The Prisoner
This post has been updated to include information from the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia, published by 18thWall Productions. For the purposes of this post, Horror Universe and Television Crossover Universe are synonymous terms.
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I really don't have much of an intro for this. I've never seen this show or it's precursors. It's a quite popular cult classic, so naturally there have been crossovers. Oh,and a very cool theme song came from this as well.
So, this blog post. This post will be about the Prisoner. I've already covered the Man from UNCLE, the Avengers, and I Spy. After this, I'll still have a few more classic spy shows to do, including Mission: Impossible and Get Smart.
c. 43,000 B.C.--RUNESCAPE--Perhaps the creators of the Village and the concept are very old indeed, as a very similar version of it exists this far back in history.
1769 to 1821--G.I. JOE # 50 & 73/SERPENTOR'S FILECARD--"The Battle of Springfield/Divided We Fall"--Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose DNA will be used to create Serpentor. Napoleon also appeared in THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, BEWITCHED, TIME BANDITS, BILL & TED''S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER BACK & FORTH.
November 1952--BEWITCHED--"Samantha's French Pastry"--Uncle Arthur accidentally pulls Napoleon from the past. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
Fall 1960 to 1966--DANGER MAN/SECRET AGENT/THE PRISONER--John Drake is a secret agent, who after retirement is captured and kept prisoner in a very strange and mysterious place. There are also several novels and comic books based on the three series. Computer and role-playing games also exist that would fit into the TVCU. Each different ending could be chalked up to the psychological torture of the Village.
1964--MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS # 72 to 74--"Weapon X"--Logan is a Canadian Secret Agent who decides to retire, so the government abducts him and hauls him away to be a prisoner of his own government. The author implies that he is being taken to the Village. However, he didn't stay there as he was soon chosen (due to his mutant healing abilities) to have his memories erased and have his skeleton bonded with adamantium.
1966--KOROSHI--John Drake takes a mission in Japan.
Fall 1966 to 1969--THE PRISONER--John Drake retires from being a secret agent man and is abducted and brought to the Village. There he is renamed Number 6. Not content in just keeping him prisoner, they continuously subject him to psychological torture. (No, this is not Guantanamo Bay...or is it?)
Summer 1967--ROVER # 5--"Encounter at Night"--Number 6 is walking alone on the beach at night when suddenly DOCTOR OMEGA shows up in his TARDIS and offers to take him along as his companion. Number 6 declines, as he can't leave until he figures out the secret of the Village and destroys it. (Note that Doctor Omega is the Doctor from the DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE.)
Fall 1967--THE PRISONER--"A Change of Mind"--Number 6's persona temporarily switches bodies with the persona of another person outside the Village due to a scientific invention. Number 6 briefly makes contact with his fiance, Janet Portland before the two transfered persons return to their own bodies.
Fall 1967--ROVER # 7--"A Change of Mind Revisited"--Janet Portland seeks the aid of Simon Templar, THE SAINT, to find her fiance John Drake after she has just learned of his fate when he briefly visited her in another person's body. They find instead the scientist who created the transfer machine. Templar voluntarily change places with Drake in the Village for 24 hours so that he can spend time with Janet.
Spring 1968--ROVER # 8--"The Quatermass Interlude"--A shooting star results in bodies turning up drained of life. John Drake, Number 6 recalls a similar incident being resolved by a PROFESSOR QUATERMASS. Quatermass is the main character of various movies and television series. Quatermass has also appeared on DOCTOR WHO. Those specific episodes I will say take place in the TVCU between Quatermass and the Doctor.
June 1968--THE PRISONER--"I am not a Number"--Number 6 leases a new gatehouse. (See, the Village isn't so bad.) The furniture he finds there is the same furniture he had bought back in the real world from JERRY CORNELIUS, who is also another secret agent. Was he buying used furniture, or does the agent own a furniture business, perhaps as a cover?
June 1968--THE PRISONER--"Who is No. 2?"--<Sorry, I'm thinking about Austin Powers..."Who does No. 2 work for?"> OK, I'm back. Up until this point, it was only assumed that John Drake was Number 6 based on several pieces of evidence. It was the same actor, playing a secret agent with the same personality, with the same production company, with one series starting as the other one ended. But in this novel it is established that Number 6 is John Drake. Oh, and No. 2 is the guy who runs things, or appears to run things in the Village.
November 1968--BEWITCHED--"Samantha's French Pastry"--Uncle Arthur accidentally pulls Napoleon from the past. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
Winter 1969--THE PRISONER--"A Day in the Life"--Again conformation is made that John Drake is the Prisoner.
March 1969--FANTASTIC FOUR # 84 to 87--"The Name is Doom"--Doctor Victor Von Doom traps the Fantastic Four in his own Latverian version of the Village.
Fall 1969--THE PRISONER: SHATTERED VISAGE--The Village is discovered and evacuated by the United Nations. However, Number 6 (John Drake) chooses to remain behind. Later, the Village will be reactivated, however, I believe it was probably recreated somewhere else.
