Where the Ultra Series began.
Ultra Q (ウルトラQ, Urutora Kyū) is a Kaiju-centric Sci-Fi Horror series from Japan created by Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects director for the Godzilla movies. Produced at his own studio of Tsuburaya Productions, this black-and-white series is in fact the first official entry of the Ultra Series, the massive long-running Tokusatsu franchise famous for its enormous, light-based alien Henshin Heroes known as Ultramen and their battles with countless giant rampaging monsters or evil alien conquerors.
Ultra Q however is not about those things.
Popularly described by westerners as Japan's answer to The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits , Ultra Q was an anthology show in which everyday life in Japan was regularly disrupted by strange occurrences and bizarre creatures. From rampaging kaiju to alien invaders to the just plain weird and inexplicable, every episode of Ultra Q presented a new threat or mystery for the people of Japan to confront.
Compared to its American counterparts though, the show notably presented a recurring cast of characters in the form of a trio of friends made up of Ace Pilot and amateur science-fiction author Jun Manjome (Kenji Sahara), Intrepid Reporter and photographer Yuriko Edogawa (Hiroko Sakurai), and Jun's happy-go-lucky best friend Ippei Togawa (Yasuhiko Saijou). The three, alongside their mentor and resident expert Professor Ichinotani (Ureo Egawa), would get involved in nearly every episode's weirdness, sometimes as the main characters and other times as observers. But with Ultra Q, things were rarely predictable, with only the weekly monsters and paranormal phenomenon of the show being guaranteed in its unbalanced world.
Made in the tradition of the many Tokusatsu Science Fiction films from Toho that Eiji Tsuburaya worked on, Ultra Q was part of the "Monster Boom" that defined Toku in the 1960s. It was produced with the intent of bringing the sci-fi spectacle and best-of-the-day special effects of Eiji Tsuburaya's cinematic work to the small screen, and Tsuburaya's close ties to Toho even allowed him to borrow much from the studio, including costumes, props, sets, and even actors.
Ultra Q debuted on January 2, 1966 on Tokyo Broadcasting System. It quickly became a smash hit in the nascent world of Japanese television, possessing the same cultural impact in its home country as its western equivalents. The immediate success of Ultra Q soon led to the greenlighting of the second Ultra show, Ultraman. Ultraman went on to be an even bigger hit and subsequently cemented the direction of the Ultra Series from mystery/horror to superhero action.
With Tokyo Broadcasting System wanting to make way for Ultraman as quickly as possible, Ultra Q was Cut Short on July 3, 1966, with its 28th and final episode being preempted until December 14, 1967. But despite the show's short run and its eerie tone being left behind in the dust by the more whimsical and idealistic Ultraman, Ultra Q has continued to influence the Ultra Series. Much of its cast, creators, and creatures went on to appear in Ultraman (itself confirmed in several episodes to be set in the same universe as Ultra Q) and many subsequent Ultra shows, even decades after it ended.
Ultra Q has even spawned its own mini-franchise within the Ultra Series, including the 1990 movie Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars, the 2004 remake Ultra Q Dark Fantasy, and the 2013 Sequel Series Neo Ultra Q.
Ultra Q provides examples of the following tropes:
- Casting Gag: Gomess and Pagos were made using the respective suits of Godzilla and Baragon. Likewise, they shared the same suit actor — Haruo Nakajima.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: It is the first entry of the Ultra series, but it is quite different from the rest of it -it features no Ultramen, which would be the norm going forward.
- Not every episode would have a giant monster or alien, with the threats varying, sometimes being giant-sized but sometimes human-sized monsters, weird anomalies, or some other weirdness.
- Many of the aliens, like Cicada Human or Kemur Man, would lack the Seijin title that would be common with most aliens later on. When these aliens reappear, their names would be kept the same.
- Some monsters are much smaller than the normal sizes of monsters in the later shows, Gomess being a good example.
- Egg MacGuffin: Litra's egg in the first episode, as Litra is the only thing capable of killing the monster Gomess, so they try to hatch the egg in the hopes that Litra will take care of the rampaging monster for them.
- Foreshadowing: Alien Ruperts at the end of "Space Directive M774" makes mention of other alien races that seek to protect the Earth rather than take it over.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: "Grow Up! Little Turtle" is a modern spin on the Urashima Taro
folktale, with the fisherman being replaced by a young boy that keeps making up stories after he returns from his adventures, isolated by nobody believing him, instead of the original Rip Van Winkle plot, with the aging box becoming an The End... Or Is It? punchline. - Gilligan Cut: In "The Gift From Space", the lead scientist asks the small airline operator to place the story's plot Macguffin somewhere safe. Without showing him putting it away or anyone casing the facility, the next cut shows a thief using a blowtorch on the payroll safe. Naturally, the thief mistakes the plot device for gold he can steal, and danger ensues.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: Unlike the rest of the Ultra Series that would follow, the theme of the series is instrumental rather than having lyrics.
- Kaiju: Plenty, but there are also episodes without them.
- No Main Villain: All of the different monsters and other weirdness has their own unique origins, with some being aliens, others being the result of scientific experiments, and still others being from other dimensions.
- Opening Narration: From Koji Ishizaka: "For the next 30 minutes, your eyes will leave your body as you prepare to enter into this mysterious time..."
- Sinister Stingrays: Bostang is a stingray kaiju that terrorizes the seas, destroying ships and causing widespread destruction. It is finally taken down after a lengthy sea battle by the combined forces of the Japanese air force and navy.
- Stock Footage: Parts of Sudar's island rampage in "Fury of the South Sea" are recycled from the giant octopus scene in King Kong vs. Godzilla.
- Theremin: The music and the theme has this and the musical saw.
- Too Dumb to Live: One episode, "Grow Up Little Turtle", features a child who, after being accidentally kidnapped by thieves, takes one of their guns, looks down the barrel, and presses the trigger! The gun misfires, but it goes off when one of the thieves gets his hands on it again, showing it is perfectly functional.
- Totem Pole Trench: In Episode 10, the two young shoe shiners do this to pose as reporters so they can board a high speed train on its maiden voyage, but they are nearly caught while in a cabin, forcing them to Undercrank back into the disguise.