“The Joker’s Flying Saucer”
Written by Charles Hoffman
Directed by Sam Strangis
Season 3, Episode 24
Production code 1720
Original air date: February 29, 1968
The Bat-signal: The citizenry of Gotham City is convinced that there will be an alien invasion, despite assurances by Gordon to the contrary. Professor Greenleaf is trying to convince Barbara (who’s actually working in the library!) that humanity should submit to their new alien overlords. While Barbara doesn’t buy Greenleaf’s story, she does see a green-skinned and -haired man vandalizing the library.
Faced by near-harassment from the people of Gotham, Gordon does the same thing he always does when required to do his job: he calls Batman. The Dynamic Duo slide down the poles and drive to GCPD HQ.
Turns out the rumors were started by the Joker, who designed a flying saucer while in prison with the help of his pickpocket cellmate.
Batman, Robin, Gordon, and O’Hara question a Mrs. Green, who insists she saw a three-foot-tall Martian man in Gotham Central Park. And then Barbara arrives at Gordon’s office completely a-quiver, telling our heroes about the little green man in the library. Said little green man, whose name is Verdigris, has also been in the Batmobile, where he’s left a bomb to go off at midnight. The Dynamic Duo head back to the Batcave, not realizing the Batmobile is bombed, and eventually they figure out where they’ve seen Mrs. Green before: she was the front-woman for a bunko artist (which is what they called grifters in the 1960s).
Professor Greenleaf also turns out to be working for the Joker. The criminal clown’s next move is to steal some beryllium for the flying saucer from the Wayne Foundation. Batman figures out that it’s the Joker, so he has Alfred check on the Wayne Foundation security and also informs Gordon that the Joker is the likely culprit.
Barbara was in Gordon’s office when Batman called, so she heads off to change to Batgirl. Batman and Robin get into the Batmobile at midnight, at which point the bomb goes off, half-destroying the Batcave.
Joker stole the beryllium, and also captured both Alfred and Batgirl (off-camera!) and bring them back to his hideout—an abandoned launching-pad factory—with Joker assuming that Alfred is a mad scientist.
Batman and Robin survived the bomb blast, though the Batcave is a disaster area, with all the phones and radios destroyed—including the Bat-phone.
Joker finishes the flying saucer and ties Batgirl to a rocket. His plan is to send her off into space while Joker will orbit the Earth a few times then launch his “invasion.” Batman and Robin manage to rig up a radio, and Alfred finally gets through and reports to Batman.
Batgirl is able to keep from being shot into space, but Joker still takes her with him in his flying saucer, which goes into space, orbits the Earth a few times (allegedly getting too close to the sun at one point), then returns to earth. However, Alfred was able to put in some homing, er, uh, something in the beryllium that forces it to land back in Joker’s hideout. Alfred surreptitiously lets Batman know this, and so the Dynamic Duo are waiting for Joker and his gang when they arrive back at the abandoned launching-pad factory. Fisticuffs ensue, and Batman, Robin, and Batgirl defeat the would-be invaders in time for Gordon and O’Hara to arrive to take them all to the hoosegow.
Batman and Robin put the Batcave back together, but then they’re alerted by Gordon to a strange happening in Spiffany’s…
Fetch the Bat-shark-repellant! We see the newest absurdly specific device in the Batcave: the Current Criminal Activity Bat-Disclosure Unit, which apparently provides the details from the script of the episode they’re in. Also our heroes have taken to wearing Anti-Thermal Bat-T-Shirts under their costumes, which protect them from the bomb blast, er, somehow. With the Batmobile buried under rubble, our heroes get to use the Bat-cycle to drive to the Bat-copter. However, the Batmobile bomb-detector seems to be on the fritz, since it totally misses the bomb that was placed in the Batmobile…
Batgirl has a fuse extinguisher in her Batgirl utility belt.
Holy #@!%$, Batman! “Holy interplanetary yardstick” is Robin’s clever rejoinder upon being told that Mrs. Green encountered a supposed Martian who was three feet tall. “Holy rock garden!” is his exclamation after the bomb has made a big mess of the Batcave. “Holy known unknown flying objects!” is Robin’s bizarre response to Alfred’s report on Joker’s plan, which is so bizarre that Batman doesn’t understand it and asks him to repeat it (it doesn’t help).
Gotham City’s finest. Apparently, everyone in the world feels that the logical thing to do when they see a flying saucer or hear about an alien invasion is call the police commissioner of Gotham City. Sure.
Special Guest Villain. This is Cesar Romero’s swan song as the Joker, thus going out with a significant whimper.
Na-na na-na na-na na-na na.
“You suppose there’s a working launching pad left in this abandoned launching-pad factory?”
“Yes, there’s one in the launching-pad equipment locker, Joker.”
