"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode ten 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 tenth episode was 32.6% 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.... plus the special effects for this tenth episode were top notch such as the futuristic looking train station below!

The Underground Super Express

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!

Episode seven: SOS Mount Fuji .... Episode eight: Terror of the Sweet Honey

 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.

 

 

 

 Why not keep Eiko up for one more recap, what I will do is have some regular pics soon of Hiroko Sakurai  who played the reporter Yuriko in this drama and she too was quite the looker! **** What I finally just found after some intense searching were the ratings for each episode and what an immensely popular show this was! At the very top there's a new mini section that describes the ratings to an extent and will have the % for each episode. This show's was 32.6% and the entire series averaged 32.4% which these days is unheard of! But way back in ancient times(1960's!) there were only a few major stations and no cable so very popular shows would get those kinds of ratings. The first season of "Ultraman" took over this time slot and the ratings for that series were even higher!

 This was a fine episode but in a way thought it was a disappointment. To me it should have been the top show to date as the story and special effects were the best of the series. Of course the main recap will explain all that took place but the interesting story was of a new bullet train and that's right above. It looked quite a bit like a spaceship and could hit a speed of 450 km/hour or 280 mph, that's impressive for 1966. This would have been a perfect episode for a massive monster attacking the train or even Aliens from outer space but sadly neither took place. Instead we had the above creature who looked so much like a gorilla, it wasn't much larger than a human and was kind of harmless. This story had so much potential and while it was an interesting show it should have been so much better.

 There was some lame 'comic relief'' in this show with the top character but he was more of a negative part of the story instead of being a positive. His name was Kenji though all called him Weasel, he can't be more than fourteen in age but has been shining shoes at the New Tokyo Rail Station since he was seven. As you can see in the second screenshot he was cleaning the reporter Yuriko's shoes and doesn't she look so fabulous in that picture?! I think so and Yuriko did seem to know Weasel well, so don't most of the other regulars at this fictional station. Yuriko was there to cover a story for her Mainichi Shimbun paper about a new bullet train called Inazuma. This is supposed to be the final bullet train of the 20th century but why as the year was only 1966?! Above are screenshots of the train station, the inside of it and also the bullet train, The inside of this station looked like NASA as it was so futuristic and were they launching a spaceship!? The Inazuma is one impressive train though not large compared to other trains, it cost over 8 billion yen which is over 35 billion in 2024! The train could hit a speed of 450 km/hr or 280 mph. It's main route will be going from Tokyo to Shizuoka, then to Osaka and it's final destination will be Kitakyushu, that long route will only take three hours!

 For the train's first ever run a small group of reporters were invited, Yuriko was of course one. She's a youngster at just twenty in age but seems to be well respected and known. Doesn't the control room above for the Inazuma train look so impressive and according to the station chief Nishioka nothing can go wrong even if thee is an accident, 80% of the route is through tunnels. So with such a small amount of invited guests for the train's maiden run most who wanted to couldn't get a seat and many tried any means to grab one! Such as that boy Weasel, he grabbed an ally at the station and the pair did manage to get on the train with Weasel sitting in this man's shoulders looking as though he was over seven feet tall, somehow the conductor let them pass. Also sneaking aboard was Yuriko's friend Ippei, he pretended to be her photographer and was able to get on also as security was quite lax. The third main character is Jun who is in the bottom two screenshots above. He's a pilot for Hoshikawa Airlines, Ippei is his assistant. Jun was talking above with a scientist named Aikawa who has developed a new life form he called M1. It's kind of like a current AI form and Aikawa wanted Jun to transport it ASAP to Osaka and that will be no problem as Jun can leave immediately. Well, if things had gone smoothly there would be no problems with the delivery but guess what too place? Will say in the next paragraph, that's Weasel below with the man he snuck onto Inazuma with and his name was Aoyagi.

 The problem with the new life form that the professor Aikawa had created is that the suitcase containing it was gone! What had happened is that when Ippei had left to catch the Inazuma train he had grabbed the wrong case, he had one containing cameras and such as he would be posing as a photographer. However he grabbed Aikawa's suitcase and never looked inside as Ippei figured he may never use the cameras. Jun quickly figured out what took place, with the professor he rushed down to the New Tokyo Rail Station but the train had already departed. 'No problem contacting them' said the station chief Nishioka as this Inazuma bullet train was so advanced and called the train up via radio. He had a pair of workers enter Yuriko's cabin and take the suitcase, these workers just told Ippei they would store it for safe keeping and he never knew he had been carrying around some sort of new life form. The professor had stored this M1 form in a cylinder to prevent it from growing too rapidly, the key thing that will make it grow quickly is regular air. So the suitcase was designed not to have air and there would be no problems,,,, unless it was opened! In the fourth screenshot above is what the creation looked like while in the cylinder, the screenshot below that is what happened when the M1 got some regular air which happened because a conductor opened the suitcase.

 That fifth screenshot is what the life form transformed into, a Gorilla looking creature though not much larger than a human and never did grow again during the show. The new life form was quite the odd creature as it was dancing around the train and was a bit of an off the wall character. We didn't see how it took place but the gorilla made it to the driver's seat at the front of the train and began to navigate it though the train could be driven by a computer from the New Tokyo Rail Station. This gorilla wasn't violent and am thinking once the driver saw it he tore away. Nishioka back in Tokyo was contacted and the only solution he could think of was stopping the train which was a smallish one consisting of the locomotive that also had the storage units plus two passenger cars. The computer overdrive to control the Inazuma bullet train did work but not with the front section as the gorilla had been pressing all of the knobs and seemed to have short circuited some of those controls so no one was driving the train. Which by now was slightly out of control though no passengers were aware of it. As the bottom screenshot above shows the speed had reached 600 km/hour an hour or 373 mph! That was such a dangerous speed and the train needed to be stopped immediately, how that happened is in the next paragraph. Also above you can see the young brat Weasel and that name fit him perfectly. He had snuck into the driver's section and thought the gorilla like creature was a Robot which he kept presuming until the end!

 There isn't much longer to go in this show, just one scene and the above screenshots from it, also the first four below. Back at the New Tokyo Rail Station the engineers were unable to drive the Inazuma train but did have access to certain other things. Such as being able to unlink the two passenger cars from the locomotive/driver's car which is what happened and no passengers had any clue on what had taken place. The station chief Nishioka ordered a massive buffer car to be set onto the tracks to stop the speeding train which by now was just a bit past Nagoya. Meanwhile the gorilla was still 'controlling' the by now one car bullet train and in the driver's section was still Weasel who had no idea his life could be ending at any second! Somehow the gorilla pressed a switch that turned on the two way radio and back in Tokyo they finally learned the creature wasn't alone! Hitting that buffer at such a rapid speed could kill Weasel though the station chief Nishioka said he had an 80% chance of surviving, Which to Jun wasn't acceptable but it was too late to change tactics, in the bottom screenshot above you can see that the Inazuma train plowed into the buffer.

 And the first one below shows the outcome and going over 370 mph meant the buffer could only slow the bullet train down and not stop it. The train and buffer ended up slamming into the local station which resulted in a massive explosion and were there any survivors? That's a good question for the second through fourth screenshots below show what took place in the final thirty seconds. The train was in outer space with both Weasel and the creature still alive(?), while circling the Earth Weasel asked was he in Heaven? Hmmm, would have to think so and that ends this recap, while a solid show as mentioned in the beginning thought it could have been better as the storyline had such potential. Am still zipping through this series and the next pair of recaps will be in three days.