"Ultra Q" drama from.... 1966(!), episode nineteen 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.... 

Challenge from the year 2020

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 only lasts for forty seconds but it is rather cool and you can hear it in the video.

   

 

 That's Hiroko as Yuriko in the first screenshot above and had mentioned a few other times about the length of he hair. When it's short like it is above it meant the episode had been filmed much earlier but hadn't aired in chronological order. Thought we had seen the last of her short air as it had been five episodes since we've seen Yuriko that way but was wrong and wonder why they didn't air the shows in  the order they were filmed? In the last recap did talk a bit about what may be up next for dramas and for now have none planned but hope to have something soon which I'll talk about shortly.

 May need to slow down on this series as the recaps for the last two episodes haven't been published yet and was a bit confused at first on what show this was. There was a monster at the very end of this episode and was only on screen for about two minutes so we may be seeing it make another appearance, The origin of the creature was from the above liquid or slime which would have looked better in color, Green is common in sci-fi movies. That slime was from another planet named Kemur and it can make a human disappear though no other kind of object, on to what took place in this show.

 You would think that being a long 28 episode series the shows would begin to fade after the halfway point but that hasn't been the case and as a matter of fact the stories have become much more interesting. The man in the middle in the top screenshot is named Amano who will play a key guest role in this episode, he's a Lieutenant Colonel for the Japanese Defense Air Force. He was also a man who did not believe in Aliens and UFO's but had sent two fighter jets out to check on some reports of possible flying saucers. To Amano's amazement in the second screenshot one of the jets seemed to explode even though it hadn't been fired at and dropped off the radar screen. Amano seemed like a decent and capable man but his superiors quickly dragged him into a meeting and demanded to know how an Ace pilot could have been killed?! All knew Amano didn't believe in Aliens so were stunned when he said a UFO had to be the cause though the pilot in the other jet didn't see a thing. That's because there was nothing to see but there was an alien at work and that's in the third screenshot. It was that Slime which caused the jet to explode and that screenshot was taken from a resort as this life form had made it's way to Earth! First there was an incident at the resort with a person vanishing, then another involving a star swimmer who disappeared into thin air while diving at a pool!

 It ended up being a hat trick for these odd disappearances for in the middle screenshot the reporter Yuriko was calling her editor as she too saw a woman vanish who was piloting a boat! Yuriko then heard about the other two recent vanishings plus what happened to Amano's pilot so contacted him as she wants to be the first reporter with this huge scoop! So as is the case in most episodes the pair went to Jun for answers and in a bit of a surprise he didn't believe their stories about people disappearing. Surprising for Jun does love science and easily could have been a professor instead of a plane/helicopter pilot. After hearing the stories of Yuriko and the Lieutenant Colonel Amano along with reading about the swimmer vanishing in thin air Jun began to think could they be on to something and an Alien is making these events happen? The final thing to convince Jun was from his assistant/apprentice Ippei who is in the middle in the bottom screenshot above. Ippei told Jun he was currently reading a sci-fi novel called "Challenge from the year 2020" and the events taking place had also happened in the book! So something very odd and eerie is happening, Jun will do all he can do to help and first off brought Amano to where the jet disappeared via his plane.

 However no clues were found about how the jet disappeared which was over a bay, it made sense for something vanishing would leave no evidence. The Lieutenant Colonel Amano was disappointed but was reassured by Jun who by now believed his story 100%, especially with what happened about ten seconds later!!!! Somehow a bit of that still unknown oozy slime found it's way onto the plane and soon enclosed itself around Jun making him.... disappear!!!! We didn't see it but presume Amano slid over to the pilot's seat and landed the plane safely for after all he does work for the Japanese Air Force. However the main hero of he drama Jun has joined the ranks of the disappeared and like the others where could he have gone to? Perhaps a different dimension or maybe nowhere for they've all disintegrated, the answer will be coming up soon enough. The third screenshot above shows Yuriko watching her photographer Watanabe also disappear, the slime had gotten on to him and the special effects of his death was fairly cool as you can see some of it in that screenshot. So people are vanishing at a much faster rate now but the first clue was discovered which is that Watanabe had taken a photo of this oozy slime. Yuriko, her editor Seki and Amano now know what the cause of the disappearances are but how to find this liquid?

 And if they do find it what can be done, Seki was so worried about his young reporter Yuriko that he assigned a police detective to be her bodyguard. That's the older man above who was Udagawa and though Yuriko thought he was inept the man was anything but that. Earlier had mentioned that Jun's assistant Ippei was reading a novel titled "Challenge from the year 2020" and Ippei had noticed the events in real life were following the same order as the book. He had been visited by Yuriko who of course was so distraught about the missing Jun, if she had the choice I do wonder who Yuriko would pick for a boyfriend.... Jun or Ippei? .... or Nao! Jun is such a intelligent man which most realize but an underrated one is Ippei who didn't get enough credit in this show for helping save the day. He remembered every detail from the "Challenge from the year 2020" novel, Ippei wasn't a smoker but the detective Udagawa was. Ippei told him the weakness of the slime in the book was Fire, Udagawa threw his cigarette in some of it and as you can see above the slime shriveled up and died! What a help that discovery will be and now the main question is where to find more of the slime which is hard to notice until it's on you but one other thing could become a problem. Which is that somehow a creature developed out of the slime, it's right above and also in that new video in the intro section.

 This novel "Challenge from the year 2020" was written by a scientist named Kanda and his peers laughed at the man for writing such trash as events couldn't happen. Though having the last laugh in a way was Kanda as what he wrote was happening and he had been doing experiments in case the events of the book did truly happen. Ippei knew all of this as he did keep up on the doings of scientists so told Amano the lab of Kanda should be their destination. However the pair were just a bit too late as Kanda wasn't there and odds were high the slime had gotten to him first. Above you can see a small object that Amano found in the lab which was called a K-Miniode, the ode was for an Electrode inserted in the creation. Kanda had invented it just before his disappearance and according to Amano it will send out X-Channel light waves which I'm sure aren't real. But in the show they were and this invention is what may save the Earth from the slime and new creature. Ippei then recalled in the "Challenge from the year 2020" novel that the slime and creatures had originated 500 years ago and had come from the planet Kemur. That creature began to grow at a rapid pace which you can see above and below, for now it's the only monster but could more be on the way?

 The action zipped right along in the final few minutes plus so much info was thrown at us such as what was described above. This growing creature was never given a name but was trailed to an amusement park by Yuriko and the detective Udagawa but what could they do? Udagawa's gun was useless against it plus the creature was too big to kill with a cigarette(!) but the pair of Ippei and Amano ended up saving the day.... and humanity?! Being an important cog in the Japanese Defense Forces allowed Amano to have access to Tokyo Tower which was built in 1958, with Ippei he brought the K-Miniode there and had attached it to a device that could amplify the X-Waves. Many shots were fired from the tower at the creature from the planet Kemur, above you can see they did have an affect on the monster which had kept growing and what would have happened if the K-Miniode wasn't found? Plus would the inhabitants of the planet Kemur sent more of these monsters for Kanda wrote in his research that the planet was dying and can Earth expect more attacks? Below you can see that once the monster was destroyed Jun and the others returned safe and sound, it was never revealed where they may have been but thinking a different dimension, Just as the episode ended the detective Udagawa was leaving the amusement park and happened to step into some liquid left by the Kemur monster. He laughed it off but as you can see in the fourth screenshot below Udagawa began to disappear and that's what I will do now that this recap is complete.