"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode twenty 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 nineteenth episode was 28.6% 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. 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 and with these will be caught up until this show. The the top pair of screenshots are from episode sixteen and the monster was named Garamon.  It was also in episode thirteen and what a goofy creature it was which was controlled by a meteor, for the second time Garamon was defeated though the Aliens and meteor weren't so they may make a return. There was no monsters in episode seventeen as that show had dealt with Yuriko shrinking to 1/8th her size! The bottom two screenshots are from the eighteenth show and that was one cool looking monster named Pagos. Uranium was something the monster savored and once again wouldn't be surprised if it made a return and hope so as it was only in the final ten minutes of the episode.

 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.... 

Primordial Amphibian Ragon

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

 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.

   

 

 Sure many of you readers have seen at least one of the three "Creature from the Black Lagoon" movies from the 1950's or at least photos from it, that is one of may all time fave monsters! The creature in this episode reminded of that creature and while not clones were very similar. That's the monster above(not the female!) and doesn't it look like the original creature(?), the faces were so alike along with the height and that long gillish thing that ran down it's spine. This creature could live out of water much longer and while both had webbed feet the ones for this creature were from wearing flippers! That young woman above was Megumi Tama who was a guest star in this episode playing the role of Fumiko, she was sixteen in age and what a cutie!!!!. Megumi had a very long acting career, so many actresses seem to live well over the age of eighty but she passed away in 2013 at the age of 63 and doesn't appear she ever got married.

 Don't want to but may take a break from dramas and movies for about a week, then again am currently doing that without wanting to. Finished this episode four days ago yet it's taken me that long to begin this recap which I could finish in under an hour but it may take two days! It's not because I've grown weary of this show as the episodes have somehow gotten better as we've gone along and this episode predated two movies of Japan sinking into the ocean! Haven't seen either of those films which I have heard are quite good but just not enough time for everything but as you can deduce Japan sinking into the ocean is the main story line. However in this episode it's a much smaller island off the coast of Izu named Iwane which is a fictional name and is sinking, am crossing my fingers hoping this can be done quickish.... and funny enough wrapped it up in almost record time!

 I'm no scientist but it would seem to be almost impossible for a large country to sink into the ocean because of how deep the rocks and Earth's foundations are. But guess small islands could somehow sink into the sea and sure there's been cases of that, while Iwane Island isn't a real one it's probably similar to most off the coast of Izu which is about 100 miles SW of Tokyo. It appears there may have been an underwater volcano that erupted in that area, the top screenshot is of the Shimbun Mainichi reporter Yuriko being sent there by her editor Seki who we haven't seen much of in the past eight shows. When there's a major story to be covered Yuriko is usually on the scene along with her two best friends Jun and Ippei, the trio seem to be getting much closer as the series goes on. They did notice some sea activity in the second screenshot but did it mean the volcano was going to keep erupting or was it even a volcano? The man on the left in the third screenshot flying the helicopter is Ippei and it appears he just got his license to fly a copter solo, his Senpai in the middle is Jun who is an accomplished copter pilot and also has a plane license. Hayashi is the older man in the fourth screenshot and he's the mayor of this small fishing village which I presume is also named Iwane, the young man telling him about the island sinking into the sea is a professor named Dr. Ishii.

 His theory which he told his sister Fumiko and later the duo of Jun and Yuriko is that many of Japan's smaller islands will sink due to crustal movements in the Earth(rocks shifting, etc.). Though extremely intelligent and respected Ishii's theories were laughed upon by the academic world and it appears also by the Iwane residents whose main industry is fishing. A fisherman named Kawasaki gave Ishii and Jun a first hand account of what the situation was like near the underwater eruptions, the fish were dead and in no shape to even eat as their bodies were kind of torn apart! Kawasaki did tell Ishii about a very odd rock he had found in his fishing net, that is right above and agreed to lend it to Ishii so he could study it. Can't go into every detail as there is so much to this story and above Ishii was telling his little sister Fumiko more about it. His theory is that 200 million years ago there was a race of human like creatures named Ragon who controlled the Earth but their island had sunk to the depth of 5,000 meters or over three miles! Ishii felt positive this race survived but could no longer live full time on land and his ideas were scoffed at by his peers. However Ishii will have the last laugh and as you can see above a man screamed out Monster for walking out of the sea was the Creature from the Black Lagoon type of monster!

