake of The Prisoner is airing on sunday. We shall see just how they manage to improve on a classic science fiction program. They'll have to reach very high to impress me...Patrick McGoohan passed away a few years ago and this show really was his creation...without him around to keep the project in line I really wonder just what the new show will be like. I'm excited...can't help myself.

Apparently it has been changed somewhat - which in my mind is good. If you're going to directly remake a show you fail right off the bat in my mind - what's the point? If you can take the main idea and spirit of a show and make something incredible out of it - well I'm all in. It worked for the remake of Battlestar Galactica- soyou just never know. Good Sci-fi really is rare and we need mroe of it. Apparently a few huge differences will include the fact that the villagers (including the Prisoner) have been made to forget about the world outside. Add in a different location, and lack of the strange village costumes and it will be a different animal. There will be 6 episodes in the new miniseries, all based on the better episodes of the original show. Originally they'd thrown around the idea of Christopher Eccleston for the role of #6 which quite honestly got me so excited I could have peed, but the person they finally chose is somewhat unknown to me, so that may also be a good thing...we shall see. Ian McKellan as #2 certainly can't hurt...

I'll be setting the machine to record it and it had better not fail...or you will be able to hear me howling from miles away when I settle down later in the evening to watch it (I refuse to reschedule my life around TV) if it failed to record for some reason. I'm quite excited. I do so hope it does not tank. If you see it, or you're a fan of the original, let me know what you thought of it!

Have a great weekend :)