"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode thirteen 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 thirteenth episode was 35.7% 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. 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.

 

**** This is a new feature that was added for the eleventh episode and will update it every other recap. This mini section will have the monsters/creatures that we have seen to date and you can see more of them as a bit further down are the links to all of the episodes. Will have two screenshots of the creature though not every show had one but the first episode had two. There's four screenshots below, the first pair are from the fourth show. There was no terrifying monster in that one but instead it was a massive flower which also happened to be the title of the episode. The flower wasn't alive as a monster would be but because it grew so quickly and large it became a menace when it grew would destroy everything in it's area. The next two are for the fifth episode and this was my favorite show to date. The action took place near the South Pole and the monster's name was Pegulia. It looked and acted similar to Godzilla, at the end the creature wasn't destroyed and think it will make one more appearance in the series.

In the sixth show the creature wasn't a monster again but a turtle which at first was normal sized. It grew to be much larger but still smaller than a human, this turtle did have the ability to fly but all in all this was kind of a goofy episode and was much of it from a young boy dreaming? To wrap these new creatures up are two screenshots from episode seven. This creature wasn't one from Earth for a meteorite had fallen and though it was crushed into a thousand pieces this rock reformed and became a violent monster!

 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 in it's same time slot 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.... 

Garadama

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

Episode nine: Baron Spider .... Episode ten: The Underground Super Express

Episode eleven: Balloonga .... Episode twelve: I Saw A Bird

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show on YT, mostly short scenes. Added this video in for the eleventh show but it's a clip from episode fourteen which of course hasn't been recapped yet. But any kind of video is hard to find so added it in now so you can see what the show is like to an extent and do highly recommend this drama, especially the Black and White version.

   

 

 Two recaps ago said the order of when these episodes were filmed wasn't the same order they were broadcast. What makes it easy to tell is the length of the reporter's Yuriko's hair, that's her right above. For the first eight shows her hair was fairly short but it had really grown out for episode's nine and ten. Then for the eleventh show is was short again and as the above screenshot shows it was long again for this show!!!! Did a rare thing which was to view the next episode before writing this up and guess what....Yuriko's hair is short again in the next show! It's easier to notice thongs such as that these days thanks to DVDs and videos but wonder if anyone back in 1966 caught on to the shows not airing in order? It has zero to do with the show or stories but I just found it a bit interesting, noticed in photos from years after this series ended that Hiroko as Yuriko did keep her hair the length it is above and I thought she looked good either way though much cuter with her hair shorter.

 After the pair of recaps today will take about a ten day break from this drama. Am not tired at all of it but want to make sure that doesn't happen, so often when I do get a bit burnt out on a show it seems to happen at the snap of a finger plus don't want viewers getting tired of so many of these posts. Garadama is the title for this episode and did check if that was a word in Japanese but it wasn't. In this episode it's referring to a meteorite that fell to Earth and that's right above, Garadama also is the name of this show's creature and though a few have been similar to Godzilla most have been unique. Besides learning new words in these recaps you and I have discovered many new locations in Japan, the mountains mentioned in this show are in Hokkaido but the action didn't take place there.

 But upon investigating a bit further have discovered there's two mountains in Japan with the same name of Mount Mikuni, one is in Hokkaido. The other is mainly in the prefecture of Gifu but a bit of it is also in Nagano so only a little over a hundred miles from Tokyo. So playing detective has meant another important fact has been discovered and remember it for your final exam!!!! The top three screenshots are how the episode opened and the location was a small village called Yumigadani near Mount Mikuni. Arriving at school was that boy whose name was Mamoru, he had been collecting firewood when to his amazement an object had fallen from the sky which is in the second screenshot. It looks quite a bit like a meteorite from outer space but was so light plus at first the 'rock' didn't appear to be anything special. Mamoru and his classmates brought this object to their science teacher Oki, he was extremely intelligent so why was he working at such a small school in the middle of nowhere? Oki too was a bit baffled about this rock that could possibly be from outer space but did deduce that there was a unique iron on it's shell. In the fourth screenshot the narrator had mentioned the Dellinger Effect and that was something I had never heard of until now.

