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Ultraman Series
None
Ultra Q
Ultraman
Ultra Q
Ultra Q
Air date January 2, 1966 - July 3, 1966
Directed by Eiji Tsuburaya
Music by Kunio Miyauchi
Produced by Tokyo Broadcasting System
Distributor Tsuburaya Productions
Genre(s) Tokusatsu, Horror
Channel(s) Tokyo Broadcasting System
Episodes 28
Number 1

Ultra Q (ウルトラQ,   Urutora Kyū) is a tokusatsu horror television series produced by Tsuburaya Productions. It is the first entry of both the Ultraman Series and the Ultra Q series. The series ran on TBS from January 2, 1966 to July 3, 1966 in Japan.

Plot[]

To be added

Episodes[]

  1. Defeat Gomess!
  2. Goro and Goro
  3. The Gift from Space
  4. Mammoth Flower
  5. Peguila Is Here!
  6. Grow Up! Little Turtle
  7. S.O.S. Mount Fuji
  8. Terror of the Sweet Honey
  9. Baron Spider
  10. The Underground Super Express Goes West
  11. Balloonga
  12. I Saw a Bird
  13. Garadama
  14. Tokyo Ice Age
  15. Kanegon's Cocoon
  16. Garamon Strikes Back
  17. The 1/8 Project
  18. The Rainbow's Egg
  19. Challenge from the Year 2020
  20. The Primordial Amphibian Ragon
  21. Space Directive M774
  22. Metamorphosis
  23. Fury of the South Sea
  24. The Statue of Goga
  25. The Devil Child
  26. Blazing Glory
  27. The Disappearance of Flight 206
  28. Open Up!

Appearances[]

Characters[]

  • Jun Manjome
  • Yuriko Edogawa
  • Ippei Togawa
  • Professor Ichinotani
  • Seki

Monsters and Aliens[]

Production[]

After becoming well-known for his work on the box office successes of Toho's Godzilla (1954), Rodan (1956) and Mothra (1961), Eiji Tsuburaya launched his own company on April 12, 1963 to build on that success. The company, Tsuburaya Productions, allowed Tsuburaya to have more freedom, allowing him to create his own projects with even more control of the arrangement of the special effects. Noboru Tsuburaya, who had previously proposed the previous year that Toho should create a kaiju television series, titled "Woo," moved the idea to his father's company. Eiji even considered having the score be done by Akira Ifukube, however, his music was considered "too old fashioned" by the executives at Fuji television, to which Hajime Tsuburaya suggested that the music to be composed by Kunio Miyauchi. Despite there efforts, Woo was ultimately deemed too difficult to produce.

TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) then asked Tsuburaya to start fresh and gave him a budget of seventy million yen. Eiji and his team decided to take a few concepts from Woo and some fresh ideas to continue production. Tetsuo Kinjo came up with "Unbalanced." This concept focused on nature's response to mankind's harmful actions, which had thrown off the balance of life, resulting in bizarre events involving monsters, aliens, ghosts and other supernatural events. It took influences from the American series The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. With TBS producers Hitoshi Shibusawa and Takashi Katoi in charge of the production on the network's side and Eiji Tsuburaya was listed as creator and executive producer with his company.

TBS intended the series to begin airing in April 1965, however they were unable to pre-sell Unbalanced to CBS films, the company who produced The Twilight Zone. TBS then ordered thirteen more episodes into production and the air date was delayed. This delay allowed more changes, a longer show and rework to appeal towards foreign audiences. More monsters were requested and more content for children. Children where additionally added to some plots and hard science fiction elements were avoided as not to confuse the younger viewers. Longer special effect sequences were also incorporated into the series. Tohl Narita would create the monsters designs and Toho's Yasuyuki Inoue and Akira Watanabe were put in charge of the visual effects designs. Ryosaku Takayama sculpted Narita's kaiju concept designs into suits and props.

The company lacked their own stages to shoot the visual effects, which lead Tsuburaya Productions to lease Tokyo Art Center for filming in five indoor stages. The advertising department of TBS disliked the title Unbalanced and suggested that an English word be used. The word "Ultra" was set as a defiant part of the title, with it and the term "Ultra-C" being a common catch-word in Japan. Tsuburaya believed that the letter "Q" was perfect alongside "Ultra," though the letter may have came from the popular TBS animated series Q-Taro. The final title was established as Ultra Q. While the show had many original designs and visuals, Tsuburaya requested to borrow suits, props and miniatures from Toho to be modified for Ultra Q, including the 1964 Godzilla suit, which would portray Gomess in episode one, a flying Rodan prop for Litra and Baragon's suit for Pagos from episode eighteen. Many monster roars and certain songs from Toho's sound library were reused for the series as well.

Due to their being only three Toho films that needed special effects, Eiji Tsuburaya had more time to supervise the production of Ultra Q and still carry his duties at Toho. In December 1965, the production of Ultra Q was completed with a total fifteen months of production. A pseudo-documentary aired a week prior to Ultra Q's premiere, titled Ultra Q is the World of Monsters, featured previews of the upcoming series' kaiju. The first episode, "Defeat Gomess!," aired on January 2, 1966 and was an immediate hit, and the series would dominate the ratings throughout its initial run, with an average of 32.39% viewing and a peak of 36.8%.

Gallery[]

Title card[]

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Video releases[]

Trivia[]

  • To be added.

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