Ninth broadcast episode of The Prisoner, where Number Six returns to being a pawn
"Checkmate" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It was first broadcast by ITV (ATV Midlands) on 24 November 1967. As the title suggests, the plot centers on a game of human chess, directed by a mysterious "man with a stick". The chess game has been described as a metaphor for life itself, albeit a somewhat transparent one. "Checkmate" received the highest viewership of any of the series' episodes on its first UK broadcast.
Web Pages
Memorable Scenes
Number 6 and chess champion (Man with the Stick) discuss the game
Number 6: Why do you use people?
Man with the Stick: Some psychiatrists say it satisfies the desire for power. The only opportunity one gets here.
Number 6: That depends what side you're on.
Man with the Stick: I'm on my side.
Number 6: Aren't we all?
Man with the Stick: You must be new here. In time, most of us join the enemy–against ourselves.
Man with the Stick: Some psychiatrists say it satisfies the desire for power. The only opportunity one gets here.
Number 6: That depends what side you're on.
Man with the Stick: I'm on my side.
Number 6: Aren't we all?
Man with the Stick: You must be new here. In time, most of us join the enemy–against ourselves.
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Checkmate (The Prisoner)" as of 21 Feb 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.