Batman: Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin

"Just never been proposed to at umbrellapoint before..."

And so begins the short final season for the Autumn of 1967, where a few changes have had to take place . For a start, epsodes are now being broadcast weekly. We no longer necessarily have two-parters with cliffhangers, and twenty-five minutes is not a long time to tell a story- something very much demonstrated by this epidode. Madge Blake is sadly not well, and won't be appearing much. Finally, of course, we have innocent librarian Barbara Gordon, whose spacious apartment contains a secret room and a secret; she's Batgirl, copyright-disregarding crimefighter.

This episode, of course, exists to introduce her and has an awful lot to do in a short time, which it manages to do abour as well as it possibly could. So the plot about Penguin marrying Barbara to become the apparently untouchable son-in-law of the Commissioner may be silly, but it has to be, much like the way the Dynamic Duo, those great detectives, can't work out who Batgirl is. It's nice that Alfred gets to know and keep Barbara's secret, but I had to raise an eyebrow at Penguin failing to recognise him.

This is entertaining enough, but has far too much to do for it to stand out as particularly good. The new format seems promising, though. Especially as the cliffhanger seems to have been replaced by a sneak preview of the next episode's villain- and this time it's the Riddler- and Frank Gorshin, the Gods be praised, is back...