The General (The Prisoner)

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“The General”

The Prisoner episode

Episode no.

Season 1
Episode 6

Written by

Lewis Greifer

Directed by

Peter Graham Scott

Guest stars

Number Two - Colin Gordon
Number Twelve - John Castle
Professor - Peter Howell
Professor's wife - Betty McDowell

Original airdate

November 5, 1967

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"The Schizoid Man"	"Many Happy Returns"

The General is the sixth episode of the television series The Prisoner. The central themes of this episode are rote learning and indoctrination.

[edit] Synopsis

Number 6 discovers a new scheme -- Speedlearn -- that permits a person to learn a university 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 (for the 1960s) computer system. However, Number 6 is able to destroy this computer, and Number 2's plans, with some simple logical epistemological trickery.