Jason Davis
Radio Free Skaro #925: Phoenix Without Ashes
On 13 September 2023, I joined Warren Frey, Steven Schapanski, and Annette Wierstra on an off-format installment of the Radio Free Skaro podcast to discuss The Starlost, the ill-fated 1973 television series created by Harlan Ellison. The discussion begins 38:25 into the episode, after the latest Doctor Who news.
The Prisoner: Harlan’s Viewing Order
From 3 January 1993, Harlan Ellison’s Watching—a cultural commentary by the eponymous writer, named for his film criticism column—closed episodes of the Sci-Fi Channel’s weekly news program, Sci-Fi Buzz. It was my first sustained exposure to a writer who would—sixteen years later—become one of my closest friends for the last nine years of his life.
Those Watching segments shaped my opinions and tastes in ways it would take too long to enumerate, but what really established a sense of one-way kinship between Ellison and I was his affinity for The Prisoner (1967–8), which had permanently warped me when KUHT ran it in 1990.
On Labor Day, 1993, Ellison met McGoohan in my mind:
“Feeling trapped? Feeling paranoid? Are they out to get you? Are they listening to your every word? Thought so. Which makes you absolutely ready for The Prisoner marathon. I’m Harlan Ellison, world famous author and outcast, just like you. And I’ve been trapped into hosting the seventeen episodes of this classic and controversial series. They’ll be shown uncut, and in their entirety, right here, on Monday, September 6th.”
The Prisoner was the first television series that confronted me with the possibility of multiple viewing orders. When I first saw it on Houston’s PBS affiliate, the seventeen episodes were presented in the “official” sequence determined by ITC, the show’s corporate owner. That order had more to do with when the episodes were completed by the post-production crews than what was going on within the story. (This was also the order used by MPI Home Video for their VHS and Laserdisc releases of the series, as well as the sequence proffered by several books on the show.)
In 1991, the A&E cable channel screened The Prisoner and I was startled to see the episodes appearing in a different order, a sequence I’d later learn was preferred by Six of One, The Prisoner Appreciation Society.
For the Sci-Fi Channel marathon, Harlan commented upon the ordering controversy and supplied his own iteration, fixing at least one major continuity issue in the Six-of-One sequence. (Some kind soul uploaded a very dodgy recording of the tail-end of Ellison’s linking material to YouTube, if you’d like to take a look. One day, I must exhume my videotapes to revisit the earlier part of the marathon.)
How, you may well ask, could a mere seventeen episodes be ordered in no less than three sequences? (As of this post, Wikipedia.org lists six viewing orders for The Prisoner, so the question is twice as complicated as you might have thought.)
But none of them are Harlan’s order.
“I’m Harlan Ellison, asking if you know how many sides a round building has? And assuring you we’ll be back directly, with yet more of The Prisoner marathon, on the channel whose name will never pass my lips.”
During the marathon, the Host echoed the Prisoner’s refusal to explain his resignation by not speaking the name of the channel, instead gesturing to the logo superimposed in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Harlan had a long-standing aversion to “sci-fi”, “that hideous neologism”, which he likened to the sound of insects fucking, so it was all in character.
Harlan’s order:
01 Arrival
02 Free for All
03 Day of the Dead
04 Checkmate
05 The Chimes of Big Ben
06 The General
07 A. B. and C
08 The Schizoid Man
09 Many Happy Returns
10 It’s Your Funeral
11 A Change of Mind
12 Hammer into Anvil
13 Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
14 Living in Harmony
15 The Girl Who Was Death
16 Once Upon a Time
17 Fall Out
“I’m your host, Harlan Ellison, and the answer is: a round building has two sides…inside, and outside…and you’re watching the five thousandth hour of The Prisoner marathon, exclusively pumped into the Village by…”
Thanks, Harlan. I miss you.
In the interest of embracing new ideas, I commend to you Alex Cox’s 2017 book I Am (Not) a Number: Decoding The Prisoner, in which the writer-director of Repo Man (1984)—a movie I first encountered thanks to Harlan’s review—offers a radical reinterpretation of the series…and another viewing order.
I tried Cox’s order in March 2018, when I was ill with what I still regard as the most congenial virus that’s ever infected me.1 While low-maintenance as illnesses go, I regret that my memory of how Cox’s order played went with the infection. It’s probably time to try it again.
I Am (Not) a Number is a beautifully designed—by Elsa Mathern—book, by the way. The 6 on the cover is spot glossed, and the word “not” is rendered such that the book appears to be titled I Am a Number from a distance, but becomes I Am Not a Number when you pick it up. Kamera Books is to be commended for the production.
If this review has compelled you to purchase I Am (Not) a Number, may I request that you use one of the Amazon links below, which will earn me a small commission on the sale that will fund my ongoing research and publishing work:
Alternatively, I have Ko-Fi for digital tips.
Much appreciated,
JASON DAVIS
©2015, 2024 by Jason Davis. All rights reserved.
