Jack Flanders receives a cassette in the mail (gives you an idea of the age of this adventure, eh?), and finds on it a recording of a voice he has never heard before which introduces itself as belonging to Sir Seymore Jowles, a long-lost uncle of Jacks, the brother of Sir Henry Jowles. The tape gives instructions to Jack, telling him to meet his uncle at his institute, which Jack obediently does.

The eccentric Seymore Jowles tells Jack that he is anxious to get his hands on an idea -- and not just any idea -- the Unified Field Theory of Matter And Energy. He explains that it is possible to borrow (not steal, please) this idea from the astral world, from inside the walls of what Sir Seymore refers to as The Forbidden City of Ah-Ha! He also explains that inside the walls are all of mankind’s past, present and future ideas (or Ah-Ha’s, as they are comically called).

Naturally, Jack is reluctant to do this, but when his uncle tells him that within the walls of the same city is the source of the music that Jack pursued for episode upon episode during the duration of The Fourth Tower of Inverness (but never actually found, as you recall), Jack finally consents. And it’s all downhill from there.

Made at the same time as Stars & Stuff (which includes this adventure on tape/CD #4) and Tired of the Green Menace?, The Ah-Ha Phenomena is naturally in the same era of ZBS time which shall henceforth be called the "crazier" years. This attribute is continued in The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders, which basically entails some of the more frivolous, "silly" areas of sci-fi fantasy. But it is a good story nonetheless (also the shortest yet).

Another little note: The credits for The Ah-Ha Phenomena are not written on the inside of the tape case or recorded in either the individual version or the version in Stars & Stuff. The version of TAHP I have is an old one, and perhaps the new version (on tape and CD) has the credits listed, but until then, it is another unsolved mystery of ZBS.

The assumed credits would be very short, with (the following are my own assumptions) Robert Lorick as Jack Flanders (as always), M. Fulton as Chief Wampum and possibly the Wizard. I don’t know the voice credits for Cynthia (Sir Seymore’s secretary), Sir Seymore, the Troll, or the Keeper of the Archives. Maybe one of you could help me here?