The Official Television Thread

[Rev. Rye]

So, I'm watching The Prisoner and one thing I'm seriously starting to wonder: is there a way to arrange playback on Amazon in a specific order, besides the one they give as default? I ask because Wikipedia lists a total of five episode orders, and Amazon has chosen the broadcast order, which is universally agreed to be the order that makes the least sense.

What we know (from my research into the subject):

• The Prisoner was originally intended as a seven-episode miniseries, but ITV requested a total of 26 episodes to sell it more easily internationally. They eventually settled on 17 episodes because they just gave up on the show (to the extent that when the script editor left, they never replaced him) and wound up airing the episodes in an order that makes no sense.
  
• The three whose place everyone agrees on is the first episode (Arrival) and the last two (Once Upon a Time and Fall Out).
  
• The closest thing to a canonical order is the one Patrick McGoohan gave for the episodes that would have corresponded with the original seven episodes: "Arrival," "Dance of Death," "Free For All," "Checkmate," "Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out." Given that this is the creator/star's order, and I'm inclined to give authorial intent priority (especially in the case of something this strange and inexplicable), I'm going to assume that this order for the first five episodes is the true one. These are generally agreed to be the first few episodes because they establish the rules of the Village, still have #6 trying to escape from The Village like it's a normal prison, and he still regularly states he's new.
  
• In the middle group of seven episodes, there's only one pair of episodes I can place in a particular order: "The General" and "A, B, and C." Unlike any episodes besides the last two and "Chimes" (which use Leo McKern), these two episodes share the same No. 2: Colin Gordon. In the former episode, he's confident, but in the latter, he's a neurotic mess.
  
• That said, it appears "Hammer into Anvil" should probably be closer to the end of the pack, since it's here that it becomes clear that No. 6 is gaining the upper hand.
  
• "The Schizoid Man" and "Many Happy Returns"  should probably be placed before "It's Your Funeral" and "A Change of Mind," since No. 6 is still trying to escape in the former  two episodes.
  
• Of the last five episodes, the triad of episodes "Living in Harmony," "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling," and "The Girl Who Was Death," which are strange even by the high standards of the series, should be put towards the end, with its bizarre mind games, to help acclimate the audience for the high weirdness of the finale.
  

I might be able to put my own order together in time, but it appears that the most plausible order of the five on Wikipedia (the one that fits all the clues I've been able to glean) is the one chosen by Zack Handlen of the AV Club.