The Prisoner: The Village Files

Rating:
Summary: Well-intentioned, but I would skip it
Review: The creator is obviously a sincere and observant fan of the series, and this effort deserved to be better than it turned out. Basically this is a rather thin book of drawings. Plan views of buildings, vehicles, pieces of equipment, signage, and whatever else the author could find. There's very little commentary or text, and there are some problems with what is there. For instance the author describes the large round doors in Number Six's home as being "Rover-friendly" but doesn't explain how Rover would enter through the narrow front door! He also gives credence to the story that the Prisoner is the John Drake character from an earlier series, even though McGoohan denies it.

I was a little surprised at the limited coverage of clothing. It may be that there just isn't enough information out there, but extremely detailed drawings, and perhaps even patterns would be useful for the truly fanatical folks who want to create their own Village-style clothing!

About the only thing in this that made me say "Ah, that's interesting!" was a diagram of the layout of all the different nameplates in front of the masked audience in the Fallout episode. It isn't really useful or vital, but I was curious at all the different groups listed--Anarchists, Old Folks, etc.

I can't recommend it for the money.

Rating:
Summary: The most fun of the Prisoner books
Review: This isn't like one of those weird excuses for novels or the episode guides that come out every few years. I've seen the show, what am I going to do with another episode guide?

The Village Files is geared more to the Prisoner fan who goes for the sci-fi aspect. It's kind of a mix between one of those Star Trek guides with all the schematics and a employee handbook for Village warders-- complete diagrams of every building, cave, hidden camera, and car. It has some funny stuff you don't see in other more serious Prisoner books like the top and profile views of Rover, LOL! My wife pointed out THE PAGES ARE NUMBERED LIKE THE FREE INFORMATION BOOTH, TOO!!! :)

I thought it was just going to be a book of pictures when I got it but I keep finding more stuff every time I look through it. I think Patrick McGoohan himself would appreciate the research and humor that went into it. I wish I knew something about doing JKII or Quake mods or Sims skins because it would be perfect for that.