"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode seven 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 seventh episode was 32.5% 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! Of course there's been many other monsters since then but will leave this pair up for a while. 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.

**** Have thought of a new feature and will replace this one soon. Think I may wait until the eleventh episode(did do it!) and then start listing all of the monsters that have appeared in an episode. Will have a screenshot or two plus a mini bio of the creature. Think that would turn out well but the problem could be would that section become too large?

 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....

SOS Mount Fuji

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 with guns and how that came to be is a mystery. Plus Jun is a master with cars and could have been a racer, one last thing is that Jun loves science which is how he and his mates are friends with Professor Ichinotani.

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. Though him and the next character Seki are important to the drama each will only be in about half the episodes.

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 .... Episode three: A Gift From Space

Episode four: Massive Flower .... Episode five: Pegulia .... Episode six: Grow Turtle!

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show 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! Added this video in for the fifth show, will try to find another and if successful will add it in for episode nine.

 

 

 

 Back on track as the three main characters had much more screen time again though they never did play a major part in the events that took place in this show. Which was set at the base of Mount Fuji, that's it peacefully in the first screenshot but it could be on the verge of erupting! All of the details will be in the recap along with more pics of the above unnamed monster and just thought an interesting story would have been it coming from outer space and will explain why later. I have been zipping through this series which is no award winning one but so enjoyable and intriguing but even so after today's pair of recaps still have twenty more episodes to go!!!!

 As of 2024 Mt Fuji hasn't erupted for over 300 years, when this aired back in 1966 it had been 250 years since that last eruption, However it appears that long period of inactivity will be ending soon and doing a story about it for her Mainichi Shimbun paper was Yuriko who is in the top two screenshots. Her hair is now longer compared to the first six shows and she does look much better because of that. The man she was talking to was named Hayakawa who is a scientist at the Mt Fuji Volcano Research Center and he is worried about this dormant volcano finally erupting as it could lead to a disaster being so close to Tokyo and other larger cities. Slowly moving north has been heat along a seismic fault and no one can explain why. In the intro said this could have been a story involving Aliens and that's one reason, they could have started this seismic heat as an attack. Hayakawa told Yuriko three other minor eruptions have taken place, one was at Mt Mihara that was part of the story in episode three and the latest one was off the shore of Hachijo Island. It's one of seven active volcanos in the Izu region and just a little over 175 miles from Tokyo!

 Hayakawa felt this fast moving heat would make it's way to Mt Fuji soon and he wasn't wrong on that, how did it start is still unknown but the more important issue is how to stop it???? It appears this underground heat wave will soon strike the village of Yoshino that lies at the base of Mt Fuji. **** That is a real river and mountain in Japan but nowhere near Mt Fuji. Once again there was a bit of comic relief in this show with the group of boys above who were trying to invent a rocket that would fly, it was successful at the end. The other lightheartedness was with the policeman above whose name was Yokoyama, he was quite inept and no one in the village obeyed him, especially the group of boys. Yuriko had called up her best friends Jun and Ippei to pay her a visit in Yoshino to possibly help with the volcano, why not call up the military or a disaster agency first? The officer Yokoyama told the trio about a Tarzan like creature that has been living in the dense village forest, no one believes him for Yokoyama is the only one to have seen it and that had been happening for a few years. That's no illusion the officer was having as he was backed up by the woman above whose name was Mitsuko. She claimed fifteen years ago her family had come to Yoshino for a hiking trip, on it her then four year old brother Takeru had disappeared in the forest and it being such a 'wild place' all thought he had perished. Mitsuko didn't think so, she's 25 in age and by now Takeru would be 19. Mitsuki took a job in  the area to hunt for Takeru but how could someone survive in the wilds for fifteen years but according the officer Yokoyama it just may have happened.