Winter 1972--TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 3: DANSE MACABRE--"A Day in the Life of Madame Atomos"--Like all stories in the Tales of the Shadowmen series, this one is loaded with crossovers. Of course, the appearance of the Pink Panther diamond is why I'm talking about it, but other crossovers are: FU MANCHU, THE AVENGERS, BOB MORANE, THE DA VINCI CODE, JERRY CORNELIUS, MEPHISTA, TEDDY VERANO, THE PRISONER, VIC ST. VAL, MODESTY BLAISE, MADAME HYDRA, DEREK FLINT, SUMURU, THE NYCTALOPE, THE SAINT, THE BLACK LIZARD, AND MADAME ATOMOS.
November 1975--COLUMBO--"Identity Crisis"--Nelson Brenner, a top CIA operative, is really a double agent who finds it necessary to rid himself of a fellow spy and make it look like a mugging. Brenner inadvertently leaves tiny clues in a photo shop at a carnival, on Brenner's corpse at the beach, in a tape recording he makes while in his Agency-approved identity as a speech-writing consultant - the kind of clues that no one would ever pick up on. No one, that is, except the rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo. The indefatigable detective will find himself followed by mysterious agents, visited by the top man himself and entertained with a recording of "Madame Butterfly" in Brenner's own mansion before solving this difficult case. (IMDB). Toby O'Brien says "My all-time favorite TV series is 'The Prisoner', so just for the opportunity to see Patrick McGoohan as the guest star would have been enough. But the episode (directed by McGoohan) is full of allusions to 'The Prisoner' - visual imagery referring to "#1", the design of McGoohan's windbreaker, the phrase "Be Seeing You".... Plus McGoohan's line readings are brilliantly off-kilter - just the way he says "I know!" is a pleasure."
Summer 1977--ROVER # 6--"Acid Test"--Upon retirement John Steed of THE AVENGERS is taken to the Village, where he is reunited with Mrs. Emma Peel. He also recognized No. 2, as John Drake. However, John Drake didn't snap and turn evil after the dismantling of the last Village. He has been brainwashed. Steed and Peel help restore Drake to sanity and the three try to escape. However, only the former AVENGERS manage to escape while Drake is captured and reassigned as Number 6 in this new Village.
Fall 1977--MASTER OF KUNG FU # 72 to 75--"Traitors to the Crown"--In flashback, Lancaster Sneed (aka SHOCKWAVE) is wearing a blazer like that forced upon John Drake while in the Village. Note Sneed is the nephew of NAYLAND SMITH.
Summer 1978--BIONIC WOMAN--"On the Run"--Jaime Sommers informs her boss as the O.S.I. that she wishes to retire, and he tells her that he has to make her a prisoner in the Village. If she is taken there, she does not remain, as she will have later adventures.
December 1985--G.I. JOE--"There's No Place Like Springfield"--Shipwreck is trapped in a town called Springfield that is on an island that is actually run by Cobra. Cobra has obvious knowledge of the Village as the entire town is a near duplicate in appearance and methods.
1987--THE LAUGHING PRISONER--TV Host Jools Holland is sent to the Village after resigning as host of channel 4 Music Show THE TUBE.
October to November 1987--THE PRISONER: SHATTERED VISAGE--A retired agent is sent to the Village, which is weird. They send her to the abandoned one that is no longer operational. And John Drake is there. He must have escaped the new one and returned to the old one. Apparently the psychological torture and brainwashing has really messed him up. John Steed and Emma Peel of THE AVENGERS are seen attending a funeral back in England, and they mention agent GEORGE SMILEY. At this point, Steed has taken a new alias as Sir John Raleigh and is now running things as a MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
September 1995--THE NOWHERE MAN--"Paradise on your Doorstep"--Photojournalist Thomas Veil is detained in the Village.
September 1996 to February 1997--MARRIED WITH CHILDREN--"Damn Bundys"--Al Bundy makes a deal with the Devil to play in the NFL, but on the day of the Super Bowl, the Devil comes to collect Al's soul, and sentences him to an eternity of spending time only with his family and his neighbors, the D'Arcys. Napoleon also appears. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, BEWITCHED, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
1998--DOUBLE TEAM--Counter Terrorist Agent Jack Quinn is knocked out in an explosion and wakes up in the Colony. The Colony is a prison that is inescapable and invisible, and houses secret agents.
1999 to 2000--NOW AND AGAIN--Brad Mengel: The series Now and Again also had a reference to The Prisoner. Clearly, Dr Morris is planning on sending Foster to a village-like facility.
“MICHAEL: Look, it's not my area, but just between us for a fabulously rich, somewhat spoiled media darling he seems like a pretty decent, grounded guy. I mean, do you really have to do anything?
DR. MORRIS: Tell me you're joking, Mr. Wiseman.
MICHAEL: No, I'm serious. I mean, why can't he just be champ? Somebody's got to do it.
DR. MORRIS: Okay, fine. Let's have it your way. But suppose PFC. Foster slips up and someone, anyone discovers the secret of his success is more than just a sweet left jab. What if he's hurt in the ring? Hell, forget the ring. He's hurt in a car accident. The attending physician cuts him open only to discover that the knee bone ain't connected to the shinbone. Hell, forget the knee bone. There are bits and pieces in this fellow that aren't even illustrated in Gray's Anatomy.
MICHAEL: Okay, I get it. So what's going to happen to him?
DR. MORRIS: Suffice to say that his strength and appearance will be dynamically altered. We'll obviously have to do something with his memory, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain.
MICHAEL: Lobotomy?
