Written and Directed by Toshihiro Iijima.* Airdate July 24, 1966.
The second Ultraman episode aired, although the first shot, starts with comic character Ide breaking the fourth wall to address the TV audience. He wants to explain how he got his black eye. We flashback to hear the story — which has almost nothing to do with Ide’s black eye and everything to do with the first full alien invasion of the Ultra Series. These invasions would happen with some, uhm, frequency throughout the rest of the franchise. The fourth-wall breaking is not as common, but Ultraman is already training its viewers to expect the unexpected.
The invaders are Alien Baltan, who’ve remained the most famous Seijun in Ultra history. Designed from the Cicada Human costume in the Ultra Q episode “Garamon Strikes Back,” the Baltans have a fantastic Tohl Narita design that’s quintessential Tsuburaya Pro style. They have a deep, frightening laugh that’s also become iconic. They may not be a fully destructive race, something that has come up in subsequent appearances, particularly a two-part Ultraman Max episode. In this episode we learn Alien Baltan’s original home was destroyed due to the nuclear experiments of a mad scientist. This history gives the race some pathos.
Alien Baltan has the familiar invasion plan of taking over the Earth to find a new home for their displaced population. However, only one member of the species is currently awake and moving about, with the remaining two billion asleep in microscopic size aboard their ship. It’s possible this Alien Baltan is a psychopathic jerk who’s working on his own. He does mention that the only reason he came to Earth was to get a diode to fix the Baltan spaceship, making it possible that he independently decided, “Sure, this is the planet we’ll conquer!” This makes Ultraman’s actions in the finale a bit … questionable. Later episodes would confront the fate of Ultraman’s monster opponents and show sympathy for them, but I’m afraid Alien Baltan is out of luck for showing up so early.
Contradicting Ultraman’s unilateral move against the Alien Baltan population, the rest of the episode has the SSSP willing to communicate and negotiate with alien visitors. They aren’t specifically a monster and alien-elimination group the way later defense teams are. Captain Muramatsu stands up to Self-Defense Force officers who are eager to start firing nuclear missiles at the Baltan ship, and Hayata is initially open to letting Alien Baltan settle peacefully on Earth. (Then he learns there are 2.03 billion of them … maybe this affected Ultraman’s choice?)
The episode is appropriately eerie. The stalking scenes inside the Science Center and Alien Baltan’s holographic trickery and echoing laughter set up the weird tone of the many alien invasion scenarios to come. Ide hams it up a lot during these scenes with his stuttering cowardice and excuses not to take action, but it never throws the suspense completely off. Unfortunately, the episode’s climactic confrontation between the giant Alien Baltan and Ultraman is an underwhelming aerial fight. Since this was the first episode shot, the anticlimax may be due to the crew’s uncertainty about what type of fight they wanted to stage. Or maybe it was a budget problem.
The framing device with Ide talking to the audience and failing to explain his black eye is an odd move so early in the show’s run, but it establishes the creative team’s willingness to color outside the box and make strange narrative moves, not just strange monsters and aliens. It doesn’t quite work, nor is this Ide’s finest hour. First time viewers may want to see less of him based on all his mugging. I can understand that, but I like seeing actor Manasari Nihei going all-in. He’s a natural at this type of comedy. Stay tuned: Ide has surprises in store for future episodes. As does the creative team.
Alien Baltan will return in ep. 16, “Science Patrol Into Space”! They’ll get a better send-off this time.
Rating: Good
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Next: Science Patrol, Move Out
* Credited writer “Kitao Senzoku” is the pseudonym of director Toshihiro Iijima.
The Ultra Project 