"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode 22 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 22nd episode was 26.9%(lowest of all episodes) 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. Did have just two screenshots of the monsters but now that I'm caught up with them will have four of them for the remaining shows. So the first four below are from episode 19 and the first one isn't of a monster. But of some slime from outer space which did transform into the monster in the next three screenshots. It never had a name but kept growing until his death as fire was it's weakness and it came from the planet Kemur. The second monster is the one I really enjoyed and isn't it so similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon? It certainly was though this creature was a female who lived in an underseas empire called Ragon and somehow the egg of her baby had floated up to the top of the ocean! 

 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.... 

Metamorphosis

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. In episode fourteen did learn Hoshikawa Airlines was along the Tama River, that's 15 or so miles west of Tokyo.

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!

 

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

Episode thirteen: Garadama .... Episode fourteen: Tokyo Ice Age

Episode fifteen: Kanegon's Cocoon .... Episode sixteen: Garamon Strikes Back!

Episode seventeen: The 1/8th project .... Episode eighteen: The Rainbow's Egg

Episode 19: Challenge from the year 2020 ... Episode 20: Primordial Amphibian Ragon

 There aren't many but a few videos of this show on YT, mostly short scenes. Added this video in for the 19th episode as it shows some highlights from it and that semi-monster was another creature from outer space. You only hear music in the credits which lasts for forty seconds but it is rather cool and you can hear it in the video. For the next recap will try to locate a different video but I'm not holding my breath on that.

   

 

 

 Will admit that I may prefer the way Japanese women looked back in the 1960's and 70's than the way they look these days. Granted those were much more conservative times back then but a woman doesn't half to dress half naked such as Idols do these days to be considered attractive. This series had so many ultra cuties and above is this episode's main guest star who played the role pf Ayako. The bottom one is a screenshot from this show and its not easy finding a lot of photos from 50-60 yeas go. The woman above as named Machiko Naka who passed away in March 2023 but she was 86 in age and what a busy actress she was.... also may have been the most attractive guest star to date! Machiko appeared in so  many films though not many after 1970 when she concentrated on TV and did appear in many of the "Ultraman" and "Kamen Rider" series, her last role was in 2010 when she was 74 in age.

 As said before if nothing else you will pick up many interesting trivia facts in these drama recaps and if there are more cuties in the final six shows perhaps I should have a post to rank their attractiveness! Hate to say it but Machiko was the highlight of this episode and don't mean that in a bad way towards her. While the stories for the last two episodes have been solid the shows themselves have only been so-so though still worth viewing, perhaps I was spoiled by so many terrific episodes in a row. As mentioned have six more episodes to go and would like to finish this off in three weeks which should be done. Then will have some movie reviews and those have become semi-popular, especially horror flicks and that's what most of the reviews will be for. More info on which ones I will be viewing in future posts, let's get to this show's action and perhaps that's why it was only so-so for there really wasn't all that much action.

 Most of the action will be taking place around the city of Matsumoto which is in Nagano prefect, not in the city but the nearby Mount Tateshina. In that top screenshot a group of hikers were climbing the mountain when they discovered that pile of bones, had someone actually eaten a person?! We never did hear about those bones after this scene and a few moments later a huge shadow fell over the hikers as a huge monster was towering over them though we viewers didn't see it. The hikers fled the mountain at Mach speed and told the police the creature was a 200 foot tall Yeti, that's the name of the more known one in the Himalayas. Of course their story wasn't believed, how could such a huge creature not be noticed until now? But the tale spread quickly and the young Mainichi Shimbun reporter Yuriko pled for her editor to let he cover the story but she was told it's not something for a woman! But in the end Yuriko once again grabbed the scoop and right after being denied by her editor Seki she received a call from a long time friend. Who is above and the main guest star for this show Ayako(Machiko) who met up with Yuriko and what a tale she soon had to tell. A year ago Ayako was going to marry a man named Koji but a month before the wedding it was called off, since then Yuriko hadn't heard from her friend. During this brief encounter Ayako dropped such a bombshell which was that her ex-fiance' Koji was.... Yeti, the abdominal (snow)man!

