"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode sixteen 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 sixteenth episode was 31.2% 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. 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 eighth show. There was no terrifying monster in that one but instead it was a massive Mole(!) which had grown to that size for it was fed a new substance called Honey Zellion. This 'monster' wasn't evil and it didn't want to cause harm to humans but because of it's size that was impossible. The Mole was defeated but was still living under the Earth and we may see a return of this creature as we have for two others. The next two are from episode nine which had the title of Baron Spider and was one of the more creepier shows to date. There were two spiders who were once human and had been living for almost a hundred years, both were killed by this show's 'heroes'.

In the tenth show the creature wasn't a monster again but a new life form from outer space. That's it in the top two screenshots below and it was kind of a goofy character who had even tried to dance! It did look like an ape and was trying to steer a train which was a failure and it ended with a young boy dying when the train crashed. To wrap these new creatures up are two screenshots from episode eleven. This creature wasn't one from Earth for a meteorite had fallen over a decade ago and a scientist shot the meteor back into space as it too had a new life form which he thought was too dangerous to research. But many years later it attached itself to a spaceship returning to Earth and though it looked like a huge rock it was named Balloonga for it floated. If any of these creatures interest you then check out those episodes and the links to them are right below.

 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.... 

Garamon Strikes Back!

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!

 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

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

 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 ended up being one of the best episodes. Any kind of video is hard to find so kept it here so you can see what the show is like to an extent and do highly recommend this drama, especially the Black and White version.

   

 

 

 The man on the left above was a very known actor or at least one that's recognizable if you're a Godzilla fan. His name is Akihiko Hirata who was born in 1927 and died at the age of 56 in 1984 which is kind of young as it seems so many actors and actresses in these older dramas/films lived to be eighty or older. Hirata was in the first Godzilla movie and played the role of the evil Dr. Serizawa, after that he was in six more of the films so I bet no other major actor appeared in more of them. Hirata also had large roles in many of the other classic TOEI sci-fi films such as "Rodan, Varan and Mothra". He must have known the drama's main star Jun well who is in the middle above, his real name was Kenji Sahara and he too appeared in so many of those classic movies and now I have an itch to watch one... or many!

 It had to be difficult to come up with 28 original monsters for that's how many episodes there were in the series. So can understand why a few had to make a return appearance and how many did Jason make???? We did see one monster return two shows ago who was Pegulia, he had come from the South Pole and made it to Tokyo where he almost froze the city to death! In this episode making a return is a creature named Goramon who had been in episode thirteen. There was a slight name change from Garadama which really referred to the meteor that came from space and was controlling this monster who was a bit goofy though dangerous. Will try to explain a few things that took place in the 13th episode but won't have time for all and perhaps it won't be needed, you can always click on the link above for the recap and let's get to the action. The three main characters of Jun, Ippei and Yuriko weren't in the last show but they did return for this one and will be in all of the remaining shows. Have notice the episodes are so much better when they have a lot of screen time.

 That's Hiroko as the reporter Yuriko above, I really like the way she looked and will try to have some mini feature for her in a future post or two. The action began off at the Astronomical Physics Laboratory which had to be in Tokyo. The villain in this show is that man in the top screenshot who was never named so will call him Serizawa in honor of the other guest star Hanazawa. He was controlling a radio device which was somehow able to open a combination safe and you can see floating out of it was that rock above. The rock is the one from episode thirteen and was named Garadama by the professor Ichinotani who didn't appear in this show. Garadama was being held in that safe for it prevented the rock from using it's radio or transmitter waves. This rock was part of a meteor and in a way was alive, it had been sent to Earth as it's brain waves can control a monster named Garamon and are you confused yet?!!!! That rock floated out of the Lab as it returned to it's master Serizawa, he was an alien and it was never revealed what planet had sent him and the monster. Shortly after Serizawa was able to grab a lift via a semi hauler and was heading to Mount Haruna which is a dormant volcano in Gunma.

 Hearing of the news was Yuriko and probably because she was a reporter, she quickly contacted Jun with the news of Garadama escaping. Jun grabbed his partner Ippei and the trio who had all helped defeat Garamon in episode thirteen headed to the National Radio Monitoring station. The leader was the man who I talked about in the intro, in this episode his character's name was Hanazawa. Being from outer space meant the brain waves of Garadama weren't the same as a human being so Hanazawa was able to track it though did lose contact after a while but told the trio the destination appeared to be either Gunma or Nagano so the trio with Hanazawa zoomed to the major highway in that region which was Route 17. Heading there actually was a blessing as just before beginning their journey Tokyo was being hit by some meteors or as these kind are called Garadamas, you can see a few below and the quartet barely escaped but don't think it was too major of a tragedy.... yet!

