MORPHO BUTTERFLY AND GIANT
These two creatures are another pair of monsters conceived back when Ultra Q was just a general anthology series. The story of this episode has an insect collector named Koji hunting down the mysterious Morpho Butterfly, only to be affected by the poisonous pollen and transform into a giant.
Design wise, I don’t really find either super remarkable, especially after the myriad of weirder creatures such as Kanegon, Balloonga, Peguila, etc. But I suppose had this episode been aired earlier, it wouldn’t feel as much as a step back. I will say I do enjoy the sort of dream logic of finding some strange insect, only to have it somehow turn you into a monster, it’s an interesting concept at the very least.
SUDAR
Sudar is yet another borrowed Toho monster, this time being the giant octopus prop from the deleted ending from Frankenstein Conquers the World and War of the Gargantuas (along with footage of the live octopus from King Kong vs. Godzilla). In terms of execution, I think the prop itself is fantastic, but I do think it’s another case of having just another big animal be the monster is a tad dull after seeing more of the exotic monsters.
Sudar’s episode began life as a sample story early on in Ultra Q’s development named Counterattack of the Giant Octopus and in the initial story concept, the climax would’ve had the mammoth mollusk at Haneda Airport battling a flying supercar. So with that in mind, you’d imagine that this episode was one of the few shot early on before designer Tohl Narita came to the helm.
Except that’s not the case. Narita did design a fish kaiju to be utilized for the episode, but it was scrapped in place of the giant octopus prop. I’m not 100% sure why, but I can assume it was probably due to budget. It’s a shame since I feel like the concept Narita had was a lot more visually interesting and more exciting than the Sudar we ended up with.
GOGA
Goga’s a pretty solid little monster. Apparently a monster that destroyed the Aranka civilization thousands of years ago, Goga became trapped in a small idol before predictably being freed in 1960’s Japan to wreak havoc before being killed by firebombs. I dig Goga quite a bit, even if it’s not my absolute favorite monster. The crew did a good job at making the creature look really eerie as the monster wanders through a modern city. What really wins me over is his shell, which glows ominously and even acts like a giant drill! It’s a novel concept to add to the design of a snail monster.
LILY
Lily is another episode that was filmed early on when Q during the general anthology stage. The episode, aptly named The Devil Child is one of the more creepy episodes of the show. Lily is the daughter of a magician, whom uses hypnosis on his child for part of his act. However, due to these techniques, Lily’s spirit leaves her body and begins wandering around, having developed a will of its own and begins to cause accidents and even try to lead the real Lily to her death.
Watching the episode decades after it originally aired is still a genuinely creepy experience. I recall first seeing it on a dubious DVD set back in 2013 and this episode in particular was from a terrible print which in all honesty, really added to the atmosphere. The ghostly child itself is easily Q’s scariest monster, especially with how playfully it goes about it’s nightly walks, especially with the distorted laughter that accompanies it. The climax of the story where the double tries to lead the real Lily onto the path of an oncoming train is incredibly harrowing, especially since in order to get that shot, they did put the actors in front of a real train.
This episode would be remade faithfully as an episode of Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy, albeit in the remake, Lily is born from sensory deprivation experiments this time around.
PETER
Peter is one of those Q monsters that I feel like I should find boring…but I can’t help but love in all honesty. It helps that Peter shows up in a fantastic episode that I feel like would work even if there was no monster in it, but with Peter added in, it makes an already great episode even better.
Here, Peter is the pet of a boxer named Dynamite Joe. Joe claims his pet lizard has predictive abilities and uses those to learn the outcome of his matches. Peter’s not any ordinary lizard however, as he has the ability to grow to near-human size when out of water. Sadly, Peter perishes in an inferno in the episode’s end. A tragic end for an otherwise harmless creature.
Narita himself stated that he went back on his design principle of not designing a huge animal for a monster, but in all honesty, I don’t think he did a pretty decent job. The design is clearly derived from a chameleon, but it’s not an exact 1:1 which works in Peter’s favor. The suit itself is well constructed and I’m a big fan of the mirrors placed in the monster’s scales, an effect that was done to make the monster’s death more visually interesting.
Peter himself would never return to the series, but the suit would later be altered for the monster Guesra in Ultraman.
TODORA
Yeah, yeah, Todora’s yet another giant animal and sure, that seems quite boring, but lemme assure you, Todora is far from boring. Rather than being just a run of the mill mutation or freak of nature, Todora is something even stranger. The episode’s story features a commercial jet trapped in a strange alternate dimension filled with fog and missing airplanes. Todora is inexplicably the only living resident of this realm which raises a whole bunch of questions. Is Todora the creator of this place? Is he native to it or was he scooped up long ago? The fact he’s a giant walrus as opposed to something more alien in terms of design just makes him even more bizarre.
Todora was yet another Toho derived monster, this time being the Maguma costume from the 1962 science fiction film Gorath, with the only alterations made to the suit were the additions of whiskers. The episode itself was one written early on during development and featured no monsters at all. During subsequent drafts however as the show shifted focus to giant monsters over strange phenomena, Todora was added into the story, explaining why the monster abruptly shows up Sort of a funny coincidence since Maguma himself wasn’t intended to be in Gorath at all originally.
DIFFERENT DIMENSION TRAIN
And our final Q monster isn’t even a monster! This is yet another case of an earlier story from before the show was more monster oriented. Here, the train flies connects to another dimension, supposedly free from the burdens and hardships of everyday life. It’s a fascinating concept for sure and the image of a train flying through the air is one that is incredibly striking.
This episode was to be Q’s final episode to be broadcast, but wasn’t aired during the series’ run, having been replaced by the Birth of Ultraman special to drum up interest for the upcoming new show. It would later be aired for the first time on December 14, 1967 when Ultra Q was rebroadcast.
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