The General (The Prisoner)
Encyclopedia
The General is the sixth episode of the television
series The Prisoner
. The central themes of this episode are rote learning
and indoctrination
.
level course in history
in three minutes, taught by an individual known as "The Professor", who is backed by another entity known as "The General". Number 6 finds that Speedlearn could possibly be used for mind control
as well as mass education
. A disaffected member of the Speedlearn committee helps Number 6 infiltrate the project to try and bring the General down.
"The General" turns out to be a sophisticated computer
system. However, Number 6 is able to destroy this computer, and Number 2's plans, with some simple logical epistemological trickery: Number 6 feeds it the question "why?"
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
. The central themes of this episode are rote learning
Rote learning
Rote learning is a learning technique which focuses on memorization. The major practice involved in rote learning is learning by repetition by which students commit information to memory in a highly structured way. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the...
and indoctrination
Indoctrination
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
.
Synopsis
Number 6 discovers a new scheme—Speedlearn—that permits a person to learn a universityUniversity
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
level course in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
in three minutes, taught by an individual known as "The Professor", who is backed by another entity known as "The General". Number 6 finds that Speedlearn could possibly be used for mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
as well as mass education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. A disaffected member of the Speedlearn committee helps Number 6 infiltrate the project to try and bring the General down.
"The General" turns out to be a sophisticated computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
system. However, Number 6 is able to destroy this computer, and Number 2's plans, with some simple logical epistemological trickery: Number 6 feeds it the question "why?"
Additional guest cast
- Announcer - Al ManciniAl ManciniAlfred Benito "Al" Mancini was an American stage, television and film actor, born in Steubenville, Ohio....
- Supervisor - Peter SwanwickPeter SwanwickPeter Swanwick was a British actor best remembered as the "Supervisor" in the 1967 TV series, The Prisoner...
- Doctor - Conrad PhillipsConrad PhillipsConrad Phillips is a British film and television actor, born in London. His real name is Conrad Philip Havord.He is best known for portraying William Tell in the popular ITV television series The Adventures of William Tell which ran for 39 episodes from 1958 to 1959. Philips also played Stefan,...
- Man in buggy - Michael Miller
- Waiter - Keith PyottKeith PyottKeith Pyott was a British actor.He transferred from stage to screen and was a regular face in drama in the early days of television, appearing in The Prisoner, Out of the Unknown, The Avengers, and the Doctor Who story The Aztecs.He also appeared in over twenty feature films, including Orson...
- Man at Cafe and First Top Hat - Ian FlemingIan Fleming (actor)Ian Fleming was an Australian born character actor with credits in over 100 British movies.He is perhaps best known for playing Dr. Watson in a series of Sherlock Holmes movies of the 1930s opposite Arthur Wontner's Holmes...
- Mechanic - Norman MitchellNorman MitchellNorman Mitchell was an English television, stage and film actor.Born in Sheffield, his father was a mining engineer and his mother a concert singer. He attended Carterknowle Grammar School and the University of Sheffield, before appearing in repertory theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company...
- Projection operator - Peter BournePeter BournePeter Bourne is a physician, anthropologist, biographer, author and international civil servant with experience in several senior government positions. He is currently chairman of the board of the American Association for World Health, and Professor and Vice Chancellor Emeritus at St...
- Corridor guard - George Leech
- Corridor guard - Jackie Cooper
Trivia
- The General is first mentioned by Number Two in the episode "The Schizoid ManThe Schizoid Man (The Prisoner)The Schizoid Man is an episode of The Prisoner.-Plot:In an extremely complex plot of bluff and double bluff, Number 2 brings a lookalike of Number 6, referred to as "Number 12", to The Village. Number 12 is not a clone, but an "agent" of The Village who happens to bear a very strong resemblance to...
." - The twist ending is similar to the The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
episode "The Old Man in the CaveThe Old Man in the Cave"The Old Man in the Cave" is a half-hour episode of the original version of The Twilight Zone. It is set in a post-apocalyptic 1974, ten years after a nuclear holocaust in the United States...
" (1963).