DR. MORRIS: As I said, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain. And after all that's accomplished I will make it my business to see to it that he lives out his days comfortably in a government facility.
MICHAEL: Right. After all that's accomplished.
DR. MORRIS: Need I remind you, Mr. Wiseman that he was offered the same proposition you were given? He entered into an agreement he accepted the conditions of that agreement fully aware of the consequences involved in violating it. He then chose to violate that agreement. And under the circumstances I think he's lived an unusually... comfortable life. I'll leave the map here. Let's skip our workout for today. Leave you some time to... yourself.” (“I am the Greatest” NOW AND AGAIN)
Clearly, Dr Morris is planning on sending Foster to a village-like facility.
Summer 2000--THE INVISIBLE MAN--"A Sense of Community"--Darien Fawkes and Bobby Hobbes are taken to a new American version of the Village called the Community. Fawkes sees John Steed of THE AVENGERS and also learns that JAMES BOND is also real. (He's not there, but a woman there knows him.)
December 2000--SIMPSONS--"The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"--Later, in the episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", Homer Simpson is sent to the Island after learning of a vast conspiracy theory. Number 6 is also there, though in this universe the is there for creating the bottomless peanut bag.
2008--BIRTHDAY MASSACRE--"Looking Glass"--Another Community is set up in the form of a high school, likely for young agents, which are very commonplace in the TVCU.
December 2008--LEVERAGE--"The Six Days of Christmas Job"--John Drake, now under the name of Drake Rafferty, is a department store Santa.
Fall 2009--MIKE LYNCH CARTOONS--Rip Haywire becomes the new Number 6. Read it here.
2009--THE PRISONER--TV mini-series that can fit. The location is different than the original. (They keep moving them to avoid being found or else there are multiple Villages.) The plot is different enough for this to be a different experience of a new Number 6, especially since we don't know the name of this Number 6.
October 2009--FRINGE--"Momentum Deferred"--When Olivia Dunham's memories are being messed with, she has a flashback of the bicycle that is obviously the one from the Village.
2037--FRINGE--"Letters of Transit"--In the future that may come to pass, the Observers rule our planet, and run things very much like the Village, with an implication that they were behind the Villages of the past. This is only a possible future, and it may seem to contradict other possible futures, but I believe that many alternate futures can work together if we consider how fractured our nation and world are becoming. It's entirely possible that one time of scenario is happening, for instance in the Pacific Southwest while the Northeastern U.S. has a very different future scenario.
ALTERNATE REALITIES:
TVCU-11-LEOG-Alan Moore's universe--LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN DIVERGENT TIMELINE--LOEG Volumes 1 and 2 fit into the TVCU just fine, but after that, the timeline diverges and creates an alternate reality just like with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8. In BLACK DOSSIER, the Village is said to be controlled by Big Brother's thought police (from 1984.) V FOR VENDETTA--In this reality, the Larkhill Death Camp is actually the Village of this reality, as can be seen by the scenery.
TVCU-29-Skitlandia and non-canon commercials--On DEAD RINGERS, the soap THE ARCHERS is merged with THE PRISONER.
TVCU-150--THIS IS WHERE FOREIGN ADAPTATIONS, AUTHORIZED OR OTHERWISE, COULD TAKE PLACE. DOCTOR WHO: THE MAN IN THE VELVET MASK--The Doctor from the DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE travels to this one where there is a French version of the Village with the Marquis de Sade as Monsieur 6.
Well, that's it. For a show I know very little about, this was a very fun blog to write. I will be adding the Prisoner to my Netflix list I think.
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I really don't have much of an intro for this. I've never seen this show or it's precursors. It's a quite popular cult classic, so naturally there have been crossovers. Oh,and a very cool theme song came from this as well.
So, this blog post. This post will be about the Prisoner. I've already covered the Man from UNCLE, the Avengers, and I Spy. After this, I'll still have a few more classic spy shows to do, including Mission: Impossible and Get Smart.
c. 43,000 B.C.--RUNESCAPE--Perhaps the creators of the Village and the concept are very old indeed, as a very similar version of it exists this far back in history.
1769 to 1821--G.I. JOE # 50 & 73/SERPENTOR'S FILECARD--"The Battle of Springfield/Divided We Fall"--Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose DNA will be used to create Serpentor. Napoleon also appeared in THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, BEWITCHED, TIME BANDITS, BILL & TED''S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER BACK & FORTH.
THE LEAGUE OF HEROES (NOVEL BY XAVIER MAUMEJEAN)
Release Date: 2005 (Setting is late 19th century)
Series: League of Heroes
Horror Crosses: The Mummy (Universal); Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Island of Doctor Moreau; Sweeney Todd
Non-Horror Crosses: Around the World in 80 Days; Sherlock Holmes; Tarzan; The First Men in the Moon; Peter Pan; Kid Colt; Le Baron Stromboli; Charlie Chan; Sinbad; Fantomas; Richard Hannay; Doc Ardan; The Coming Race; Lost Horizon; She; Wild Wild West; The Thinking Machine; Judex; Miss Mousqueterr; The Air Pirate and His Steerable Airship; At Bertram’s Hotel; The Mind of J.G. Reeder; The Nyctalope; Sexton Blake; The Lost World; James Bond; Poirot; Edgar Rice Burrough’s Moon series; From the Earth to the Moon; The Prisoner
The Story: Several heroes are gathered by Phileas Fogg to form the League of Heroes, protectors of Albion, against the evil forces of Peter Pan and others.