 Hayakawa wanted to do much research about this overheating seismic fault line but with Takeru possibly being in the forest that plan had to be put on hold. However a reason for this extremely hot fault line may not be underground but above it, check out the first screenshot above plus a few others. That's a huge rock and one that seemed to be alive as in it's core was a glowing ember, perhaps a heart? As you can see in that screenshot the rock somehow floated up into the air and tried zooming away as the Army had seen it and was approaching to fire. The flying rock was unable to escape as the battalion of tanks shot the rock down and it had to be in 5,000 pieces. It took six dump trucks to haul the debris away but why as it it was just dumped in a nearby area. It's tough to see but the rock did assemble itself yet didn't go back to it's original form, instead it transformed itself into a gigantic creature! That's all above and was one other reason why I thought Aliens should have been part of the story.

 First noticing this rock turned creature was the inept officer Yokoyama. Of course his pistol was useless against it but will give him credit for at least Yokoyama could handle a gun well. He tried to escape but so many trees had fallen in the forest because of this unnamed monster, Yokoyama was pinned under one and would this be his end? No for arriving in the nick of time was the Tarzan like man Takeru, it's the first time Yokoyama had seen him so close. Living in the 'Wilds' has made Takeru so strong, he was able to get the tree off Yokoyama and brought him to his mountain cave. For being in the forest for fifteen years doesn't Takeru look so darn good, for instance with newish clothes and was clean shaven! The monster was still on the prowl and while safe in Takeru's home/cave the entrance was blocked as a massive boulder had fallen in front of it, would the pair suffocate to death? Yokoyama was overjoyed though being so close to Takeru for the first time and if they could escape the villagers would finally believe him. Takeru didn't utter a word and was that because he didn't know how to speak Japanese? Finally arriving on the scene were Takeru's sister Mitsuko along with Jun, Ippei and Yuriko. They knew two people were trapped in that mountain cave but with the monster still there what could they do?

 Yuriko in the top screenshot had confidence in Takeru being able to escape from his cave and defeat this 'rock monster'(not a rock lobster!!!!) and she was on the money with her prediction. Being near Mt Fuji meant this wilderness wasn't like growing up in a tropical jungle as there were no huge tigers, ten foot snakes or the like. But Takeru had become such a strong man, it took a while but he was able to push that giant boulder out of the way freeing him and Yokoyama. The monster rock didn't notice that and Takeru had a plan, he grabbed Yokoyama's service revolver, ran like the wind to the rock and jumped on it. The rock had to be fifty feet long and it was more a mammal than a rock, it's true the monster's size has made it strong but besides emitting such torrid heat don't think it had any other special powers. Hidden in the back of the rock/monster's back was that heart shaped figure in the third screenshot, on the ground a person wouldn't be able to notice it. This object was embedded in the rock's skin, it throbbed as a heart would so that's where this massive heat which had bringing volcanos to life has been coming from.

 Which means in a way the monster had been living before as a Rock or else how could it have traveled along the coast of Japan? Though a Tarzan type of person Takeru was quite intelligent, he knew that throbbing heart was so dangerous and had to be 'killed'!!!! Takeru tore it out of the monster's back, tossed it high in the air and with Yokoyama's revolver hit it about five times which made it explode thus ending that thing's 'life'. However this rock/monster hadn't been destroyed though it's 'heart' was gone, it slithered back into the forest and like the creature from episode five think it may make a return visit in a future episode. Hope so for this monster was an interesting one and really wished more had been known of it's origins. For instance were chemicals that humans had dumped into the soil the reason this rock came to life and also why dormant volcanos are now erupting? At the end Takeru was the hero and it appears he'll be living with humans though he may not be too happy about that! In the final twenty seconds those boys we saw in the very beginning of the show had invented another rocket and tried to launch it. Unlike the first time the rocket flew off at an amazing speed, straight towards Mt Fuji where it exploded and seemed to set off a volcanic eruption, that would have made for an exciting show! The next post has the recap for the eighth episode, twenty more shows to go but am zipping through this series.