 To explain it would be way too technical but it's a condition that took place often during the 1960's where radio wave transmissions would get disrupted. Transmissions from regular radio stations and also ones to communicate with, at the time it was thought sun spots or meteors from space caused the Dellinger Effect, for this show it was neither and this won't be on your final exam!!!! Oki is smart but this rock/meteor was above him so he brought it to this drama's smartest person who is the esteemed professor Ichinotani, the older man above with a mustache. Ichinotani told Oki he was correct thinking this iron on the rock was very rare and it's called Chilsonite. In an odd coincidence(was it?) Ichinotami also said that three days prior a meteor had fallen in a Libyan desert and it also contained this very rare form of iron. In another oddity this meeting took place at Tonan University and a few hours earlier the Dellinger Effect took place as the physics lab lost all short wave contacts for a few minutes and could that have been when the meteor had fallen on Mount Mikuni? Ichinotani felt sure that was the case and wanted to investigate this remote area, Oki brought the professor along with the two main male characters in this drama, Jun and Ippei. The bottom two screenshots above are from Mount Mikuni, Ichinotani was enjoying himself immensely as the young Mamoru and his classmates really seemed to be interested in science and astronomy. 

 The first third of this episode was very peaceful as there were no monsters, tragedies and really the only action was of the meteor falling but the quietness will soon be ending! Did some checking and there is no reservoir on Mount Mikuni but in this show there was and it ended up being a very important part of the story. In the top screenshot above the woman on the left is Ayako, she was on a tourist boat with her friend Yumi on the reservoir. In the second screenshot Ayako was pointing out where she once lived which was at the bottom of the reservoir's water(!) for it was created somewhat recently and Ayako had grown up in that house, that had zero to do with the story. This is when the peacefulness came to it's end for while the boat was in the reservoir what should come zooming towards it from the sky but what's in the fourth screenshot! A fiery meteor though as you can see above the professor Ichinotani called it a Garadama and think he used that word for smaller particles that have broken off from a meteor but Ichinotami did say this Garadma was quite huge. For now on will refer to this meteor as Garadama for it soon turned into the beast which you can see above, while still a meteor it headed straight for the boat in the reservoir that Ayako and Yumi were on.

 Luckily it missed the boat though the waves Garadama created were so massive that small boat ended up dangling on a mountain side(!), the skipper had been killed. Watching this from the mountain high above was the professor Ichinotani who felt this newest Garadama was also made of Tilsonite, just as he was saying that observation the above creature was formed. This Garadama 'monster' was the oddest to date, while a bit terrifying it was a bit comical to watch it walk across land and you would have to view it understand what I'm trying to fully say. Garadama would kind of hop around while holding it's two arms in front of it's body, that you can see above. Garadama was created by this meteor however a large part of it still existed, when it smashed into the water the destruction that ensued seemed endless! For the waves were so massive it demolished one of the reservoir's dams, all of the other boats on the reservoir or surrounding docks were sunk and many buildings were now under water. One thing that did survive were the two women Ayako and Yumi though their boat was hanging by a thread on the mountainside, with Garadama approaching the vessel are the women's lives about to be crushed?

 The goal was for all of the recaps to just have three segments, that's worked out perfectly to date and also should for the rest of the series. The above screenshots and first four below are of what took place in the final frantic seven minutes, events can flash by quickly when an episode is just 25+ minutes in length. Missing up until this point had been the young reporter Yuriko, she's in the top screenshot. Jun had told he young boy who found the first small meteor, Mamoru, to call Yuriko's Mainichi Shimbun paper and have her head to the Tonan University Lab. Guess Jun thought she could be of help there though not sure why but in the end Yuriko may have saved the day! Also saving the day was Jun along with his assistant Ippei, the pair were able to scale that steep mountain cliff to save Ayako and Yumi. Just in time as less than a minute later Garadama had arrived there and that boat was crushed. There is one screenshot above of Garadama and also a few below, though a massive creature at about 100 feet in height he did look a bit cartoonish. Back at the Tonan lab Yuriko had a brilliant thought, why would she and not the scientists there? She wondered if perhaps Garadama was being controlled by this first meteor that had been found on Mount Mikuni, to the scientists that made perfect sense. 

 So what the team at the Tonan lab did was to put a metal cage around this small meteor to stop it's waves and would that stop the movements of Garadama? Yes it did though the creature did fall into a second dam when he 'died' as you can see below and did that flood the rest of the Mount Mikuni valley? The esteemed professor Ichinotani above was talking to Jun about the now defeated creature and was now positive it came from outer space. Ichinotani surmised the first meteor arrived and was just waiting for the meteor that contained Garadama to land on Earth. Ichinotani also said how advanced this Alien race may be and isn't that said in just about every sci-fi movie? So stopping those unknown waves was the solution to defeat Garadama and if it wasn't for Yuriko's suggestion who knows how much destruction would have been caused by Garadama? Plus if the Aliens knew how successful their attack was would more of these monsters have been sent to Earth? However in the final few seconds the narrator did say it wasn't the end of this monster's invasion of Earth, Garadama may not be dead and will remain in a coma until revived by other meteor rays?! That concludes this recap and what a fine show this was despite a somewhat goofy looking creature. The next post is for episode fourteen and have viewed that, it features the return of the monster from the fifth episode.