What a Night for a Knight

What a Night for a Knight is the first episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Premise
When Scooby-Doo and Shaggy find an abandoned pick-up truck with a knight's armour in the front seat, the gang deliver it to the museum in place of the missing professor. However, this Black Knight is said to come alive every full moon. As the gang investigate the knight, they realize that it is a full moon, and the knight has come alive...!

Synopsis
A man is driving a pick-up down a road during the night, unaware that the suit of dark armour in the back has come to life and left his containment. Its eyes glow yellow from inside its helmet as it watches the driver.

Close by, Scooby and Shaggy are walking home, with the latter complaining that they're out so late because the former had to see Star: Dog Ranger of the North Woods, twice; Scooby is still excited from it. Just then, they hear rustling from the bushes. Scooby pokes his head in and when he takes it out, a frog is on his nose. When it jumps off, Scooby gets annoyed, barking and giving chase. Shaggy quickly follows behind. Scooby eventually comes to a stop when he loses it. Shaggy doesn't have time to stop and trips over him. They notice the same pick-up truck from before, now abandoned. When they go for a closer look, they see the lifeless suit of dark armour in the driver seat. The two are quickly scared off once its head falls off.

They return with the rest of their group to properly examine it. Fred comments on why a knight's suit of armour would be out alone in the middle of the night in the driver seat of a truck. Shaggy jokes that maybe he's out for the night. Velma chides him for his joke, as Daphne wonders who it belongs to. Fred reads: "Deliver to Jameson Hyde White: Prof. of Archaeology, London, England." Shaggy makes another joke about having heard of hide and seek, but not "Hyde White". Velma says that is an English name. Daphne also finds a delivery slip reading: "Deliver to the County Museum."

The gang travels to the museum (now the next day) where they deliver the knight to the museum curator, Mr. Wickles. He thanks them, but fears that perhaps it wasn't a good idea with Professor Hyde White disappearing. He goes on to explain about the legend of the Black Knight and how it comes to life when the moon is full. Velma asks him what Professor Hyde White was doing with it (despite having already found out beforehand), and replies that the professor was delivering it to the museum all the way from England. As this is going on, they don't notice the knight's glowing eyes. Two workers begin to move the crate, one of them asking Mr. Wickles where to put it. He tells them to put it in the medieval room. As Scooby follows the workers, he finds a strange pair of glasses. He picks them up, as Daphne calls him, while Fred says they're leaving.

While driving down town, Velma says that the mystery has her baffled, and has got Shaggy hungry, asking when they can eat? Scooby pops his head up, in agreement, while still wearing the glasses he found. The others notice, and realize he must have found them at the museum. Shaggy wonders what they're for, with Fred suggesting they go to the library to find out.

At the library they read a book which says that the glasses are for jewelers, scientists, and archaeologists like Professor Hyde White. It also says they're made in England. These two clues indicate that something is definitely up, and the gang plan on returning to the museum to investigate.

The gang return to the museum at night and break in through an upper window. They split up and look for clues, not knowing that spooky eyes in an Indian effigy are watching them. Scooby, Shaggy and Velma bump into the Black Knight and have a brief altercation. Scooby runs into the fossil exhibit and begins gnawing on the bone, but is chased by the Knight. He meets up with Shaggy and the two find one of the paintings is missing. He informs the gang, but when they return, the painting is back on the wall. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby follow a trail of paint to a hidden room behind a sarcophagus and find the room full of finished and unfinished paintings. The Knight appears and chases the gang into the relic room, where Fred and the girls hide inside a Second World War armored tank while Scooby and Shaggy hide in a First World War biplane. Scooby accidentally flips the power, and the plane roars to life, flying erratically around the room (even losing both wings in the process) until it finally crashes, taking the Knight down with it. The Knight is unmasked as... Mr. Wickles, the curator! He was part of a smuggling ring; he would steal and sell the real paintings, and then create fake paintings and put them back on the wall (that explained the hidden room, the missing painting and the paint drops on the floor). Mr. Wickles knew that Professor Hyde White would know that the paintings were faked, so he kidnapped him and thought up this Black Knight ruse. Professor Hyde White is later found tied up in the Indian effigy.

Once freed, he discusses the events with the gang about there being no legend and that Wickles just used it to cover up his mysterious disappearance, explaining he somehow got in the armor and made him disappear on the way to the museum. Suddenly they see the Black Knight in the museum office. He lifts up the helmet and is revealed to be Scooby-Doo; the whole gang laughs.