Notes: I could accept Peter Pan as a villain. I could accept England being called Albion. However, the appearance of Imhotep as one of the villains conflicts with the Universal film, so this must be a divergent timeline.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT “BE SEEING YOU!” (SHORT STORY BY XAVIER MAUMEJEAN)
Release Date: 2006 (Setting is 1912)
Series: Tales of the Shadowmen
Horror Crosses: Sar Dubnotal
Non-Horror Crosses: Sherlock Holmes; The Prisoner; Danger Man; L’Amerique des dollars et du crime; James Bond; Get Smart; Callan; The First Men in the Moon; Arsene Lupin; Fu Manchu
The Story: Sherlock Holmes finds himself a temporary captive of “the Village”.
Notes: Some crossoverists would discount the validity of this story for inclusion within their shared crossover universe because some details of Holmes’ history would invalidate this story. And for my Television Crossover Universe, I would agree. However, because Holmes is a non-horror character, only his original stories from Doyle and his horror crosses are valid canon, and so this story works easily for the canon of the Horror Universe version of Holmes.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: BLACK DOSSIER “WHAT HO, GODS OF THE ABYSS” (AMERICA’S BEST COMICS)
Release Date: 2007 (Setting is 1930)
Series: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Horror Crosses: Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Dracula (novel); Carnacki Ghost Finder
Non-Horror Crosses: Jeeves and Wooster; Allan Quatermain; Orlando (Virginia Woolf); Orlando Furioso; Orlando Innamorato; Orlando the Marmalade Cat; The Story of O; The Prisoner; 1984
The Story: Once again, Bertie Wooster and his manservant Jeeves find themselves mixed up with Lovecraftian horrors, but this time the 1930 incarnation of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes to the rescue.
Notes: Jeeves and Wooster are from a series of comedic books and later a television series. The League at this time consists of Mina Murray, Allan Quatermain Jr., Orlando, and Carnacki. Mina is the heroine of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Allan Quatermain Jr. is an original character created by Alan Moore for LEOG, and is the son of Allan Quatermain, star of such novels as King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard. Orlando is a character creation of Moore that conflates the Orlando from Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Orlando Furioso, Orlando Innamorato, and Orlando the Marmalade Cat, as well as the Story of O, and Bion from Greek mythology and Sir Roland from Arthurian legend. Carnacki is the Ghost Finder already pulled into the Horror Universe. Note that all the original sources of these characters are in the Horror Universe. Additionally, the first two volumes of League are in the Horror Universe. However, though this story is in, after the first two volumes, I cannot accept the main body of the League Universe because it diverges too much. For instance, there is no Adolf Hitler in that timeline, and the events of Orwell’s 1984 took place in England of the late 1940s.
November 1952--BEWITCHED--"Samantha's French Pastry"--Uncle Arthur accidentally pulls Napoleon from the past. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
Late spring 1957--THOSE WHO LIVE LONG FORGOTTEN “IMPRISONED,
HALF-DEAD: A SYLLOGISM” (SHORT STORY BY JAMES BOJACIUK)--Series: Sherlock
Holmes. Crosses: The War of the Worlds; Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, The
Prisoner (see notes). A secret faction of what is presumably the British
government fakes Sherlock Holmes' death and imprisons him on a faraway island.
He plots his escape. Holmes mentions how his friend Peter would find his faked
death to be deplorably acted. This is an invention of William S. Baring-Gould
in Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, who had Holmes trained in acting and
disguise by an old friend, "Lord Peter." "Lord Peter" has
no relation to Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey. The methods used in the
capture of Sherlock Holmes are identical to those suffered by Number Six in The
Prisoner (a kidnapping disguised as death). The site in the story is still
under construction. Perhaps Holmes was one of the early prisoners held in the
village, though his escape was much more successful. The story is intended to
explain how Holmes could "die" in 1957, but be quite alive when he
met the men from UNCLE in The Rainbow Affair and Batman in "The Doomsday
Book." Initially, there is a second prisoner held on the island. Although
he dies when one of Holmes' plans backfires. He begs for his life by crying
"I told you where Ogilvy's papers were! I told you!" Ogilvy was the
well-known astronomer who first sighted the bursts from Mars. It would seem
that, before his death, he wrote at length on the curious explosions,
then--possibly--wrote some further notes after the initial landing. The British
government was proactive in covering up the Martian War, and by 1957 seems all
too ready to lock up anyone who claims to remember the war, whether they
bargain for their freedom or not.
Fall 1960 to 1966--DANGER MAN/SECRET AGENT/THE PRISONER--John Drake is a secret agent, who after retirement is captured and kept prisoner in a very strange and mysterious place. There are also several novels and comic books based on the three series. Computer and role-playing games also exist that would fit into the TVCU. Each different ending could be chalked up to the psychological torture of the Village.
1964--MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS # 72 to 74--"Weapon X"--Logan is a Canadian Secret Agent who decides to retire, so the government abducts him and hauls him away to be a prisoner of his own government. The author implies that he is being taken to the Village. However, he didn't stay there as he was soon chosen (due to his mutant healing abilities) to have his memories erased and have his skeleton bonded with adamantium.
1966--KOROSHI--John Drake takes a mission in Japan.
