A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode eighteen — Once Upon a Time

Shot in December 1966 under the title "Degree Absolute" and not broadcast until more than a year later when it became The Prisoner's penultimate — and, we agree, ultimate — episode, "Once Upon a Time" is the real thing. A bottle episode that locks GOAT Number Two Leo McKern and Number Six in the black-box "Embryo Room" and compels them to reenact the Seven Ages of Man that that glover's son from Stratford wrote about, shooting it almost killed McKern. And talking about it almost killed us! Our private, personal, by-hand, punchcard-driven discursive dissection of this epistemological epic is more tangent-tolerant than ever! Get comfortable, because Second Childishness & Mere Oblivion await!

"Once Upon a Time"

Written and directed by Patrick McGoohan 

Original airdate January 25, 1968

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode seventeen — ICE STATION ZEBRA

What If Jimmy Page played a session with Stillwater? Our podcastin' inspiration Matt Gourley joins us for a Cinerama epic of an episode that we didn't plan to release on Father's Day week, but the cookie just happened to crumble serendipitously. Because our subject is a genuine, certified, no-foolin’ Dad Movie, Ice Station Zebra, based on The Guns of Navarone author Alistair MacLean's novel Ice Station Zebra.

The moderately thrilling Cold War thriller that Patty McG cheated on The Prisoner with is an all-star affair featuring Rock “The Dwayne” Hudson, Ernest “Resistance is Futile” Borgnine, Jim “One Night in Miami” Brown and the dirty half-dozen himself, Patrick McGoohan! And this episode is, like Roger Ebert’s 1969 review of Ice Station Zebra, a one-star affair... the star being Mr. Gourley, who nails it like Harrison Ford in Witness when he hails Ice Station Zebra as “a Saturday lawnmow.”

Ice Station Zebra

Directed by John Sturges

Screenplay by Douglas Heyes

Screen Story by Harry Julian Fink

From the novel by Alistair MacLean

Released October 23, 1968

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode sixteen — The Girl Who Was Death

Number Six must elude the tender embrace of a lady who probably uses pseudonyms at least as often as he does in a late-in-the-run-but-lavish filler episode that sends up the spy genre circa ’67 & burns plenty of Sir Lew Grade’s money. (He refused to finance a floated 90-minute version.)

Justine Lord and Kenneth Griffiths are your magnificent guest stars, and Patty McG appears to be having a grand old time in the relatively few scenes where he's onscreen. Apparently he was called back to Los Angeles for a few more weeks of shooting on Ice Station Zebra late in 1967, resulting in an episode that relies heavily on doubles, particularly in the location footage shot at the Kursaal Fun Fair at Southend.

"The Girl Who Was Death"

Written by Vincent Feeley from an idea by David Tomblin

Directed by David Tomblin 

Original airdate January 18, 1968

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode thirteen — A Change of Mind

Number Six's Public Enemy Number Six act is getting tired — and what is alternately referred to within a single scene as The Committee, The Council, and The Commission will tolerate it for only so long before they decree that their prize captive must undergo Instant Social Conversion. It's a procedure so chilling that Number Eighty-Six (the marvelous Angela Browne) must narrate it step-by-step, and very, very slowly, so as not to induce panic. John Sharpe is our unctuous, openly misogynistic Number Two. Happily, we get to see Six's homebuilt crossfit gym in the woods once again.

"A Change of Mind"

Written by Roger Parkes

Directed by Joseph Serf (Patty McG)

Original airdate December 15, 1967

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode fourteen — Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

It seems Patty McG had softened his "don't call it television because television cuts corners and we'll never ever do that" position by the time of The Prisoner's much-abbreviated second and final season, because for most of the production of this week's episode he decided his time would be better spent in Los Angeles co-starring in John Sturges' unmemorable 1968 thriller Ice Station Zebra with Rock Hudson, Ernest "Resistance Is Futile" Borgnine, and Jim Brown.

"Chimes of Big Ben" screenwriter Vincent Tilsey got the unenviable job of coming up with a Prisoner story that would require neither the show's star nor its key location, Portmerion in North Wales. He came up with a brain-swapping scenario that would allow hardworking actor Nigel Stock to play Number Six. Upon his return from the States, McGoohan demanded extensive changes to the show that had been made in his absence. But he did not demand that Stock un-kiss Six's left-behind fiancee Janet (Zena Walker), who was never mentioned prior to this episode and shall never be again. Also, the head of MI6 was going to be SIx's father-in-law, apparently. Script editor George Markstein was long gone by this point and no one was minding the store.

The mailbag overfloweth this week, so we moved the listener mail segment to the back half of the episode. Thank you for your correspondence.

"Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling"

Written by Vincent Tilsley

Directed by Pat Jackson

Original airdate December 22, 1967

A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode twelve — It's Your Funeral

There's an assassination plot afoot in The Village, and Number Six must protect his oppressor to spare his fellow Villagers. Derren Nesbitt is our Number Two and Annette Andre is our Girl Friday. Neither one of them could stand their scene partner an (uncredited) director, Patty McG. Pink-blazered henchman Mark Eden didn't hate him, but he did resent his attempt to strangle him on camera.

This creative tension results in one of The Prisoner's most rewarding episodes, replete with crossfit and and Kosho and lots more. Plus, listener mail!

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Those Who Wish Me Dead" and What's Making Us Happy

Finn Little and Angelina Jolie are on the run and in the woods. (Warner Bros.)

I’m back on PCHH this week with cofounding hosts Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson plus Walter Chaw, a Denver-based writer and critic whose work I’ve long admired, to chew over Those Who Wish Me Dead. The flick is an Angelina Jolie-headlined rural adventure thriller that will disappoint you only if you happen to know that its writer-director, Taylor Sheridan, wrote Sicario and Hell or High Water — two films that are leagues above this one in every regard. The panel is fairly unanimous in their mild enthusiasm for this so-so movie, but it’s a fun discussion all the same. But in the What’s Making Me Happy segment, I get to praise once again one of the most unique blockbusters of the 90s, or ever.