The General

"The General" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series, The Prisoner. It was written by "Joshua Adam" – a pseudonym for Lewis Greifer – and directed by Peter Graham Scott. It was the tenth to be produced and was the sixth episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV (ATV Midlands and Grampian) on Friday 3 November 1967. It first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 13 July 1968. The episode stars Patrick McGoohan as Number Six and features Colin Gordon as Number Two, in the second of his two appearances. The central themes of this episode are rote learning and indoctrination. Plot summary Number Six – along with the rest of the population of the Village – is subjected to a new mind-altering education technology called "Speed Learn" which can instill a three-year university-level course in history over a television screen in just three minutes. It was invented and is "taught" by an avuncular individual known as "The Professor" who is nevertheless seen trying to escape from the Village along the beach at the episode outset. Number Six finds a tape recorder in which the professor's true feelings are revealed, mysteriously discarded on the beach. He hides the recorder in the sand. He witnesses the professor, after being recaptured, proceeding with the education programme which instills a detailed, but fairly sterile, set of data on "European history since Napoleon" into all Village residents' minds. Speed Learn is also apparently supported by someone known as the "General". Number Two tries to find the tape recorder. He assumes Number Six has it. He quizzes Number Six on the lecture, and Six seems to surprise himself by answering all the questions correctly.