Hurrah! Another chapter of roller coaster-esque drama and excitement. Helmed by Unga Khan – "cruel and crafty" and with a "mad desire to own the world", Sharad’s entry reminds us that Unga Khan is a "vicious tyrant" – obviously there isn’t anything worth saying about the dude with the puffy hat, Professor Norton is "hypnotized, dazed, cooperates with Khan", Diana "accompanied the professor to the bottom of the sea" which happened in chapter one and she’s done nothing at all ever since, Billy is "alert", and the late Crash Corrigan "rescued Norton in spite of himself". Which is carny for "he forgot to unbrainwash him first".

You will recall (or the recap will remind you) that Crash, Billy and Norton were aboard a cute little airship thing which was blown out of the sky by missiles. The craft crashed to earth at the end of the previous chapter and everyone aboard was killed. Totally.

With Crash dead, Unga Khan celebrates the victory of all his plans. A soldier enters, slamming the door in a most petulant manner, and reports that Norton was aboard the airship. The lackey (in a flat monotone as though reading the script for the first time in a church hall in Acton) says this doesn’t matter as the rockets are finished. Khan gives him a scowl, explains all about priming powder and storms over to the tele-vision to see whether everyone is completely dead or just a bit dead.

Well what do you know? Crash, Billy and the Professor emerge from the debris. They escaped certain death by crouching in the airship’s cabin when it was shot down. Thank goodness for that.

Norton seems the worse for wear but Billy has the answer – put his hat back on and he’ll be fine.

Those hoping that the Professor would’ve received a bump on the head during the crash and that it would’ve undone the effects of the transforming ray are sadly let down. Norton is still a baddie. Unga Khan is delighted and orders that he be recaptured. This he plans to do using the novel method of sending several hundred men on several hundred horses to ride after them.

Crash, Billy and Norton hide in a bush but the lure of the tower is too much for the professor. He rushes out and gives himself over to the black hats. Crash leaves Billy in the bush because he has a plan. His plan being to beat up the black hats in the chariot and steal it. It works.

A chase ensues across Atlantis. Again. Luckily, Crash and co reach the Sacred City ahead of the black hats and are safe.

What is there for the black hats to do but go home? The black hat leader helpfully points which way home is.

A guard tells Unga Khan by the medium of tele-vision that the Professor is in the Sacred City.

This time he’s facing us – I knew the side-on shot was a mistake. The camera is clearly in the tele-vision and that is final.

Bugger.

The captain orders his men to leave at once. One of them turns around with a balletic flourish.

They are going to capture the professor. You know what this means? Say it with me, boys and girls. Several hundred men on several hundred horses.

And the Juggernaut.

Inside the Sacred City our heroes try to make Norton see reason but to no avail.

Diana, perhaps weary from having had nothing to do since the men folk groped her on her way up and down the submarine’s ladder, shows little sympathy for the Professor’s confused plight.

Sharad assures our heroes that Unga Khan’s spell will not last forever. Professor Norton will return to sanity eventually. Meanwhile, he adds, they are all safe within his walls. Cut to the black hat war machine as it rides though the forest on several hundred horses.

The black hats are spotted by the sentry and the Sacred City bursts into life. Sharad calls Crash "my son" and tells him the safety of Atlantis is on his shoulders. Crash gives a Nazi salute and rushes off to be heroic elsewhere.

The elite black hat ladder battalion springs into life with all its wooden efficiency.

The black hat commander then orders everyone to "wait for night fall". Because, as we’ve established, the only defence the Sacred City has is a flame gun and that only looks good in the dark. So you have several hundred men on several hundred horses, the Juggernaut, a squad of Volkites and the entire Sacred City army standing round twiddling their thumbs until the evening.

The battle begins and, yes, we get to see the cool flame thrower.

That’s cool. Meanwhile the black hats are scaling their ladders and battling on the battlements.

The Juggernaut again tries to ram the gates at a very low speed but this time a bunch of black hats who don’t fancy proper fighting decide to help by pushing the huge, solid, formidable, wooden gates.

Oh crap! They did it – the broke through the gates and the black hats have invaded the Sacred City.

I’ll say this for Unga Khan’s brainwashing – it’s damned effective. Even after everything that has happened, Professor Norton still grabs the first chance he gets to flee the fighting, find a black hat and demand to be taken back to the tower.

Khan sees the Professor being spirited away in a chariot and orders that the Sacred City be destroyed by the projector. Bombs rain down upon the city, killing black and white together in an early example of racial harmony.

Crash bursts into the temple to save Diana, Billy and Sharad but the building collapses and everyone is killed completely.