"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode four of 28 recap

 

 Air Dates: January 2nd until July 3rd, 1966 though episode #28 didn't air until December 14th

Sundays at 7:00 pm on TBS, 28 total episodes that were 25+ minutes in length. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, directed by his oldest son Hajime.

Subs by Tgwoe, screenshot dimensions 1436 x 1076(4:3). This classic series also has a color version but I prefer older shows/films in Black and White as that seems to give off a more creepy vibe which the subber also thought.

Ratings: **** Didn't find the ratings until the ninth episode but did update the first eight shows. This series had such high ratings but back in 1966 there were only a few regular stations and no cable. This drama ran opposite another sci-fi show called "W3" which was very popular and before this series began had an average rating of 23%. However "Ultra Q" was much more popular and the other show slipped below 10%!!!! The average rating  for these 28 episodes was 32.4%, the rating for this fourth episode was 35.8% and will update this section for each show. 

 In the middle are the main three characters, who they are will be revealed below. The man on the left end is Eiji Tsuburaya and he is the #1 special effects man/director of all time in Japan. He did all of the special effects for the classic TOHO films such as creating the costumes, sets, etc. and of course most reading this have seen the "Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan" and other movies. This TV series was the first of it's kind in Japan and Tsuburaya had created this series where he didn't want the focus to be on monsters but the story which was the format for the old American series "Outer Limits". But TOHO wanted his unique monsters and there will be a different one in each show, will update this top section now and again with more trivial tidbits.

 Below are the two monsters for episode one, on the top is Gomes(s) who does look similar to Godzilla, Tsuburaya had access to all of his old costumes so would often mix them up such as the head from a 1965 film, the body from a 1961 movie and so on. Litolaria is the name of the second monster though no destructive one as it saved the day and destroyed Gomes! Not every episode will have an original monster as in the second show it was just a very massive monkey and think on occasion the 'enemy' will be aliens from space.

 Main Cast: Though it appears this had nothing to do with the "Ultraman" franchise in a way it does as this series is considered to be it's forerunner. The first "Ultraman" series began a little bit after this show ended and there's not enough time to talk about that show and it's movies which I do recommend. Hiroko Sakurai who plays the reporter Yuriko in this show is quite known for her "Ultraman" work as she was in the first series plus a few more after that along with being in many of the movies. Will do some editing and adding as we go along though not as much as other dramas, the top three are by far the main characters. There will be many monsters in this series, perhaps one per episode! Won't give any details about them at the top but will talk about them during the recap.

**** Not sure how to explain this and perhaps it doesn't need it. But when the show opens a narrator tells us what we are about to watch will be something extraordinary, is what we view real or just a part of our imagination? A screenshot of that is above and that's how the American series "Outer Limits" also opened and at the end the viewers were asked to think again with about what we viewed, to date this show hasn't done that. Every episode has it's own title, this episode's is....

Massive Flower

Kenji Sahara as Jun Manjome.... Don't think any actor was in more of the classic TOHO monster films than Sahara was between 1954 to 1975 and also in four "Ultraman" series! Jun is a pilot for Hoshikawa Airlines, he can fly both planes and copters. Though a pilot Jun does dream of becoming a best selling sci-fi writer, he's also adept at guns and how that came to be is a mystery.

Yasuhiko Saijou as Ippei Togawa.... Jun's assistant at Hoshikawa Airlines but Ippei doesn't have any licenses yet but is close to getting one for flying helicopters. Bit of a goofball but seems to be much more intelligent than others think, Jun must see that too as he does trust Ippei fully.

Hiroko Sakurai as Yuriko Edogawa.... On the left below, will have a different pic in the future. 21 year old reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun(daily news) paper. Yuriko is the youngest at the newspaper but her editor Seki believes fully in her and sends Yuriko out on the harder stories such as the mysterious and unexplainable....

Ureo Egawa as Professor Ichinotani.... We finally met this older professor in the third episode. Know very little to date about him such as how did Jun and his mates come to be friends with this man who is ultra intelligent.

Yoshifumi Tajima as Seki.... Yuriko's editor at Mainichi Shimbun(daily news), older man who acts tough though is a softie and often gives Yuriko the stranger/mysterious cases. Not a huge role but an important one and in the second episode Seki was the Hero!

 There will be many guest characters in this series but may not include any of their names unless that part goes for two episodes or it's someone very famous. 

Previous recaps: There is no ongoing storyline but all of the shows have been entertaining so here are the links to all of the recaps done.

Episode one: Gomes .... Episode two: Goro and Goro

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show are on YT, mostly short scenes. Here's one that's about ninety seconds that features a half minute promo clip, the music is quite cool and so isn't the extremely odd creature!

 

 

 

 First episode that didn't feature some sort of monster or mutated creature! But there was a mutation and of all things it had to deal with a flower and now that I think about it it was never mentioned what kind of flower it was. That really didn't matter and flowers are not my forte like TOHO monsters are! 😈 Am a bit brain dead as this never ending heat wave continues on and will admit I don't think as well when the temperature is sky high though even when it's low don't think so well either. Let's get to the story and you already know what the key figure in this show will be.

