"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode three 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 third episode was 34.2% 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 appeared this drama 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. Some editing and adding will be done as we go along but not as much as most 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....

A Gift From Space

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!

 

 

 Talked about the show's creator Eiji Tsuburaya above and he had mentioned one big influence on him was the 1953 American film "Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" and the special effects that were in that movie. That is one of my all time old favorites and as a matter of fact will be viewing it yet again later on. Don't watch too many American movies these days but like my favorites from Japan really do enjoy the older ones from the early 1950's to about 1975, it's no lie to say I haven't seen any Hollywood movies that have been released in the last 25 years.... and never will!!!! On to this show's third episode recap and can't think of anything to add in, these stories may not be top notch or must watches but to me all have been entertaining and would think all future ones will be. The next post has the recap for episode four which leaves just 24 more to go!

 No exact location has been mentioned on where this drama was taking place but most of the action has been in central or SW Japan such as the Osaka area, Shizuoka and Awashima. This episode opened up with the top screenshot as the Hoshikawa Airlines pilot Jun Manjome was zooming with the Mainichi Shimbun reporter Yuriko to Mount Mihara. That is a real location on Izu Oshima, this spot was closer to Tokyo and Mihara is an active volcano with it's last semi-major eruption forty years ago. In this episode the volcano had erupted, Yukiko was dashing there for the story but the island itself is sparsely populated. While flying to the island the pair noticed an object falling from the sky via a parachute, that's in the second screenshot and what could it possibly be? No one was positive and that included the man in the third screenshot whose name is Sakamoto, he's the director of the Japan Space Agency and handed the object over to his team of scientists. Sakamoto did tell the group of reporters that six months prior the agency had sent an unmanned spaceship to Mars but there had been problems with the transmitter once it got close to the planet so all thought the ship had been destroyed, perhaps it was.

The older man with the mustache above will be a semi regular character but this is the first time we've seen him His name is Professor Ichinotani who works at a research center he named after himself. Seems the three major characters(heroes?) Jun, his assistant Ippei and Yuriko know the professor well but no clue on why that would be. Jun told the man about what he and Yuriko had witnessed and if the rumor is true that the object came all the way from Mars!!!! Ichinotani firmly believed the Martians sent this object as a 'Gift' to the Earth, his theory is that the spaceship crashed and was destroyed on Mars. But they sent this present to let humans know that the ship had arrived and there was a race of living creatures on the planet but why such a vague message? That Japan Space Agency team worked to figure out what this object was and there were only two miniature objects discovered, why hadn't the Martians added in a message with their present which is the bottom screenshot above. You can't tell because it wasn't in color but those two small objects were made of gold(!) or at least appeared to be, for the time being they were locked up in a very secure bank vault but why not at the space agency?

 You'd think an underground bank vault would be safe to store something valuable but on this occasion it wasn't for the man in the top screenshot above robbed the bank that night! His name was Sato, he filled up a massive suitcase with cash and to his amazement found those two gold balls sent from Mars though of course he didn't know that. Sato was in a hurry to leave the city(Tokyo?) so dashed to Hoshikawa Airlines to hire a pilot. When Sato arrived leaving the airfield was Ippei meaning his Senpai Jun was the only person there. Sato wanted to leave for Okura Island immediately and was willing to pay Jun a handsome fee for his effort. However Jun said the airline never flies at night and to come back in the morning, that was not the answer Sato wanted to hear and attacked Jun! Who was a better fighter than this bank robber but Sato got the upper hand because of his pistol. **** During this skirmish one of the gold balls fell from Sato's pocket and rolled under some papers, neither he nor Jun noticed that. So after the brief fight off to Okura Island went the pair, that's not a real island but it appeared to be somewhat close to Mount Mihara. Jun dropped Sato off and headed back to his airfield where he fell asleep the minute he landed and was woken up the next morning by his assistant Ippei.

 Waiting on Okura Island was Sato's partner Saijo, the pair dashed into a huge cave which you can see above. Saijo had no clue why Sato picked this cave for a temporary hiding place until they left for Macao the next evening as it was so stifling hot plus there was zero electricity. However who would think of looking for anyone on this very sparsely populated island so in a way that was a good place to hide out at. While the pair were celebrating their massive haul of cash the second gold ball from Mars dropped out of Sato's pocket, like the first one he never noticed what had happened. The ball rolled into a pool of boiling water and this Okura Island may have also had an active volcano. Within minutes this ball grew from being something very small to what was in the the third to last screenshot, a massive egg! Which began to crack and somehow the pair of robbers never noticed what was taking place until it was too late! Which was the birth of some sort of unknown creature, to me it looked like a combo of a Slug and perhaps also a Praying Mantis, least the tentacles gave that impression. As you can see those tentacles lit up and could also fire some deadly beams! Meanwhile Jun had told his assistant Ippei about what had taken place and wants to nab this robber Sato. They grabbed the reporter Yuriko and flew to Okura Island. On the flight Ippei gave Yuriko a pendant, she and Jun had no clue what it was made of but we viewers did and it was that Martian golden ball that Sato had dropped on Jun's office floor!!!!

 There were two more scenes to go in this show which are the above screenshots and the first five below. Through four shows it appears Ippei may have a slight crush on Yuriko while she has one on Jun but doubt if romance will ever be part of any story. The trio arrived on Okura Island where the main policeman told the three that mysterious noises have been heard from that cave Sato had hidden in with his partner, the four went to investigate. Where the found the pair of criminals dead but there was no obvious clue on how they had died, there was no blood or severe injuries. One positive happened is that the stolen money had been recovered and when the group was about to grab the suitcase jammed with cash making an appearance was this unnamed and very odd creature. What I had thought was that this massive monster that resembled an insect/praying mantis used the special beam from its tentacles and is how the two criminals died as it somehow left no trace of blood or bruises(make sense?). Seeing this monster of course petrified the group of four who quickly fled the cave but the creature was right on their tail! Jun used the officer's revolver to no avail, a bullet wouldn't stop such a huge monster. Just when it seemed the unnamed creature would squash Jun he ducked down, the creature slid over him and fell into the sea.... to its death for as you can see above the salt water melted this creature!!!!

 Immediately after the trio returned home, all were safe and sound but of course shook up. They told the whole story to their professor friend Ichinotani that this creature had been sent to Earth by the Martians but was it a present? Ichinotani theorized that mankind had never thought of what life on other planets may be going through with spaceships being sent to their planets and orbits, to the aliens could these ships be threats or possibly be friendly? So the creature could have been a warning to humans saying to leave us alone and of course space travel expanded for a while after 1966. Remember there was that second Martian gold ball which Yuriko had gotten from Ippei. It was attached to a string Yuriko was wearing around her neck, it eventually got warm when she stood next to the coffee machine and soon began to expand rapidly! This ball was like the first one as it was an egg, before it could hatch Jun and the professor threw it out of the lab window into the ocean where it too melted. So at least mankind knows that Martians have no defense against salt water in case any more 'presents' are sent but with the aliens being an advanced race they may learn how to bypass that weakness. So the show ended with the viewers being asked is exploring space with the risks to mankind and also any inhabitants of other planets worth it? If you think about it not all that much has been accomplished the last fifty years as far as exploring planets go and instead has the opposite taken place with aliens integrating into the human race.... and this Blog????! Another enjoyable show which asked us to think about things at the end, the next post has the recap for episode four.