Fall 1966 to 1969--THE PRISONER--John Drake retires from being a secret agent man and is abducted and brought to the Village. There he is renamed Number 6. Not content in just keeping him prisoner, they continuously subject him to psychological torture. (No, this is not Guantanamo Bay...or is it?)
Summer 1967--ROVER # 5--"Encounter at Night"--Number 6 is walking alone on the beach at night when suddenly DOCTOR OMEGA shows up in his TARDIS and offers to take him along as his companion. Number 6 declines, as he can't leave until he figures out the secret of the Village and destroys it. (Note that Doctor Omega is the Doctor from the DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE.)
Fall 1967--THE PRISONER--"A Change of Mind"--Number 6's persona temporarily switches bodies with the persona of another person outside the Village due to a scientific invention. Number 6 briefly makes contact with his fiance, Janet Portland before the two transfered persons return to their own bodies.
Fall 1967--ROVER # 7--"A Change of Mind Revisited"--Janet Portland seeks the aid of Simon Templar, THE SAINT, to find her fiance John Drake after she has just learned of his fate when he briefly visited her in another person's body. They find instead the scientist who created the transfer machine. Templar voluntarily change places with Drake in the Village for 24 hours so that he can spend time with Janet.
Spring 1968--ROVER # 8--"The Quatermass Interlude"--A shooting star results in bodies turning up drained of life. John Drake, Number 6 recalls a similar incident being resolved by a PROFESSOR QUATERMASS. Quatermass is the main character of various movies and television series. Quatermass has also appeared on DOCTOR WHO. Those specific episodes I will say take place in the TVCU between Quatermass and the Doctor.
June 1968--THE PRISONER--"I am not a Number"--Number 6 leases a new gatehouse. (See, the Village isn't so bad.) The furniture he finds there is the same furniture he had bought back in the real world from JERRY CORNELIUS, who is also another secret agent. Was he buying used furniture, or does the agent own a furniture business, perhaps as a cover?
June 1968--THE PRISONER--"Who is No. 2?"--<Sorry, I'm thinking about Austin Powers..."Who does No. 2 work for?"> OK, I'm back. Up until this point, it was only assumed that John Drake was Number 6 based on several pieces of evidence. It was the same actor, playing a secret agent with the same personality, with the same production company, with one series starting as the other one ended. But in this novel it is established that Number 6 is John Drake. Oh, and No. 2 is the guy who runs things, or appears to run things in the Village.
November 1968--BEWITCHED--"Samantha's French Pastry"--Uncle Arthur accidentally pulls Napoleon from the past. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
Winter 1969--THE PRISONER--"A Day in the Life"--Again conformation is made that John Drake is the Prisoner.
March 1969--FANTASTIC FOUR # 84 to 87--"The Name is Doom"--Doctor Victor Von Doom traps the Fantastic Four in his own Latverian version of the Village.
Fall 1969--THE PRISONER: SHATTERED VISAGE--The Village is discovered and evacuated by the United Nations. However, Number 6 (John Drake) chooses to remain behind. Later, the Village will be reactivated, however, I believe it was probably recreated somewhere else.
Late 1960s--DEAD ROMANCE--The Time Lords set up a version of
the Village on another planet. There are a few different possible explanations.
1) The Time Lords may have thought up the idea on their own. 2) They may have
seen the TV show that the government created as a misdirection. 3) The Time
Lords copied that Village as the events of the Prisoner also occur in this
universe or 4) Perhaps a Time Lord had visited the Village and that is where
the idea came from.
Winter 1972--TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 3: DANSE MACABRE--"A Day in the Life of Madame Atomos"--Like all stories in the Tales of the Shadowmen series, this one is loaded with crossovers. Of course, the appearance of the Pink Panther diamond is why I'm talking about it, but other crossovers are: FU MANCHU, THE AVENGERS, BOB MORANE, THE DA VINCI CODE, JERRY CORNELIUS, MEPHISTA, TEDDY VERANO, THE PRISONER, VIC ST. VAL, MODESTY BLAISE, MADAME HYDRA, DEREK FLINT, SUMURU, THE NYCTALOPE, THE SAINT, THE BLACK LIZARD, AND MADAME ATOMOS.
November 1975--COLUMBO--"Identity Crisis"--Nelson Brenner, a top CIA operative, is really a double agent who finds it necessary to rid himself of a fellow spy and make it look like a mugging. Brenner inadvertently leaves tiny clues in a photo shop at a carnival, on Brenner's corpse at the beach, in a tape recording he makes while in his Agency-approved identity as a speech-writing consultant - the kind of clues that no one would ever pick up on. No one, that is, except the rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo. The indefatigable detective will find himself followed by mysterious agents, visited by the top man himself and entertained with a recording of "Madame Butterfly" in Brenner's own mansion before solving this difficult case. (IMDB). Toby O'Brien says "My all-time favorite TV series is 'The Prisoner', so just for the opportunity to see Patrick McGoohan as the guest star would have been enough. But the episode (directed by McGoohan) is full of allusions to 'The Prisoner' - visual imagery referring to "#1", the design of McGoohan's windbreaker, the phrase "Be Seeing You".... Plus McGoohan's line readings are brilliantly off-kilter - just the way he says "I know!" is a pleasure."