–A delightful exchange between Joker and his henchman.
Trivial matters: This episode was discussed on The Batcave Podcast episode 66 by host John S. Drew with special guest chum, Jim Beard (editor of Gotham City 14 Miles).
The footage of the flying saucer in the sky is taken from the 1953 movie Invaders from Mars, while the footage of the Bat-copter is taken from the Batman feature film.
Joker assumes Alfred is a mad scientist, even though Alfred previously defeated the Joker singlehandedly in “Flop Goes the Joker.” You’d think Joker would remember that.
Verdigris is played by Richard Bakalyan. It’s never made clear who he really is or where he comes from. His name is a slightly more subtle take on the emerald theme of the episode, with the constant references to little green men from Mars and characters named Greenleaf, Emerald, Chartreuse, Shamrock, and Green.
Byron Keith makes his final appearance as Mayor Linseed. Fritz Feld returns as Greenleaf—he previously played Oliver Muzzy in “Pop Goes the Joker.”
Pow! Biff! Zowie! “We’ll return to Gotham City where I’ll ultimate my ultimatum!” This episode isn’t a total disaster, mostly by virtue of Richard Bakalyan, who cavorts beautifully with Cesar Romero, and also by virtue of Romero himself, who’s never not fun.
But holy cow, what a misbegotten mess! This is perhaps the worst treatment of the Barbara Gordon/Batgirl character all season, as we start with Barbara screaming at the sight of Verdigris in her library, and continue to her being captured off-camera, and then being barely in evidence in the fight scene at the end. The one and only thing she accomplishes is to not be shot into space.
Not that Batman and Robin do much better. Aside from the fisticuffs at the end, they don’t actually accomplish anything on their own, as the Batcave’s computers tell them that it’s the Joker, and it’s Alfred who mostly saves the day. (Batman doesn’t even notice the bomb in his car…)
And even by this show’s standards, the plot’s ridiculous—though in keeping with the Joker’s previous plans. I mean, he’s already managed time travel and robotics, why not space travel as well? And why not just use it for petty larceny? Sheesh.
Not the best episode for Romero to go out on, but the man himself is, as ever, having a grand old time cackling his way through the episode.
Bat-rating: 2
Keith R.A. DeCandido is running a Kickstarter for Mermaid Precinct, the long-awaited fifth novel in his series of fantasy police procedurals. Please consider supporting it! He will be a guest at the Central Pennsylvania Comic Con this weekend in York, Pennsylvania, where he’ll have a table to sell and sign books.
I think I read… somewhere (at the ToTheBatpoles blog?) that this episode was probably written with Orson Welles’ famed War of the Worlds hoax in mind. From that angle, the concept (if not the execution) becomes a tad more clever, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Joker personally idolized Welles as the gold standard in both performance and deception.
Also, there’s probably a dozen low-minded jokes to be made about how Joker fails to “thrill” Batgirl at the last moment. Especially when you factor in Romero’s “confirmed bachelor” status…
This is the closest the show ever got to the frequent alien visitations and space-based stories of the ’50s and ’60s Batman comics. The aliens may be a hoax, but the flying saucer is pretty sci-fi for this show. And it’s a nicely unusual setup, Batman called in to deal with alien-invasion hysteria rather than a villain. (I’m disappointed Robin didn’t say “Holy Orson Welles!”)
Still, it’s not a very well-executed episode. The “little green man” is nowhere near as little as claimed; I’d assume the script was written with the assumption that someone like Billy Barty or Michael Dunn would play the role, but for some reason they ended up not bothering (then again, “not bothering” pretty much sums up the defining ethos of the show by this point). The story doesn’t make much sense even by this show’s standards. How do the Joker and Alfred put a saucer together in mere hours from raw beryllium? What the hell is “homing beryl?” And once again, the Batcomputer (or the equivalent) just tells them the villain’s plot so there’s no need for detective work. The bomb in the Batcave is a nice cliffhanger, but its resolution is unconvincing. And again Batgirl is treated poorly, captive already when we first see her in costume.
The low point of The Green Hornet’s sole season was its finale, which was also a hoax alien invasion story. It was dreadful and stupid and horrible.
And it’s still better than “The Joker’s Flying Saucer.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I recently rewatched this episode for the umpteenth time, and if anybody can figure out exactly what the Joker’s plan is, please let me know. Is he trying to convince the citizens of Gotham City that they are under attack by actual Martians? Because he undercuts that objective by revealing to one and all that he, the Joker, is at the helm of the flying saucer. At that point, he becomes just a terrorist with a flying machine, making the story more Master of the World than War of the Worlds. Unless the idea is to convince the citizens that he has in fact been a Martian all along. Or that he has merely traveled to Mars and is now in command of their military technology. Or … nah, I got nothin’.
