(by ShadeGrenade on 21 September 2006)

Originally titled 'Face Unknown', this was made as a 'fill-in' because McGoohan was busy with the filming of 'Ice Station Zebra' for M.G.M. It begins with The Colonel ( Nigel Stock ) arriving by helicopter in The Village. Number 2 ( Clifford Evans ) reveals to him the existence of a 'mind swap' machine, invented by Professor Jacob Seltzman ( Hugo Schuster ), who has gone into hiding. The process cannot be reversed, hence Seltzman is needed.
Number 6 is knocked out by guards, and taken to hospital. When he awakes, he is back in his London flat, all unhappy memories of The Village gone. He looks in a mirror, yet sees a stranger's face - the Colonel's. His fiancée Janet Portland ( Zena Walker ) comes calling, having spotted the Lotus 7 parked outside. A year has gone by, yet he remembers nothing of it. She does not recognise him. He smashes the mirror with his fist. There is only one thing he can do - search for the man who can help him: Seltzman. This is, of course, what The Village want him to do, every step of The Prisoner's quest is shadowed by an undertaker ( William Lyon Brown )...
Stock gives a remarkable performance as 'The Colonel/Number 6', capturing accurately the steely determination of McGoohan's character, while Evans' 'Number Two' is so impressive one wishes he'd been brought back. His 'we could break the security of any nation' speech is wonderfully delivered. Walker shines in her few scenes as Number 6's faithful fiancée.
In their book 'Fall Out', Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore state that nobody has a good word to say about this story. I think it is a brilliant, entertaining instalment, a breath of fresh air coming after a steady run of Village-based episodes. It works even though McGoohan is barely on screen, and veers closely at times into 'Danger Man' territory, particularly the Austrian and London party scenes. Had a second season been made - with Number Six chased across the world by his ex-captors - this is how it might have looked. Clips from previous episodes are put to good use too.
Vincent Tilsley's script was later published, and after reading it, I for one am glad it was rewritten. The original had 'Sir Charles' ( John Wentworth ) reporting to a shadowy figure who is clearly connected to The Village ( Number 1? ). The 'mind swap' machine idea was old hat, a standard spy series cliché most recently done in 'The Avengers' romp - 'Who's Who?' - and whilst a pretty contrived way of explaining the star's absence it is better than having Number 6 vanish in a magician's cabinet ( a thankfully rejected idea ).
Some have grumbled that the Village do not really need Seltzman, when all they have to do to reverse the mind-swap process is to run it again. Obviously this must have been tried, and did not work. Perhaps the subjects died when the reversal was attempted. As for the final scene in which Seltzman escapes from the Village by helicopter ( having first transferred his mind into the Colonel's body ), we must assume that by the time Number Two realised what had happened the chopper had flown beyond the point where it could be retrieved. It is strange that 'Prisoner' fans can devise countless explanations for the bizarre concluding episode, yet seem incapable of ironing out inconsistencies in other episodes.