- For seven days, the virus robbed me of the ability to sleep, filled my head with an oppressive pressure, and supplied my body with an indistinct ache. There were no coughs, sneezes, or other respiratory issues—which are what I hate most—just a sort of living death that vanished after seven days. ↩︎
Write Your Story
A successful writer once said something like, “Everyone has a book inside them.”
I’m not going to look up the name of the writer or the precise quote, because worrying about those details at the outset of the endeavor is what keeps books buried inside their writers’ minds.
I’m here to help you pry your story out onto the page by sharing the techniques I’ve used to coax books out of several first-time writers as well as in editing titles by prolific professionals. The trick is to bypass the many pitfalls that trap even the most experienced writers—like stopping the flow to look up a quote, identify its source, and go down a dozen rabbit holes as a result—and to keep marching toward the goal:
A BOOK
by
YOU
Join me for a pay-what-you-can workshop at 6 PM Pacific Time on Thursday, 31 August 2023, and I’ll share the strategies that have worked for writers on page one as well as those on page 400 of their 100th book.
You have a story to tell. I have the tools to help you tell it. Let’s get together.
Babylon 5 comes to Blu-ray
I’m sure most of you saw on Tuesday that Babylon 5 is coming to Blu-ray.
If you didn’t see the news:
Babylon 5 is coming to Blu-ray on 5 December 2023!
The set is now up for pre-order at:
There’s not a lot of data available, but the 21-disc set appears to include the pilot and the 110 episodes of the series proper, as exhibited in high definition on HBO Max between 2020 and 2022.
I have many thoughts on the release, mostly informed by my talks with co-producer George Johnsen and editor David Foster, but they’ll keep until I’ve had time to write them up properly in a forthcoming briefing.
But, briefly, I am delighted with this news. Not only does it allow future viewers to see a version of the show much closer to the intended vision of those I’ve been interviewing for the last few years, but it signals–along with Babylon 5: The Road Home and the potential television reboot–a renewed interest in the property.
Now I’m off to interview an Australian and make an appointment with someone else who’s never–to my knowledge–spoken about B5…see you Monday.
Faith manages,
JASON DAVIS
Ian Briggs on Writing
From Toby Hadoke’s Who’s Round #247.
For the record, I couldn’t do music even if I was at peace with myself, but I like the image of writers having an ongoing irritation that forces the creation of pearls.
Stuntlady: Falling for the Stars by Sandra Gimpel (Felion Productions, 2023)
In late 2022, Patricia Tallman (Babylon 5) introduced me to Sandy Gimpel, who’d written a memoir of her Hollywood career and wanted a picture-filled print-on-demand publication she could add to the array of publicity photos she signs at conventions.
Over a couple months, Sandy and I worked together on the text, integrating her personal photos to achieve a book reminiscent of Pleasure Thresholds, the memoir I edited for Tallman in 2011 and helped her update in 2020. The resulting book, Stuntlady, was published on 17 April 2023. It was a hit at Trek Long Island (19–21 May 2023) and was featured on the 22 May 2023 episode of Inside Edition.
For editorial and/or publishing services, please contact me at ellison.editor@gmail.com.
Sandra Gimpel began her Hollywood career dancing with Elvis Presley in fifteen films and doubling Bill Mumy on Lost in Space. She even played the M-113 salt vampire on Star Trek before discovering her true calling: Stuntlady.
She’s doubled Adrienne Barbeau, Olympia Dukakis, Barbara Eden, Sally Field, Estelle Getty, Melissa Gilbert, Holly Hunter, Cloris Leachman, Susan Lucci, Shirley MacLaine, Alyssa Milano, Kate Mulgrew, Sarah Jessica Parker, Debbie Reynolds, Betty White, and more.
After establishing herself as a stunt coordinator, Gimpel broke the glass ceiling at Universal and became the first stunt woman to join the DGA and direct second-unit at the height of the studio’s television output.
From dancing with Fred Astaire in The Pleasure of His Company to being shoved by Daniel Radcliffe in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Gimpel’s seven decades of falling for the stars are all here.
Stuntlady: Falling for the Stars by Sandra Gimpel (Felion Productions, 2023)
Edited by Jason Davis. Cover cartoon by Luis Silva.
ISBN: 9798390149782 • 7.5″ by 9.25″ Trade Paperback 350pp.
To order signed and/or inscribed copies directly from Sandra Gimpel, click here.
To order unsigned copies from Amazon.com, click here.
Doctor Who Literature: Chris Boucher & Harlan Ellison
On 19 February 2022, I recorded material for two episodes of the Doctor Who Literature podcast.
For my first episode, I told host Jason Miller how my love for Doctor Who led me to Harlan Ellison, who wrote the 1978 introduction for the U.S. editions of Doctor Who novelizations published by Pinnacle Books. (I share the segment with Doctor Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe, who returned to pay tribute to writer Chris Boucher.)