And as krad points out, what of Verdigris? Who or what is he supposed to be? He seems to be a human henchman whom the Joker has dressed up as a Martian in order to further his hoax. But this is never explained or established. So maybe he’s supposed to be a real, honest-to-goodness Martian? Which would be cool if they made it clear, even though it would make no more sense than anything else that happens in the episode. Like Joker moaning that he’d actually wanted to go to Mars in his little homemade flying saucer. Is this iteration of the character crazy enough to think that would be remotely possible?
Another, more earthbound bit of illogic: The Joker and his crew are unable to launch Batgirl into orbit because of some extinguishing device in her belt. She tells them that this is exactly what has happened. So they settle for making her their hostage on their saucer flight. As long as they still have her subdued, why not just take off the belt and try again?
Pretty much the only thing I really enjoy here is Batman’s taunt about the Joker probably wishing he were on Mars (instead of back on Earth, about to get his ass kicked by the Caped Crusaders). I always like it when the heroes scare the crap out of the villain dujour by sneaking up on him. It’s done better at the end of Flop goes the Joker, but it’s still satisfying here.
Oh, and some fun trivia: This is the second episode in a row in which the moll refers to the villain as “poopsie.”
It’s almost hard to believe I didn’t notice that….. *wry grin*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
On The Batcave Podcast, I came up with the theory that perhaps Verdigris was originally meant to be the Riddler. The thing is, Verdigris comes across more as a co-villain with Joker rather than a henchman. He does his own thing, sometimes surprising the Joker. It would work as the Riddler wore green and was known for disguises as well. I even went so far as to suggest this would have worked better as a Riddler/Joker two-part story as the whole blowing up the Batcave is quickly brushed aside in the 23 minute format.
@7/John: Interesting idea, except I doubt Barbara would’ve mistaken the Riddler for a Martian, even in disguise. After all, she once recognized a disguised villain by the shape of his chin, a level of observation all but unprecedented in superhero fiction.
@8/Christopher: She didn’t actually recognize Riddler, if I’m not mistaken, but just felt that Mushy was fake based on her knowledge of southwestern Asian culture or something. Riddler’s disguises put False Face to shame as he was able to make Molly look like Robin, somehow even shifting certain parts. That’s talent.
@9/John: I’d forgotten that actually was the Riddler. Still, Barbara did notice the distinct shape of his chin and subsequently learned he was the Riddler, so if she saw the Riddler’s chin again, she’d probably recognize it.
Although I’ll agree the Riddler was pretty good at disguise. Remember that time he make himself look and sound exactly like Gomez Addams? ;)
So I guess the rewatch is nearing its end. Mr. DeCandido, have you considered reviewing the Bruce Timm animated series from the ’90s after this? Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for so many well-written articles. Cheers.
@11/Orbit: There was already a Batman: TAS rewatch on Tor.com a few years ago, done by Steven Padnick, although it only covered the original 85 episodes and the theatrical film.
Oh okay. Perhaps another classic from ’60s then, like Twilight Zone or Outer Limits or Petticoat Junction. Just kidding about that last one.
I think there could have been a good Batman episode somehow tying the costumed hero and alien genres together, but this wasn’t it. It’s another one of the season 3 eps in which it’s unclear how the villain is going to profit from his plan. Once again, it seems to be a case of the writer thinking, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if the Joker had a UFO’ and then trying to retro-fit something around it, much like Riddler and boxing, Joker and surfing, etc. The tail again wags the dog.
@14/J.P. Pelzman: On the other hand, sowing mass hysteria and fear purely as a mean-spirited practical joke is just the sort of thing the Joker would do. Although, yes, it would be more in character for the Golden/Silver Age Joker if there were some more mercenary goal underlying it, like using the hysteria as a distraction from a major heist.
@14, or maybe the studio had a leftover UFO prop and needed to slap a story together around it…
That does sound like a good explanation.
if joker had met an alien exposing him to the world would gain him more fame and fortune
Watching the other day (Batman’s final outing on MeTV), I was also struck about Batgirl and Alfred being captured off screen, and further reflecting on other elements of the episode, strikes me that with so much shoe horned in that it may have been possibly intended as a two part episode (Don’t know how Egghead and Olga earned a multi part episode, and I get the feeling Shame was made a two parter upon Cliff Robertson’s request to include Dina Merrill). In some ways it seemed Verdigris was almost intended for Extra Guest Villain Status (even though as documented his angle or persona seemed unclear). Interesting theories on The Riddler, which in some ways would’ve made sense, seeing as how he was the only of the Big Four not teamed up with anybody for a multi part episode, and he was also the only of the other Big Three the Joker wasn’t paired off with. Perhaps Gorshin was only available for his one appearance, and producers didn’t want to revisit a recast, and went with the Puzzler route instead..