Arthur Conan Doyle’s enduring fame rests upon the shoulders of Sherlock Holmes and in the cosy surroundings of 221b Baker Street.   Too often overshadowed, however, is his other great fictional creation: the irascible genius that is Professor George Edward Challenger.   In 1912, to the delight of his reading public, Doyle sent Challenger and his companions to the so-called Lost World in South America.   So pleased was he with the result that he even acceded to disguising himself playfully as the massively-bearded Professor for publicity photographs.   The sheer exuberance of the adventure, the terror of the pterodactyls and other monsters, added to clever characterisations, gave the writer a palpable hit, and one which he wanted to follow up quickly.

The following year, in his preferred publication of The Strand Magazine, Doyle brought his four major characters together again for an altogether stranger, shorter and less flashy outing, The Poison Belt.   Challenger issues instructions to the huntin’ and soldierin’ Lord John Roxton, the crabby and querulous scientist Professor Summerlee and the narrator – journalist Edward Malone as an eyes-wide-open Dr. Watson figure – to join him at his house on the South Downs, and could they all possibly bring oxygen cylinders?

What follows is a very clever science fiction story indeed – literally claustrophobic at times, with moments of high drama and tragedy seamlessly woven by an author at the peak of his narrative skills.   Life on Earth, it seems, is desperately threatened, and while the belligerent Professor cannot prevent apparent catastrophe, he is the only man who understands what is about to happen.

Conan Doyle did not like to let go of favoured creations, and in 1929 - two years after he had penned his last Holmes story and a year before his death - he had a bit of short-story fun with just Challenger and Malone in The Disintegration Machine.   The Challenger character remains intact, while the evil genius he faces – an inventor of sorts – verges on the comic-book, and as a creation is none the worse for it.

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Nick Utechin is an expert on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and edited ‘The Sherlock Holmes Journal’ for 30 years. He has worked in radio presentation and production for the same length of time.

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