Village. He hopes to learn everything he can of how his idea has been implemented and find a way to destroy it. However, due to the range of nationalities and agents present in The Village, Drake realises he is not sure whose Village he is in one established by his own people, or by the other side. Drake's conception of the Village would have been the basis for declaring himself to be "Number One". According to Markstein: "'Who is Number Six?' is no mystery he was a secret agent called Drake who quit." Markstein added:The prisoner was going to leave the Village and he was going to have adventures in many parts of the world, but ultimately he would always be a prisoner. By that I don't mean he would always go back to the Village. He would always be a prisoner of his circumstances, his situation, his secret, his background... and 'they' would always be there to ensure that his captivity continues. Reception The finale of The Prisoner left open-ended questions, generating controversy and letters of outrage. Following the final episode, McGoohan "claimed he had to go into hiding for a while". Home media Video tapes Numerous editions of The Prisoner were released in the UK by companies such as Carlton, the copyright holder of the TV series. The first VHS and Betamax releases were through Precision Video in 1982 from 16mm original prints. They released four tapes, each with two episodes edited together; these were "The Arrival"/"The Schizoid Man", "Many Happy Returns"/"A. B. and C.", "Checkmate"/"Free For All" and "The General"/"The Chimes of Big Ben", thus omitting the final storyline. In 1986 Channel 5 Video (a now-defunct home video brand owned by Universal Pictures) released a series of all 17 episodes on VHS and LaserDisc. In 1993 PolyGram Video released the entire series plus a special feature called The Best of The Prisoner on five VHS cassette tapes. In North America, MPI Home Video released a total of 20 VHS videotapes in 1984 encompassing the entire series: one tape for each of the 17 episodes plus three more containing "The Alternate Version of 'The Chimes of Big Ben'", a documentary, and a "best of" retrospective. MPI also released editions of nine LaserDiscs in 1988 and 1998, the last disc of which comprised the final Episode 17, "Fall Out", plus "The Prisoner Video Companion" on side two. DVD In