Summer 1977--ROVER # 6--"Acid Test"--Upon retirement John Steed of THE AVENGERS is taken to the Village, where he is reunited with Mrs. Emma Peel. He also recognized No. 2, as John Drake. However, John Drake didn't snap and turn evil after the dismantling of the last Village. He has been brainwashed. Steed and Peel help restore Drake to sanity and the three try to escape. However, only the former AVENGERS manage to escape while Drake is captured and reassigned as Number 6 in this new Village.
Fall 1977--MASTER OF KUNG FU # 72 to 75--"Traitors to the Crown"--In flashback, Lancaster Sneed (aka SHOCKWAVE) is wearing a blazer like that forced upon John Drake while in the Village. Note Sneed is the nephew of NAYLAND SMITH.
Summer 1978--BIONIC WOMAN--"On the Run"--Jaime Sommers informs her boss as the O.S.I. that she wishes to retire, and he tells her that he has to make her a prisoner in the Village. If she is taken there, she does not remain, as she will have later adventures.
December 1985--G.I. JOE--"There's No Place Like Springfield"--Shipwreck is trapped in a town called Springfield that is on an island that is actually run by Cobra. Cobra has obvious knowledge of the Village as the entire town is a near duplicate in appearance and methods.
1987--THE LAUGHING PRISONER--TV Host Jools Holland is sent to the Village after resigning as host of channel 4 Music Show THE TUBE.
October to November 1987--THE PRISONER: SHATTERED VISAGE--A retired agent is sent to the Village, which is weird. They send her to the abandoned one that is no longer operational. And John Drake is there. He must have escaped the new one and returned to the old one. Apparently the psychological torture and brainwashing has really messed him up. John Steed and Emma Peel of THE AVENGERS are seen attending a funeral back in England, and they mention agent GEORGE SMILEY. At this point, Steed has taken a new alias as Sir John Raleigh and is now running things as a MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
September 1995--THE NOWHERE MAN--"Paradise on your Doorstep"--Photojournalist Thomas Veil is detained in the Village.
September 1996 to February 1997--MARRIED WITH CHILDREN--"Damn Bundys"--Al Bundy makes a deal with the Devil to play in the NFL, but on the day of the Super Bowl, the Devil comes to collect Al's soul, and sentences him to an eternity of spending time only with his family and his neighbors, the D'Arcys. Napoleon also appears. Napoleon has also appeared on THE AVENGERS, THE TIME TUNNEL, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, THE PRISONER, TIME BANDITS, THE NEVER SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR, BEWITCHED, and BLACKADDER: BACK AND FORTH.
THE SIMPSONS (ANIMATED SERIES)
SEASON 9 EPISODE 13 “THE JOY OF SECT”
Release Date: February 8, 1998
Other Crosses: The Prisoner
The Story: A cult brainwashes the citizens of Springfield.
Notes: The cult traps Marge in the Village. The Village was the setting of the live action series called the Prisoner. It’s likely a version of the events of that show also happened in the Cartoon Universe.
1998--DOUBLE TEAM--Counter Terrorist Agent Jack Quinn is knocked out in an explosion and wakes up in the Colony. The Colony is a prison that is inescapable and invisible, and houses secret agents.
1999 to 2000--NOW AND AGAIN--Brad Mengel: The series Now and Again also had a reference to The Prisoner. Clearly, Dr Morris is planning on sending Foster to a village-like facility.
“MICHAEL: Look, it's not my area, but just between us for a fabulously rich, somewhat spoiled media darling he seems like a pretty decent, grounded guy. I mean, do you really have to do anything?
DR. MORRIS: Tell me you're joking, Mr. Wiseman.
MICHAEL: No, I'm serious. I mean, why can't he just be champ? Somebody's got to do it.
DR. MORRIS: Okay, fine. Let's have it your way. But suppose PFC. Foster slips up and someone, anyone discovers the secret of his success is more than just a sweet left jab. What if he's hurt in the ring? Hell, forget the ring. He's hurt in a car accident. The attending physician cuts him open only to discover that the knee bone ain't connected to the shinbone. Hell, forget the knee bone. There are bits and pieces in this fellow that aren't even illustrated in Gray's Anatomy.
MICHAEL: Okay, I get it. So what's going to happen to him?
DR. MORRIS: Suffice to say that his strength and appearance will be dynamically altered. We'll obviously have to do something with his memory, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain.
MICHAEL: Lobotomy?
DR. MORRIS: As I said, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain. And after all that's accomplished I will make it my business to see to it that he lives out his days comfortably in a government facility.
MICHAEL: Right. After all that's accomplished.
DR. MORRIS: Need I remind you, Mr. Wiseman that he was offered the same proposition you were given? He entered into an agreement he accepted the conditions of that agreement fully aware of the consequences involved in violating it. He then chose to violate that agreement. And under the circumstances I think he's lived an unusually... comfortable life. I'll leave the map here. Let's skip our workout for today. Leave you some time to... yourself.” (“I am the Greatest” NOW AND AGAIN)
Clearly, Dr Morris is planning on sending Foster to a village-like facility.
Summer 2000--THE INVISIBLE MAN--"A Sense of Community"--Darien Fawkes and Bobby Hobbes are taken to a new American version of the Village called the Community. Fawkes sees John Steed of THE AVENGERS and also learns that JAMES BOND is also real. (He's not there, but a woman there knows him.)
