"While Gotham City Burns" begins with Batman tipped off by Chief O'Hara (Stafford Repp) about Robin's potential fate, racing toward Big Benjamin to use positive charges of electricity to make the clapper and bell repel each other and halt the midnight toll. This doesn't sit well with The Bookworm (Roddy McDowall), whose frustrated screams again leave his fellow worms in a squirm, resorting to a new chapter to eliminate the Dynamic Duo. Overplotting as usual, he invades Wayne Manor to steal a priceless cookbook, then leaves a gigantic cookbook in the middle of downtown traffic, an open invitation for the curious bats to enter: "curiosity killed the bat!" The book closes on Batman and Robin, as steam enters and proceeds to literally cook their gooses, until Batman finds the solution in communications with Alfred in the Batcave. The Bookworm's ultimate goal required the demise of the Caped Crusaders so that he could use the powerful Batbeam in the Batmobile to bore a hole in the back wall of the Morganbilt Library, home to thousands of priceless literary treasures, but when Batman and Robin step through the opening the twisty worms realize the jig is up. The final scene has Bruce Wayne allowing Dick Grayson a look at the captured Bookworm, who believes himself to be 'so much cleverer' than everyone else, until corrected on a quote by know it all Wayne: "this fellow, he is almost as obnoxious as Batman!" Roddy McDowall is such a joy to watch, the script as deliciously serious as the show could be, that it's a shame that the actor was too busy to reprise a successful character, his Bookworm a 'frustrated author' forced to plagiarize his plots from others.
Review of While Gotham City Burns
