Jump to content

Ultra Q

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Voideater (talk | contribs) at 19:59, 7 February 2007 (improved grammar). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ultra Q (ウルトラＱ, Urutora Kyū) is a tokusatsu SF/kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films.

Produced in B&W by Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from January 2 to July 3, 1966 (the final episode was preempted until December 14, 1967), with a total of 28 episodes. This series was followed a week later by the more popular Ultraman, the second Ultra Series.

Ultra Q can be described as a half-hour Toho kaiju film. Although series creator Eiji Tsuburaya intended this series to be more like The Twilight Zone and focus less on the monsters, TBS convinced Eiji to add more monsters onto the show, as Godzilla and Gamera were very popular at the time (the first "Kaiju Boom" was already born). This series predates The X-Files, another (American) show with continuing characters who investigate strange supernatural phenomena, be it giant monsters, aliens, ghosts, and other assorted calamities.

Regarding the monsters, some of them were modified versions of Toho movie monsters (since Eiji owned the costumes). They include Godzilla (as "Gomess" in Episode 1, "Defeat Gomess!"), King Kong (as "Goro" in Episode 2, "Goro and Goro"), Manda (as "Mystic Dragon" in Episode 6, "Fly, Turtle!"), Baragon (as "Pagos" in Episode 18, "The Rainbow Egg"), Magma (as Todola in Episode 27, "Flight 206 Vanishes"), and the Giant Octopus from King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) (as "Sudar" in Episode 23, "Rage in the South Seas").

The original planned title of this project was UNBALANCE, and was subsequently renamed Ultra Q (inspired by "Oba-Q", the nickname of the title character of the then-popular anime series Obake no Q-Taro, and "Ultra C", a popular term used for women's gymnastics during the 1964 Summer Olympics, where a Russian gymnast created an extremely difficult maneuver called the "Ultra C"). The series was produced beforehand all through 1965 (it went in production as far back as 1964) and was broadcast at the beginning of the next year. At the time, this was the most expensive TV series in Japan.

Characters

  • Jun Manjoume (万城目淳 Manjōme Jun) (played by Kenji Sahara) - Aviator at Hosokawa Air Service and amateur SF writer.
  • Yuriko Edogawa (江戸川由利子 Edogawa Yuriko) (played by Hiroko Sakurai) - Reporter for the Daily News.
  • Ippei Togawa (戸川一平 Togawa Ippei) (played by Yasuhiko Saijo) - Jun's aviation partner at Hosokawa.
  • Professor Ichinotani (一の谷博士 Ichinotani-hakase) (played by Ureo Egawa) - World renowned scientist, and occasional assistance to Jun, Yuriko and Ippei in times of crisis.
  • News Desk (関デスク) (played by Yoshifumi Tajima) - Yuriko's boss and editor at Daily News.

Episodes

  1. Defeat Gomess!
  2. Goroh And Goroh
  3. A Present From Space
  4. Mammoth Flower
  5. Peguila Has Come!
  6. Grow! Turtle
  7. S.O.S. Mt. Fuji
  8. The Terror Of Sweet Honey
  9. Baron Spider
  10. Underground Super-Express To The West
  11. Balloonga
  12. I Saw A Bird
  13. Garadama
  14. Tokyo Ice Age
  15. Kanegon's Cocoon
  16. Garamon's Counterattack
  17. 1/8 Project
  18. The Rainbow Egg
  19. Challenge From The Year 2020
  20. Underwater Hominid Ragon
  21. Space Directive M4774
  22. Transformation
  23. Rage Of The South Sea
  24. The Statue Of Gorga
  25. Devil Child
  26. Burn On, Glory
  27. Flight 206 Disappears
  28. Open Up!
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Ultra_Q&oldid=106387467"