 For the first time much of what took place was in Tokyo, so far a different location for each episode. The two main male characters Jun and Ippei work for Hoshikawa Airlines which is a small outfit with about three planes and one helicopter. The airfield is not near Tokyo but the company's HQ is in the city and the pair paid a visit to pick up some advertising flyers. The office, which is located on about the fifth floor, looked like it had been ransacked or hit by an earthquake but neither was the case. In the first thirty seconds we had seen what took place the previous night outside the office building. The street swelled up and down(top screenshot) but the only person to see it was a security guard, we viewers nor him knew what it was but we soon will. As Jun and Ippei were departing to head back to their airfield arriving on the scene was the young female reporter from Mainichi Shimbun whose name is Yuriko, she usually has plenty of screenshots but not in this episode. Yuriko asked her friends where were they going(?), didn't they hear about the 'monster' in a nearby moat and she talked the men into going there with her!

 The fourth screenshot shows this very odd object and it wasn't something easy to describe, most thought it could be a flower petal or something similar but a petal that was ten feet in length?! Whatever it was this object was living and moved so quickly which did terrify many onlookers who fled the scene but of course not Yuriko who took many photos. The older man above with a mustache is Professor Ichinotani, don't know how Jun, Ippei and Yuriko met him but when there's a mystery they immediately go to him for answers. By their description and the way the object floated in the moat Ichinotani too has figured it's part of a flower but obviously a massive one, wait until you see it's size! The professor has theorized if this petal is still 'alive' it must be connected to the main flower and has to be within 100 meters(328feet) of it. That would place the main body of the flower at the HQ of Hoshikawa Airlines, smelling trouble the trio dashed back there. And just in the nick of time for as you can see in two screenshots above other parts of the flower burst through a wall and were about to crush an employee! Though it's a large flower it doesn't seem to have any special powers, Jun and Ippei were able to cut through the petal and the other half slithered away. With no time to spare the trio brought this now dead flower part to a new task force set up at the nearby police precinct, that's the bottom screenshot above and this will be the longest of all paragraphs for this series!!!!

 That was the longest paragraph you may see for this drama, seemed so much happened in the first eight minutes compared to the rest of the show. Jun may be an Ace pilot but he's also very smart and would love to be a sci-fi writer so he knows much about science and such matters.... hmmm, now I wonder is because of his love of science is how Jun met up with Professor Ichinotani? In the second screenshot above Jun had a very astute question, the flower seems to be ready to bloom so what will happen to the building and streets when it reaches it's full size? The manager at the Hoshikawa Airlines HQ didn't want to wait and find out the hard way so ordered the offices to be evacuated. That worked out well until the end which is when the building began to sway with bricks falling every which way and trapped inside was Jun's assistant Ippei along with an OL named Michiko. That you can see above and the police contacted Professor Ichinotani to help them with the task of destroying this flower before it became too large which would result in some deaths, as it turned out two did perish.

 Ichinotani is so astute plus humble, though a noted scientist he also knows many new technological things have created an imbalance in nature. Hence things like the second episode's humungous monkey and the massive flower in this show, could the flower have grown so large because of chemicals humans put in the soil???? Ichinotani, the police chief and most others wanted this flower to be destroyed immediately but not the man in glasses above. He too is a respected professor whose name is Genda, he feels the flower should be 'captured' and used for research. Genda was adamant with his request which at first was accepted but would research be worth some humans losing their lives? As you can see above this unknown flower species was blooming at a rapid pace, it was soon taller than the building as it burst through the roof! Plus it began to spew out some sort of buds, because of the flower's massive size they were poisonous! Four policemen had been sent into the Hoshikawa Airlines HQ to save Ippei and Michiko, as you can see above those poisonous buds killed two of the officers!

 The other two officers were able to bring Ippei and Michiko to safety but something needed to be done quickly or else more would meet their demise. Because who knew how large this flower would grow to be plus were there possibly more flowers that would grow too(?), also if the building crumbles it could set off a chain reaction of more buildings turning to rubble. The professor Genda is an expert is botany plus has a big ego but was wise enough to know that his wish to capture the flower 'alive' wasn't worth endangering any more lives and had a solution to the problem. He showed Jun and Ichinotani a creation he made called Carbon Dioxide Fixative, of course in real life there's no such thing. What this new chemical does is prevent a plant from inhaling carbon dioxide so that it suffocates to death, that's an original thing in sci-fi and a very ingenious creation too. Genda's plan is to load up some huge vats with this chemical, with Jun flying his plane Genda will drop these vats upon the flower which should end it's life and was it successful?

 Of course it was as the pair told each other above. It may be hard to notice but in two screenshots above the newly developed chemical streamed down from the vats, a lot was needed for the flower was so huge. But after a while the flower began to wilt but it was more than chemicals that killed off this mutant flower species. Attacking the base of the flower were two soldiers with flame throwers who were burning the stalk of the flower, that and the chemical worked like a charm. Naturally this show had the title of Massive Flower and it was a semi happy ending as the flower was destroyed plus there were no more deaths but Genda couldn't do any research so perhaps this mutation could happen again in the future. Can't say this drama is action packed with a lot of suspense to date but will admit I am enjoying this series immensely, hope I can find a few more shows in this vein. The first screenshot below is how the episode ended with the narrator asking the viewers to once again think about what was just aired and whether there may be more flowers like this one in the future! Thanks for reading this post and the next pair of recaps will be done by the end of the week.