Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

For the song from the 1952 film High Noon which uses this title in its refrain, see High Noon (song).

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is the thirteenth episode of the television series The Prisoner, produced while Patrick McGoohan was in America filming Ice Station Zebra. As a workaround to McGoohan's absence the writers contrived to have Number Six's mind implanted in the body of another man (Nigel Stock), who is then sent out of the Village to help capture a scientist. As a result, McGoohan appears in the episode for only a couple of minutes.

Synopsis

It is an unusual episode that involves Number 6 and a man called "The Colonel" having their minds transposed into each other's bodies by the use of a machine. It was invented by a man named Seltzman, who was last known to have been in the company of Number 6 prior to his resignation. The Prisoner, now residing in the body of The Colonel, has all his memories of The Village removed and gets sent back to England by Number 2. As soon as he sees someone else in his mirror, The Prisoner realizes what has been done to him and wants to regain his own body. Therefore, he tracks down Seltzman, who is believed--at least by Number 2 and his superiors--to have perfected the reversal. This is exactly what Number 2 wants, and, upon Number 6's accomplishing his goal, has both men gassed into unconsciousness and returned to The Village. However, the restoration of their identities takes an unexpected twist.

Additional guest cast

• Seltzman - Hugo Schuster
• Sir Charles - John Wentworth
• Villiers - James Bree
• Minister - Kynaston Reeves
• Stapleton - Lloyd Lamble
• Danvers - Patrick Jordan
• Camera shop manager - Lockwood West
• Potter - Fredric Abbott
• Cafe waiter - Gertan Klauber
• Old guest - Henry Longhurst
• New man - Danvers Walker
• Young guard - John Nolan

Trivia

• This is the only Prisoner episode to begin with a pre-credits teaser sequence (not counting the recap which opens Fall Out). It shows several men, including one who will be identified later in the episode as the former superior of Number 6, trying to find clues to the whereabouts of Professor Seltzman in a group of seemingly innocuous photographic slides. According to The Prisoner by Robert Fairclough, had the series been renewed for a second season, the format would have followed that presented in this episode, with Number 6 being sent out on missions on behalf of The Village.
• McGoohan appears only at the very beginning and the very end of the episode, the role of Number 6 (after the mind transfer) being played the rest of the time by Nigel Stock. This episode was so-formatted in order to allow McGoohan to take a leave of absence from the series to film his role in the motion picture Ice Station Zebra.
• It has been theorized that calling Stock's character "The Colonel" was a misinterpretation of McGoohan's instructions in his absence. In the two other episodes when The Prisoner manages/seems to return to London and contacts his former superiors (The Chimes of Big Ben and Many Happy Returns, the man in charge is called "The Colonel." The suggestion is that McGoohan wanted this to be the case here as well, but returned from Hollywood to find that character called Sir Charles Portland and "Colonel" attached to his substitute.
• This is also the only Prisoner episode to show Number 6 kissing a woman (although he is in another man's body, hence the scene did not involve the devout Catholic and very moral McGoohan).
• When The Prisoner awakens in his London flat unaware of the body/mind swap, a series of his thoughts, heard via a voice-over recorded by McGoohan, indicates that he believes he is still in the employ of British intelligence and is not considering resigning. Shortly thereafter, his fiancee arrives, and dialogue establishes that it has been one year TO THE DAY since he "disappeared." Therefore, his motive for quitting must have been something more than a general matter of principle, as stated by the very first Number 2 in Arrival.
• In the scene where Seltzman produces the letter that Number 6 had sent him previously, Seltzman's Scottish address starts "Portmeirion road", which is the name of the actual hotel where The Prisoner's exterior scenes were filmed. The close-up shot of the address appears onscreen so briefly that it could not have been intended to be read by viewers. (At the time this series was produced, VCRs with freeze-frame were not commonly available.)
• The reference work The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs 1947-1979, by Vincent Terrace, which takes the view that The Prisoner is a continuation of Danger Man, speculates that John Drake resigned from the secret service over the events that led up to this episode, although there is nothing actually indicated on screen to support this.

