South Pole Vault originally aired on October 20, 1984, and is the second half of the seventh episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. With a story by George Atkins and Tom Ruegger, this episode sees the Scooby gang in Antarctica.

South Pole Vault Review

The episode begins with Shaggy driving the Mystery Machine through the arctic wilds of the Antarctica. At the Antarctic Scientific Research Camp, they meet Dr. Carlin, who said they hired the young detectives as millions and billions of frightening things have been happening. Dr. Carlin explains they do research on Penguins and Sea Lions at the research camp, but lately things have been sabotages. Helium tanks have been stolen. But worst of all the fiend has broken into the vault and all of the research was stolen.

Scrappy accidentally gets locked in the vault, and in a moment of panic, Dr. Carlin has forgotten the combination. He also claims he is the only one who knows the code.

A member of the research crew named Virgil walks in, and dials in the correct code, releasing Scrappy. Daphne calls Dr. Carlin out on how someone else knew the code, but Dr. Carlin just shrugs off her comment. Dr. Carlin then informs the gang of a circulating rumour that one of their large sea lions has gone mad and is possibly the saboteur.

Scrappy bribes Scooby and Shaggy to infiltrate the Sea Lion gathering while Scrappy and Daphne go off to question the camp crew.

Scooby and Shaggy dress up as sales people (Shaggy calls himself Seersucker Shaggy) to bribe the sea lions to turn in the stolen research, in exchange for a freezer full of frozen fish, however, their plans are thwarted by a hungry penguin. Daphne and Scrappy, meanwhile, set up a polling station to question the camp crew. All they really find out though, is that everyone wants to leave. Dr. Carlin won’t allow anyone to leave until the stolen research is found.

Running into the camp barracks, Scrappy sees a levitating suitcase that belongs to Virgil. Opening it, they find the stolen helium tanks. Virgil claims he’s being framed, and wants to go home.

Back outside, Scooby sees a fishing hole and pauses to grab some fresh fish to eat. Unfortunately, the mad sea lion pulls Scooby under the water. Scooby manages to escape with the help of an octopus, and also rescues the curious penguin that has been following him around for much of the episode.

The gang are then caught up in a giant rolling snowball that the mad sea lion has pushed after them. We also hear the Sea Lion sneeze like a human while the gang are tangled up in the rolling snow ball. The snow ball does a reverse, capturing the sea lion in the process, and as it explodes in a halt, leaving everyone somewhat buried in the snow, Scooby manages to snag the Mad Sea Lion.

Daphne unmasks the Sea Lion, and we discover that it is Dr. Carlin. Dr. Carlin says he stole the research and sabotaged everything for publicity and the world’s attention so he could appear on all the talk shows.

My Score

I give this episode a 6.5 out of 10. I enjoyed the location and the penguin scenes were always cute. Unfortunately, it’s also not that memorable and the villain isn’t all that scary or really in much of the episode. Still for a 12 minute escape, not bad and worth a watch.