Indeed. My first Blu-ray purchase along with whatever the current 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Blu was at that point in 2011 or 2012. I also still have the DVD package that looks just like that but contains the old A&E masters.
I will concede that point. They kept his face in the shadows so it could be a stand-in. Does his name appear in the credits? I will re-state that the character played by Angelo Muscat is in that scene, but that does not mean it was Angelo Muscat, but his height and size do seem to be within reason.
2001 is one of my all-time favorite films! Did you know that it and The Prisoner were filming at the same time at MGM Borehamwood Studios from 1966-68? There was definitely magic in the air at that studio for those two years...
Yes, I also wish they had something better than that balloon for the plot, but I guess it can also be seen as an amorphous smothering presence that chokes us?
My acquaintance (brother-in-law of my brother-in-law) still has the DVD set, and is willing to return it to me. Yippee!
I first saw The Prisoner on TV in the 60s. I was 5 or 6 years old, and Rover scarred me for life - it scared me to death. I think that's why even today I buy it as a threatening visual and audio deterrent. If I was seeing that balloon for the first time as a grown-ass man, however, I'd likely agree with my wife.
I think Rover is pretty effective as an ominous force. The sound effect helps (roar!). They originally tried to build something (I have to look up the details), that ended up not working well enough, so the balloon was just a great example of creative problem solving.
I always thought the Smoke Monster on Lost was that show's equivalent/homage to Rover: a roaring apparition that comes out of nowhere, kills or maims a character, then disappears just as quickly, leaving the viewers wondering "What the h*** was that!?!?"
sorta like a Police box on wheels the Rover sat upon a cart w/ driver inside The Prisoner: Arrival "Rover was originally intended to be a vehicle with a dome-shaped hood and a flashing blue light which could travel by both land and sea, like a hovercraft. A test model was built which proved a disaster to drive, and frankly looked like a blancmange on wheels. There are various reports of the origins of the balloon design for Rover, but the most reliable account is that it was Production Designer Bernard Williams alongside McGoohan. In the documentary Don’t Knock Yourself Out, Williams states that he and McGoohan saw weather balloons floating in the sky during production and reconceived Rover thus. Rover was guided along by wires, and sometimes the film was played in reverse while Rover was pulled, which is one explanation for why the Villagers freeze in place at No.2’s command. "
An episode of McGoohan's short-lived 1977 medical series, Rafferty, contained two amusing in-jokes. First, a woman mentions a "Rover" and McGoohan's Rafferty character replies, "What??" "My dog," she explains. "Oh," Rafferty says, "Well, that's my idea of a name for a dog!" Later, when Rafferty visits the woman again, he leans down to pet the sleeping dog, while joking, "So this is Rover? My, what a ferocious lookin' beast!"
Ian Anderson mentions Mr. McGoohan in the liner notes to the Walk Into Light CD. I wonder if Rover influenced this. Or the song The Rover from Heavy Horses?
I watched episode 10 yesterday. It’s definitely one of my favorites. Once I watch 11-15 I will have seen them all. (I keep watching 16 over and over).
Would that be "Hammer Into Anvil?" It's hard to tell about THE PRISONER by episode # since there are a number of semi-official numbering schemes. The show aired in different sequences in the UK and the US, and probably the world. There's a production order scheme too, not to mention fan-generated timelines that rely on the dialog to pin down the order. The best example of that is "The General" and "A, B, and C". "A, B, and C" comes second in a US airdate order, but if you watch the series with a detailed eye, you'll note that Colin Gordon, Number Two in both of these episodes is somewhat differently handled in each one. In "The General", Gordon is more smug - and introduces himself as "the new Number Two". In "A, B, and C", Gordon is much more agitated, is pressured by his superior, swills milk, and states "I am Number Two", which would indicate a continuance in the job. Yet "The General" was screened in the sixth position. To be sure, there is much debate on the subject of ordering the episodes. The DVD set I have from A&E from 2009 uses an altered episode list in its episode distribution, while the Blu-rays use the US airdate order. On the DVDs, episode #10 is "It's Your Funeral". A few episodes are locked in position. #1 has to be "Arrival" and #16 and #17 must be "Once Upon A Time" and "Fall Out". All of the others are subject to debate.
Don't forget, in "Do Not Forsake Me," there are flashback clips shown from "Arrival" and "Free For All," so "Forsake" has to come after the latter. As for the "A,B & C"/"General" debate, that one is really up for grabs. In "The General," No.2 states "No.6 and I are old friends," and at one point asks No.6, "Are you still as keen as ever to leave us?" These lines make it seem as though "The General" should come several episodes after "A,B & C."
That’s the one. Brilliant! I’ve been quoting episode 16 and 17 around the house so a few weeks ago a telemarketer called and my 12 year old son picked up the phone and said “THE BONES IS YOURS DAD. THEY COME FROM YOU MY DADDY.”
The "old friends" comment could be just a phrase based on his recent studies of the case history of Number 6. Every Number Two would know of Number 6's desire to leave. So I don't necessarily buy those as indicators, "The new Number Two" is a much stronger case for "The General" to come before "A, B, and C". Just my feelings. As we can see, there are many ways of interpreting order.
An episode, by the way, intended to air halfway through the series but due to production issues (McGoohan apparently did some reshoots when he came back from Hollywood), it got pushed back.
I have the set back, and have now watched the first 4 episodes. But I am curious why the crappy alternate version of the Chimes of Big Ben is the second program on the first disk. It should have been on the last disk!
Well that goes way back to the first iteration of THE PRISONER on DVD in 2000-2001. Back then, television shows were still being issued as individual discs with maybe a couple of episodes on them. This was the model established by shows like STAR TREK and THE TWILIGHT ZONE, where a couple of episodes were strung together, in perhaps a themed order, and sent out to stores for the public to buy. Yeah, very few at that point thought anyone was really going to buy a whole TV series! So favored episodes were strung together for individual releases. With THE PRISONER, A&E probably always intended to do the whole series since there were only 17 episodes and they issued the first episode "Arrival" as an introduction "volume" to the series. And at just about that time, they'd gotten hold of a ratty print of the alternate version of "The Chimes Of Big Ben" that was found in a Canadian TV station's vaults. That was an exciting development at the time, and as an enticement to buy Volume 1, here was this terrific bonus material. A sort-of consensus order for the episodes was then used for subsequent Volumes (ten in all) which mostly contained two episodes each. You could buy only your favorites, or get them all and assemble the whole series. It wasn't until 2009, when Network repackaged the episodes in remastered form that A&E re-issued the DVD set using the newer Network Blu-ray artwork - but the discs were just repackaged from the old Volume sets with new labels. The videos are exactly the same. So in that 2009 set, the bonus "Chime Of Big Ben (alternate)" is stuck onto the first disc in the set.