Original Script

The original script for this episode, to be found in volume two of The Prisoner: The Original Scripts, is significantly different from the aired version, while working with the same constraint of Patrick McGoohan's limited availability. The beginning is similar, with Number Two meeting Colonel Oscar, the man whose body Number Six's mind will occupy.

But in this earlier draft of the story, Number Six's memories of the Village are unquestionably erased. Six awakens in his flat in a furious mood, storming to his office to angrily resign. Only at the office does he realize that his appearance is not his own and that a year of his life is missing.

Fearing that this is a ploy to force him to reveal confidential information, Six leaves the office, determined to find Saltzman (who became Seltzman in the aired version), the inventor of the body-swap machine. Meanwhile, Number Six's former employer, Sir Charles Portland, is shown to be in collusion with a mysterious, unseen figure, an apparent agent of the Village. They are collaborating to manipulate Six into locating Saltzman, intending to follow Six as he finds the scientist.

Six returns to his house to find Janet, his fiancee, who doesn't recognize him. Six offers Janet a deal in exchange for locating her missing lover. He later meets her at her birthday party and reclaims from her a receipt for developed photographs held at a camera shop, which Six gave to Janet a year ago. He proceeds to kiss her intimately, in a manner that reminds her of her disappeared lover, and then departs from the party.

Six procures the photographs from the shop, which, overlaid atop each other, produce a map with a set of co-ordinates in Kanderfield, Austria. Six finds Saltzman there, and convinces Saltzman of his identity by referring to their arranged meeting at which Six never arrived. However, Saltzman notices that someone has followed Number Six. It is Potter, a former colleague of Number Six's, sent by their employers to tail Six. And tailing Potter has been an agent of the Village, who gases Saltzman, Six and Potter unconscious and proceeds to transport the scientist and Number Six back to the Village.

Saltzman is forced to show his captors how to reverse the mind-transfer process, in order to Number Six and Colonel Oscar to their proper bodies. The Village lacked the ability to perform the reversal; that is why they wanted Saltzman. Saltzman says the reversal requires a third party as a "medium" for the transfer. Saltzman volunteers himself. Number Two consents, and Six, Oscar and Saltzman are linked to the mind-transfer machine after Saltzman reconfigures it.

The unconscious body of Number Six awakens with the correct mind in place. However, the process has been too much for the elderly Saltzman, who is dying. Colonel Oscar is flown out of the Village in the helicopter while Number Six sits by the dying Saltzman's side. Later, Number Two basks in his victory while Six awaits Saltzman's end. But then Six reveals that the reversal process never required a third man -- that was a lie.

Saltzman then revives briefly, speaking of the orders of Number One, and then dies. Six grimly bids farewell to Saltzman -- who is actually the Colonel, in Saltzman's body. A horrified Number Two calls the control room, only to learn that the helicopter and Saltzman are out of range.

This original version of the story is more deeply developed in almost all respects. Number Two is portrayed as an arrogant, self-satisfied braggart who boasts to the Butler of being the one Number Two who won't be leaving his position. While the televised version ignores the issue of Number Six's resignation, the original script has Six angrily carrying it out. His interactions with Janet are also slightly different, with Janet being forceful and unwilling to play what she thinks is a game with an employee of her father's.

Absent from the televised version but present here is the treachery of Number Six's superior, Sir Charles Portland, speaking to an unidentified 'Voice' who is never seen and is observing the transplanted Number Six's actions. Finally, the script makes inventive use of McGoohan's short time. One scene has Number Two conversing with the Colonel-in-Six's-body, who is represented through what the script describes as a single shot of McGoohan. Later, the script has Number Two watching "appropriate stockshots" of Number Six, whose body the Colonel occupies, with Number Two commenting that the Colonel lacks Six's charm. And when Six awakens restored to his own body, he declares, "I'll tell you nothing! I'm a free man!"

At the end, Six sits with the dying Saltzman before revealing that the reversal process didn't need three men. "Only one could end up free," says Number Six in this brief scene. "It could have been me. But I felt it should be Saltzman. Because I'm going to escape anyway."

This script was apparently rewritten in the absence of Patrick McGoohan and after the departure of George Markstein, becoming what was seen onscreen.

References