Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) encounter an all-new villain when The Minstrel (Van Johnson) arrives in town. A talented singer and an electronic genius, he leans his talents toward villainy!

This two-parter was written by Francis M. Cockrell and Marian B. Cockrell, with the first instalment, The Minitrel’s Shakedown, first airing on 21 September, 1966.

The Minstrel gets things underway by disrupting the Gotham City Stock Exchange with all the numbers being reported incorrectly. At Gordon’s (Neil Hamilton) behest Batman and Robin investigate and hide the fact that they’ve noticed elaborate tampering with the system and the addition of bugs so that the Minstrel can listen in to see if he’s been discovered.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between Batman and the Minstrel, both of them electronic geniuses, and Batman plans to catch the villain when he returns to the stock exchange that night. Unfortunately, that trap is foiled when the Dynamic Duo bumps into a night cleaner (Phyllis Diller!!)

This leads to the first physical confrontation between the parties, but Minstrel escapes, but the Caped Crusaders are able to track him and his gang down, and before walking into a trap, Batman actually plants the seed for their escape from the upcoming cliffhanger.

That’s a first, and I completely appreciated the fact that the episode did that. Batman plants a few tiny bat-bombs along a corridor before they storm the next room, ending up in a trap that sees the pair on a rotating spit-roast over an increasingly hot electric ray!

How will they get free?

Barbecued Batman? aired the following night on 22 September, 1966.

Triggering the bat-bombs, Batman is able to use the distraction to cut himself and Robin free of the spit and make their escape.

This only infuriates Minstrel who is intent on escalating his plans of destruction, and with a clever nod to the 007 film franchise and its producer Albert Broccoli, the baddie threatens to destroy a number of buildings with sonics, including the Gotham City Stock Exchange.

An interaction with Minstrel’s moll, Octavia (Leslie Perkins) allows Batman to slip a bug on her, and gather some of Minstrel’s plans. That way when the climax of the episode arrives, when the police and the members of the stock exchange seem close to panicking, the Dark Knight is ready to reveal Minstrel hiding among their number and he and Robin are easily able to save the day by defeating Minstrel and his men.

As Minstrel is led to prison, he’s given a moment on live television where he sings a promise to escape prison and have his revenge on Batman and Robin!

Will he be back? I guess I’ll just have to wait and find out.

The Minstrel is a neat idea, and I love the idea of battling electronic geniuses attempting to outwit each other, but Johnson doesn’t come across as likeable as the narrative suggests he is. Oh well. Is it a miscasting thing? That’s up to the viewer, but I’ll look forward to the return of other familiar villains.

We also get a look at the bat drone (a remote-controlled plane Batman uses to track Minstel’s signal). What new gadgets await us next time? I guess we’ll find out next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel!