The Prisoner/Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
Season 1, Episode 13
Airdate	January 7, 1968
Written by	Vincent Tilsley
Directed by	Pat Jackson
← 1x12 A Change of Mind	1x14 → Living in Harmony
The Prisoner — Season One

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is the thirteenth episode of the first season of The Prisoner. Number Six's mind is switched into the body of an external operative of the village, forcing him to seek out the man who invented the method by which the mind swipe is possible.

Starring: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six)

Guest Stars: Zena Walker (Janet), Clifford Evans (Number Two), Nigel Stock (The Colonel)

with Angelo Muscat (The Butler), Hugo Schuster (Seltzman), John Wentworth (Sir Charles), James Bree (Villiers), Lloyd Lamble (Stapleton), Patrick Jordan (Danvers)

and Lockwood West (Camera Shop Manager), Fredric Abbott (Potter), Gertan Klauber (Cafe Waiter), Henry Longhurst (Old Guest), Danvers Walker (First New Man), John Nolan (Young Guest)

Plot Overview

A military official known only as "The Colonel" lands at the village by helicopter where he's greeted by a taxi that takes him to Number Two's green dome. The colonel has arrived without any understanding of what he is to do, but Number Two doesn't give him answers. Instead, he points him to a camera which is spying on Number Six and insinuates that Six's intelligence is not to be underestimated and that the colonel will know this first hand soon. Two quickly changes subjects to Dr. Seltzman, a scientist who developed a method of transferring one person's mind into another's body. Astounded, the colonel refuses to believe that such a thing is possible and questions why there's so much interested in the creator of the method. Number Two simply gives an example of returning prisoners of war without their true minds as a type of subterfuge. Number Two guides him to the laboratory where they erase minds and shows him the Seltzman machine which would allow them to transfer minds. Meanwhile, Number Six is being forcefully taken from his home by hospital officials.

The next morning, Number Six wakes up in the Colonel's body apparently in his old home. He meets his fiancée Janet, who tells the colonel that Six has been away for a full year. Grappling with this revelation, he tells her that he may have a message for her at her birthday party but it will have to wait until then. Janet goes to her father, Six's boss, to ask if he's been sent on a mission but Charles has no idea about where he could be. Number Six storms off to his former place of business and threatens Danvers in order to get to a superior but the man hits an alarm before long. However, the stunt manages to work and brings a high-ranking official to the office. When Six brings up Seltzman, the man asks that everyone vacate the office.

The official and the colonel take an elevator high in the building and enter a restricted area to meet with Sir Charles. He proves that he's the missing Number Six by reciting details of when he asked permission for marrying Janet, but Charles refuses to believe this and refuses to aid the colonel. The colonel returns home to pick up some money from his hidden wall safe and journeys to Janet's birthday where he tries the same tactic of proving he's Number Six with old memories. She retrieves a slip of paper for him, they kiss and he gains her faith the he is who he claims to be.

Using the slip of paper, the colonel picks up a set of photographs that he asked to be developed before he was sent to the village. He also gets a passport photography while there and the spy reports back to his superiors that the photographs he picked up were the same which they were examining earlier. At his home, Six deciphers his own code which reveals the whereabouts of Dr. Seltzman: Kandersfeld, Austria. He takes a ship to Austria and finds the doctor posing as a barber in the barber shop. He attempts to prove that he is Number Six by demonstrating that his handwriting is the very same as that of a letter that the professor received long ago. Seltzman is suitably convinced by this and explains that there is a reversal process in theory, but first they need to do away with the men who seek him. Six fights with his tail from Britain, but the two are both eventually knocked out by a Village operative with a gas gun. The two are brought back to the village, where Number Two coerces the professor into perfecting his reversal method.

In order to return the colonel and Number Six to their respective bodies, Seltzman is forced to use himself as an intermediate. Though the process works, the professor is nearly killed in the attempt. Seltzman dies after saying that Number Two must tell Number One that he "did his duty," which causes Number Two to realize that though Number Six is back in his own body, the professor is now inhabiting the body of the colonel.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Village: A man who has given up all he knows to the village administrators is shown in this episode. Number Two explains to the colonel that because he broke so quickly, they're erasing his memory and "putting him back into circulation" so that he can collect more information. At that point they will, presumably, take him back.

Characters

• Number Six: Though Number Six's body only appears briefly at the beginning and end of the episode, many details of his life before the village are shown while the colonel is on his mission. Six was once engaged to be married to Janet, the boss's daughter. Neither his name, nor his actual occupation beyond "spy" is revealed, however.

Referbacks

• 1x01 - Arrival: The clip show of Number Six's exploits mainly come from the first episode in the series. This includes Six's refusal to take part in examination, his attempt to escape by speedboat and his inevitable capture by rover.

Trivia

The Show

• Freeze Frame: The address on the professor's envelope shows his address in Scotland to be on "Portmeirion Road". The series is filmed on location in Portmeirion.

• This the only episode to open with a teaser before the main title sequence. Additionally, the subsequent material that plays over the opening credits is dropped.

Behind the Scenes

• Format: Had the series been picked up for a second season, it would have taken this episode's format for the entire season with Number Six being sent out into the world to complete mission in the name of the village.

• M.I.A.: The reason why Patrick McGoohan only appears briefly in this episode is because he needed time away from filming in order to film his role in the movie Ice Station Zebra.