With Frank Gorshin held up in contract negotiations over his performance of The Riddler, the series had to create a new villain for this two-part story. Enter The Puzzler. Played by Maurice Evans, the character has a knack for aviation and Shakespeare (and puzzles) and he seems to be in Gotham City to stir up some trouble.

The story was written by Fred De Gorter, and the first part, The Puzzles Are Coming, debuted on 21 December, 1966.

Delivering warnings to Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton) The Puzzler reveals that he seems to have turned his attention to multi-millionaire Artemus Knab (Paul Smith). But when Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) attempt to warn him, they discover that the pair seem to have partnered up for a legitimate business reason.

Slightly embarrassed the two continue their efforts to learn what is going on, but The Puzzler seems to be constantly ahead of them, and he’s got his eyes set on documenting the cockpit of Knab’s new jet.

The Caped Crusaders attempt to thwart The Puzzler’s plan, even if they don’t understand it completely, and, of course, soon find themselves in a dangerous situation leading to this episode’s cliffhanger; a hot-air balloon designed to take them into the stratosphere. How will the Dynamic Duo escape this one, bound and tied with the balloon rising higher?

It’s interesting that nowadays, it would be the Knab who would be the real villain of the piece. It’s hard to trust a multi-millionaire these days.

The Duo is Slumming continued the story the next night on 22 December, 1966.

Thanks to Robin’s skill at bird calls, the pair are able to summon a bird to help pierce the balloon, but they may have overestimated how quickly they’d come down. Happily all is well, and they are able to continue their chase of the villain of the story.

And since the airdate is so close to the holidays, it’s only appropriate that we get a window cameo from Santa Claus (played by Andy Devine) in this episode, which allows both he and Batman to speak directly to the audience. Santa is apparently so trustworthy that Batman is willing to reveal the location of the bat-cave!

The main story sees the pair continuing their chase of The Puzzler who is intent on stealing and Knab’s new jet and holding it for ransom, or possibly sell it and its secrets to a foreign country.

Will the Dynamic Duo be able to stop The Puzzler in time? The villain keeps on throwing out brain-twisters to keep his enemies at bay, but also to tease them along the thread of a plan. It’s like the villains want to be caught.

And, of course, he is caught, as our heroes catch up with The Puzzler and his gang at Knab’s air hanger just as they are about to make their escape.

The Puzzler is interesting, but he’s nowhere near as wonderfully manic as Gorshin’s Riddler, I can’t wait to see him return to the series.

Let’s see what happens next time!