 That rock the fisherman Kawasaki had taken from the sea wasn't actually a rock and the professor Ishii didn't have time to do much research on it. It disappeared from his house so Ishii presumed Kawasaki took it back as it may be worth a lot of money and the fishermen on Iwane are suffering because these underwater eruptions are killing the fish. The object wasn't a rock but an Egg which was the key to the whole story and more on it coming up soon. Jun's assistant at the small Hoshikawa Airlines Ippei hadn't remained on Iwane island and had flown back to alert the Izu officials about what was taking place. Staying with Jun was the reporter Yuriko and what a scoop she will have, she also had been good friends with Fumiko and the pair hadn't seen each other for a while. Fumiko's older brother was telling her above that while his theory about the island of Iwane sinking is correct he was off with his calculations as it's going to be happening much sooner than expected. The major problem is that most of the residents felt Ishii's story was full of hot air and wouldn't budge from the island.... it may lead to many deaths!!!!

 Above you can see that this unnamed creature entered the house where Ishii and Fumiko lived, it even went up to her but couldn't speak. Of course Fumiko was scared to death and screamed, that sent the creature fleeing away and it was only looking for that large rock but as mentioned it's really an egg. Yuriko did have an excellent question which was why had this creature suddenly appeared and is remaining on land? This creature did end up killing two people but it wasn't violent and was just trying to protect it's own kind or in other words the egg. Meanwhile the explosions from the underwater volcano are happening more frequently, two fishermen did die when their boat sank and above Jun was warning the island mayor Hayashi that the island needs to be evacuated. Finally the theories of Ishii are being proved correct though it's taken some deaths to get the islanders to believe him, if they do want to escape it'll mean going through the creature! It wasn't humorous at all but what was discovered is that the creature can be put in a sedate state by music playing, to clear a path for the islanders to escape Jun was playing a transistor radio and the creature was peacefully following him, that's above and below.

 Final segment, what took place in the last 6-7 minutes is above and the first three screenshots below. That creature followed Jun as the music from the radio put it in a non-violent mood however when the music stopped the creature reverted back to it's normal self, wanting revenge but why???? When the music stopped Jun was able to find another channel quick enough but had no plan on how this would end but it did when the creature stumbled off a very steep cliff and appeared to be dead as the height had to be well over a hundred feet! Not so for this creature won't die until it gets what it came for and came walking out of the water to the beach where the residents were fleeing from. The mayor said to burn the creature and that had worked in two of the 1950's films but luckily it didn't reach that point. For as you can see above that strange rock found in the ocean was actually an Egg and it finally began to hatch revealing a much smaller version of this creature! Fumiko noticed that first and it was easy enough to figure out why the creature came to land from the sea.... to save it's baby! Above Fumiko carried the very small creature to it's mother and early on had wondered if this may have been a female creature, doesn't it appear to be one?

 It was just a very freak incident of the egg appearing in the ocean as the world of the Ragon is 5,000 meters underseas. Now that the creature had it's baby returned it headed back to the sea but it's not quite a happy ending yet. For the island was still sinking but now at a much faster rate, it may be completely undersea in an hour! The island sinking had nothing to do with the underground world of the Ragons according to Ishii and everyone was able to escape safely.... except Jun and Yuriko! That wasn't noticed until the boats had all left and would there be enough time to return and save the pair? That wasn't needed as dropping from the sky was Ippei in his helicopter, Jun and Yuriko jumped on and now it was a happy ending! To an extent for as you can see in the first and third screenshots below that the island of Iwane did sink so it was a bittersweet way for Dr. Ishii to prove his theories were correct. That wraps up this recap, what a fine series this has turned out to be and hopefully won't need a mini break before getting to the final eight episodes.