December 2000--SIMPSONS--"The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"--Later, in the episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", Homer Simpson is sent to the Island after learning of a vast conspiracy theory. Number 6 is also there, though in this universe the is there for creating the bottomless peanut bag.
c. February 28, 2006--SHARPER THAN A SERPENT’S TOOTH (NOVEL
BY SIMON R. GREEN)--(Contemporary Setting, immediately after Paths Not
Taken)--Series: Nightside. Crosses: The King in Yellow; Evil Dead; Alien;
Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Hawk & Fisher; Doctor Who; The Water Babies;
Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Alice in Wonderland; Shadows Fall; An
Inhabitant of Carcosa; Alf’s Button; Fables; Adam Adamant; Eaters of the Dead;
Bran Mak Morn; The Virginian; The Prisoner. As John Taylor and his friends
return to the present, they find that John’s mother, Lilith, is gathering a
powerful army to take over the Nightside and return it to the way she meant it
to be when she created it. Apparently that’s bad. The Yellow Sign is on a
bathroom wall. Taylor’s secretary is armed with a Kandarian punch dagger.
Kandarian demons are from the Evil Dead series. Suzie Shooter fights using a
Colonial Marine smart gun that she got from the future. At least it must be
from one of the possible futures that contains the Alien film series. Lilith’s
army is claimed to have wiped out the Elder Spawn (code for Old Ones), though
this is not likely to be true. The train runs to the Street of the Gods, the
setting of Green’s Hawk & Fisher series. There are three Doctor Who
references in this one. A sonic screwdriver has been left behind the bar
counter at Strangefellows. John mentions the Travelling Doctor as a potential
ally and Father Time blames the Travelling Doctor for attire. It’s said that
some drunk flower fairies plan on beating up some water babies. Water Babies is
a story by Reverend Charles Kingsley. Taylor suggests nobody go into the
basement of Strangefellows without the Holy Hand Grenade of St. Antioch. This
is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Shame on you if you didn’t
know that.) Since the Nightside touches other realities, I don’t have to
explain how this Monty Python fits in with the Doctor Who Universe and
Arthurian legend. But I’m going to anyways. Legend has it that Merlin himself
was a temporal anomaly, aging backwards and living life in reverse, from future
to past. Perhaps because of this, several divergent versions of Camelot and the
Arthurian legend all existed in the same past of the Doctor Who Universe
timeline. This would explain how different versions are seen in so many past
stories, flashbacks, time travel tales, and modern stories. This type of
reasoning may offer the same types of reasoning for the heavily magical era of
fairy tales. The dormouse appears, having doorways to many realms. He claims
that there were more of his kind once, but they all went away. Shadows Fall is
mentioned as one of the destinations of the dormouse's doors and a train
destination. Father Time appears and is from Shadows Fall. Carcosa is mentioned
as behind one of the doors and as a train destination. Carcosa is from “An
Inhabitant of Carcosa”. The Nightside has a store called Alf’s Button Emporium.
No, this is not a reference to the cute alien who eats cats. It’s actually
based on a humorous 1920 novel. Julien Advent meets fairy tale characters
expelled from their homes by the Adversary. These are the fairy tale characters
from the Fables comic book, making that fairy tale realm part of the Television
Crossover Multiverse. This novel cements the idea that Julien Advent is Adam
Adamant. The Eaters of the Dead (from the Michael Crichton novel) are said to
have been wiped out by Lilith’s army. The same is said of the Worms of the Earth,
who Bran Mak Morn once faced. John is attacked by a gun stolen from the grave
of Dead Eye Dick, a character from the western television series The Virginian.
The Collector is seen wearing the jacket of Number Six from the Prisoner. He
says he also bought his car.
2008--BIRTHDAY MASSACRE--"Looking Glass"--Another Community is set up in the form of a high school, likely for young agents, which are very commonplace in the TVCU.
December 2008--LEVERAGE--"The Six Days of Christmas Job"--John Drake, now under the name of Drake Rafferty, is a department store Santa.
Fall 2009--MIKE LYNCH CARTOONS--Rip Haywire becomes the new Number 6. Read it here.
2009--THE PRISONER--TV mini-series that can fit. The location is different than the original. (They keep moving them to avoid being found or else there are multiple Villages.) The plot is different enough for this to be a different experience of a new Number 6, especially since we don't know the name of this Number 6.
October 2009--FRINGE--"Momentum Deferred"--When Olivia Dunham's memories are being messed with, she has a flashback of the bicycle that is obviously the one from the Village.
2037--FRINGE--"Letters of Transit"--In the future that may come to pass, the Observers rule our planet, and run things very much like the Village, with an implication that they were behind the Villages of the past. This is only a possible future, and it may seem to contradict other possible futures, but I believe that many alternate futures can work together if we consider how fractured our nation and world are becoming. It's entirely possible that one time of scenario is happening, for instance in the Pacific Southwest while the Northeastern U.S. has a very different future scenario.
ASSIGNMENT: ETERNITY (NOVEL BY GREG COX)
Release Date: 1998 (Setting is 2269 A.D.)
Series: Star Trek
Horror Crosses: Kolchak the Night Stalker
Non-Horror Crosses: The Avengers (television); The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. The Questor Tapes; Mission Impossible; James Bond; The Prisoner; The Andromeda Strain
The Story: Gary Seven and his partner Roberta Lincoln travel from the year 1969 to the 23rd century and once more encounter the crew of the Enterprise, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk.