 That's a hard story to believe but Yuriko did and told Ayako not to worry as her good friends will help her out. Though at first Yuriko had a hard time convincing Jun that a man turned into a Yeti, also in disbelief was his assistant pilot Ippei. Yuriko also told the details to the esteemed professor Ichinotani who we hadn't seen for seven episodes, though the story doesn't seem plausible Ichinotani agreed to listen to Ayako. So didn't Jun and Ippei, what a tale she had to tell the group. Ayako's fiance' Koji was an Entomologist(studied insects) and spent so much time in his lab, Butterflies are what interested him the most. A year ago Ayako and Koji had been out for a hike on Mount Tateshina, it was a month before their wedding. To Koji's amazement he noticed a species of Butterfly called Morpho and how could that be for they were native to Brazil? Koji tore off after this rare butterfly and though in the middle of Japan this mountain almost seemed to be in a tropical climate as it was so hot and humid. Ayako tried to chase after he future husband but lost him though soon found a cave, entering it Ayako saw so many of these very rare Morpho butterflies. You can see that above and Ayako heard Koji screaming from deeper in the cave, when she went in further Koji was trapped by a very massive Morpho.

 After that Koji escaped from the cave, it took a while but Ayako was able to find him which is in the top screenshot. Koji was near a swamp trying to drink all of the water(!) and before that had been screaming for Water as he couldn't drink enough to satisfy him. Koji did look 'normal' in that screenshot though a bit crazed, it's now a year later and that was the last time Ayako had seen him. That finished her story and after what happened with the Morpho butterflies Ayako was convinced Koji had transformed into the massive Yeti, the way Ayako told the story made all believe her. After being dormant for so long the giant Yeti has resurfaced once again, perhaps it had enough food and water in mountain caves to survive for a year? We finally saw this creature who is that massive man above and when it arose out of a mountain side there was an avalanche which resulted in two deaths though the Yeti wasn't violent. Mt. Tatashina was the location where Koji had disappeared a year ago, now he's moved on to Mt. Yatsugatake which is also in Nagano prefecture, above you can see that Jun will be flying Ayako there.

 Not just her but his partner Ippei plus Yuriko and she was he only Tokyo reporter to have this story which was a major scoop for her. It was never explained why but after Koji had been bitten(?) by the Morpho butterflies he could never drink enough water to quench his thirst which has continued on for a year plus exactly how long after the Morpho bite(s) did he transform into a giant? Ayako had told Jun and the professor Ichinotni of Koji drinking so much water, as a matter of fact he drank a whole swamp(!) but they too were at a loss. It just wasn't Ayako, Jun, Ippei and Yuriko on the mountain for the Japanese Defense Corps were sent in, above you can see them firing at the massive Koji. Those bullets had no effect and Jun pleaded with the soldiers to stop which they did but now all know that this Yeti is actually Koji so the enigma became how to capture and return him to normal size. In the bottom screenshot above Yuriko was asking the professor to try his new invention on Koji, we had seen Ichinotani working on it for about five seconds earlier in the show.

 Final segment, what took place is in the above screenshots and first two below. Writing this up has made me realize it actually was a decent episode though not as good as previous ones. The professor Ichinotani had invented a Thermal Atomic X-Ray which was very powerful laser beam, it contained thermal atoms of millions of Angstroms so check your science book! The professor knew it would work on animals to disable them but wasn't sure about a giant plus because the Yeti was once a human perhaps the beam would be fatal but at this point there were no other options. Koji was not a violent monster though it did knock down some power lines towards the end and it was mainly because Koji still couldn't get enough to drink to quench his thirst. Plus being that size meant even if he just walked normally buildings would be destroyed, so even though Koji doesn't want to hurt anyone he must be brought down! At the end there was a final showdown at Mt. Yatsugatake and you can see what took place above. Before the professor used his Thermal X-Ray weapon Ayako dashed to the giant Koji and pleaded with him to return to the mountains but I wondered why, it wouldn't cure Koji of being a giant Yeti and he may have sucked the two mountains dry of water!

 In that middle screenshot it appeared Koji was going to attack(eat?) Ayako who had climbed to the top of a tower to talk with her ex-fiance'. That was too close for comfort so Jun told the professor Ichinotani to fire his new X-Ray beam at Koji and it was a direct hit though being so massive meant it took a while for Koji to fall helplessly to the ground. Whatever was in this new X-Ray beam worked like a charm and had an effect which Ichinotani was unsure would happen. That's of Koji(below) returning to his normal size and there didn't appear to be any side affects, the show ended with Ayako being reunited with her fiance'. Actually there were ten seconds to go and it was of what the narrator told us in the second screenshot below and how it meant for us viewers to reflect on what we just watched but unlike other episodes I didn't think there was much of a moral to the story. That wraps this recap up which was a decent show which could have been better, will have the next pair in a few days and hope this series ends on a very high note.