 That meteorite zooming towards Jun's car above was fairly cool and would have been much better in 3-D. So it's not just Tokyo that is being swarmed by these Garadama meteors but the entire Earth though so far there hadn't been any monsters that have 'hatched'. Soon one did come out live and you can see that above, it's the return of Garamon from episode thirteen and did all of these creatures look like that after being hatched? We didn't see much of Garamon in this show as by this time it was close to being the halfway mark of this 25+ minute episode. While large and powerful Garamon is also a cartoonish acting monster and can only move, attack, etc., by the waves sent from a Garadama meteor. Back to the villain Serizawa and that's him right above carrying the first Garadama meteor that had fallen to Earth, the same one discussed in the beginning that was also in episode thirteen. While Serizawa was being driven to Mount Haruna by the truck driver the vehicle had been stopped by a group of kids playing a trick on the diver who was named Ushiyama. While he was chasing the boys away one snuck onto the back unnoticed and as that was taking place Serizawa slid over to the driver's seat and tore away!

 Serizawa now was on the Misawa Pass highway and the only reason for possibly going there is that it was along the ocean plus had an Air Force base. Above you can see the meteor floating in the back of the truck, that scared the boy to no end who soon leapt out. Finally arriving in Gunma was the trio of Jun, Ippei and Yuriko who were of course with the professor Hanazawa. Just by chance they met the truck driver Ushiyama who told them about Serizawa and how he had hijacked his truck. Soon arriving was that little boy who told all about the floating meteor, now on to the Misawa Pass! And the small group better hurry for as Yuriko says above the meteor is actually a brain, you can also see how Garamon was going on a rampage in Tokyo so there was no time to spare or else! Serizawa never did plan on going to the ocean for in the bottom screenshot above stopped at a lake, the name of it wasn't mentioned but did some checking and think it's Lake Ogawara.  

 Final segment, what took place are the screenshots right above plus the first four below and it was an exciting finale. Finally the Japanese Defense Forces were sent in and what took so long(?), they were alerted by the professor Hanazawa of the villain Serizawa zooming to Lake Ogawara and headed there. But of course arriving first was Serizawa and he's in a few screenshots above and below, in the first above you can see him using that radio transmitter to control the Garadama meteor. That rock can do more than send orders to the Garamon creature as it was able to disarm the armed forces and send their guns floating up into the air which is right above! Meanwhile a second Garamon monster had appeared in Tokyo and it too was razing the city, have a feeling even more large Earth cities were under attack. The Army couldn't defeat Serizawa or the meteor Garadama so when that happens often to save the day is the drama's main character/hero Jun. He was able to nab a pair of guns that floated up in the air, he threw one to his partner Ippei who began to fire at Serizawa. Don't think Ippei wanted to kill the villain and just wanted to knock that transmitter out of his hand which may disable the Garadama meteor and any monsters creating havoc on the Earth's cities!

 For the second time in this series Ippei proved to be an ace shot and knocked the transmitter out of Serizawa's hand, it flew into the lake and short circuited. Right after that happened Serizawa turned into an Alien(!), that's him in the bottom two screenshots above. This was a thrilling final two minutes, zooming out of the sky and heading over the lake towards Serizawa was a UFO and it appeared it would pick him up and return to their home planet. Which to the surprise of all watching helplessly didn't happen as the spaceship fired a beam at Serizawa and you can see below how he burned to a crisp! The ship flew quickly away so with Serizawa dead and the meteor disabled the Garamon monsters ended their attacks and seemed to fall dead but were they really? What a planet as when their 'agents'  aren't successful they suffer the death penalty! We may see this meteor again as you can see the professor Hanazawa holding it below, the rock is now disabled but it's possible it could be reactivated again. Plus Hanasawa mused that were there other agents such as Serizawa on Earth at this time s were there more Garadama meteors(?), that ends this recap and wish this show was a few minutes longer. Probably didn't do it justice but this was an excellent episode, especially the final five minutes which were exciting and the screenshots should help you follow the action a bit better.