Notes: This novel is a sequel to the Star Trek episode Assignment Earth, which introduced Gary Seven in what was meant to be a pilot for his own series. Gary and his assistant mention having knowledge of the people or events from all of the above listed crosses.
ALTERNATE REALITIES:
TVCU-1-Cartoon Universe (also has its own inner multiverse, as seen in various cartons. These are mostly one time seen worlds). PINKY AND THE BRAIN have visited the Village of their world in the three part storyline "Brainwashed."
TVCU-6-Tron/VIDEO GAME UNIVERSE?--OK, I'm not sure about video game crossovers. This is about Sonic. I know he isn't from the TVCU, because he travels to the TVCU in SONIC X. But what is his home dimension. I know Sonic and Mario are in the same universe, though Mario comes from the TVCU originally. I'm not sure yet (though I will investigate at another time) if these games are connected to other ones or to any other fictional characters that might place them in, say, the Looniverse or something. For now, I'm going to say Sonic is from the Video Game Universe. Oh, what's this got to do with this blog? Well, in SONIC THE COMIC # 106 to 107, Dr. Robotnik creates a computer program that goes rogue and creates that universe's version of the Village.
TVCU-11-LEOG-Alan Moore's universe--LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN DIVERGENT TIMELINE--LOEG Volumes 1 and 2 fit into the TVCU just fine, but after that, the timeline diverges and creates an alternate reality just like with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8. In BLACK DOSSIER, the Village is said to be controlled by Big Brother's thought police (from 1984.) V FOR VENDETTA--In this reality, the Larkhill Death Camp is actually the Village of this reality, as can be seen by the scenery.
TVCU-29-Skitlandia and non-canon commercials--On DEAD RINGERS, the soap THE ARCHERS is merged with THE PRISONER.
TVCU-44-Whoniverse/DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE--In the novel DEAD ROMANCE, the Time Lords set up a version of the Village on another planet. Since there are no other connections in this universe to the Prisoner, there are a few different possible explanations. 1) The Time Lords may have thought up the idea on their own. 2) They may have seen the TV show. 3) Perhaps the events of the Prisoner also occur in this universe and the Time Lords copied that Village. 4) Perhaps a Time Lord had visited the Village of the TVCU and that is where the idea came from.
TVCU-150--THIS IS WHERE FOREIGN ADAPTATIONS, AUTHORIZED OR OTHERWISE, COULD TAKE PLACE. DOCTOR WHO: THE MAN IN THE VELVET MASK--The Doctor from the DOCTOR WHO UNIVERSE travels to this one where there is a French version of the Village with the Marquis de Sade as Monsieur 6.
Well, that's it. For a show I know very little about, this was a very fun blog to write. I will be adding the Prisoner to my Netflix list I think.
The series Now and Again also had a reference to The Prisoner
ReplyDelete“MICHAEL: Look, it's not my area, but just between us for a fabulously rich, somewhat spoiled media darling he seems like a pretty decent, grounded guy. I mean, do you really have to do anything?
DR. MORRIS: Tell me you're joking, Mr. Wiseman.
MICHAEL: No, I'm serious. I mean, why can't he just be champ? Somebody's got to do it.
DR. MORRIS: Okay, fine. Let's have it your way. But suppose PFC. Foster slips up and someone, anyone discovers the secret of his success is more than just a sweet left jab. What if he's hurt in the ring? Hell, forget the ring. He's hurt in a car accident. The attending physician cuts him open only to discover that the knee bone ain't connected to the shinbone. Hell, forget the knee bone. There are bits and pieces in this fellow that aren't even illustrated in Gray's Anatomy.
MICHAEL: Okay, I get it. So what's going to happen to him?
DR. MORRIS: Suffice to say that his strength and appearance will be dynamically altered. We'll obviously have to do something with his memory, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain.
MICHAEL: Lobotomy?
DR. MORRIS: As I said, some sort of surgical procedure involving the brain. And after all that's accomplished I will make it my business to see to it that he lives out his days comfortably in a government facility.
MICHAEL: Right. After all that's accomplished.
DR. MORRIS: Need I remind you, Mr. Wiseman that he was offered the same proposition you were given? He entered into an agreement he accepted the conditions of that agreement fully aware of the consequences involved in violating it. He then chose to violate that agreement. And under the circumstances I think he's lived an unusually... comfortable life. I'll leave the map here. Let's skip our workout for today. Leave you some time to... yourself.” (“I am the Greatest” NOW AND AGAIN)
Clearly, Dr Morris is planning on sending Foster to a village-like facility.
The Simpsons has an episode set on "The Island," with Patrick McGoohan voicing No. 6
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brad. I'll add this in my six month update. Hugh, I mention the Simpsons episode under alternate realities, though recently I decided it wasn't an AU and was indeed part of the main TVCU, so should have moved it thusly.
ReplyDeleteAnother trivial tidbit to strengthen the connection between Drake and Six - they share the same birthday, which is also the same for Patrick McGoohan.
ReplyDeleteYou really should see the series; it's only 17 hours! You'll see there are a few things to set right. (Napoleon, the ultimate fates in the body exchange, etc.)