Directed by Toshitsugu Suzuki. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo. Airdate Nov. 12, 1967.
Another hostile alien has come to Earth. Not to conquer, just to kill. An alien murderer from an otherwise peaceful race has escaped from a prison on its homeworld. Now it’s landed on Earth to guzzle gasoline, strangle a few innocent people, and find another escape route before it’s caught.
We have an interesting slant here: a serial killer story with the Ultra Guard acting as law enforcement officers trying to track down an alien serial killer. It promises a change in scope but no lessening of suspense. Ultra shows often use this sort of tonal shift for leaner episodes that don’t require the Earth teetering on the edge of annihilation.
This episode, however, burns up in the atmosphere. “Space Prisoner 303” is one of the least interesting scripts from Tetsuo Kinjo, and the execution is weirdly lackluster considering the general high quality of the show. It’s one of the worst episodes of Ultraseven and the best (i.e. worst) example of Tsuburaya Productions’ early fumbling trying to establish the show’s style. No big monster fight, hardly any Ultraseven, a focus on human drama — these are ideas TsuPro was trying to make work as regular features of the new show. Often they succeeded. But it all goes wrong here.
What exactly doesn’t work? I can condense it to three main problems:
1. The alien looks dopey
The fugitive Alien Quraso, a.k.a. Prisoner 303, has an awkward large head with shifting googly eyes and resembles a turnip. It has the intimidating presence of a mascot for a minor league baseball team. Perhaps this was meant to show that the alien race is friendly even if Prisoner 303 isn’t, but the effect fails for me. I need some sense of a threat when I look at this thing. But when Prisoner 303 starts to suck gasoline straight from the pump nozzle, I just can’t find anything frightening about it.
2. The pacing lacks tension
The episode opens with a standard horror setup: hunters in the woods killed by an unknown creature. (Actually, only one hunter dies.) That’s a decent start, even if the tiny toy spaceship the alien arrived in looks silly. But the events and suspense never ratchet up. Even Prisoner 303 pulling a home invasion on a suburban family fails to wake up the episode. The Ultra Guard acting as basic police officers makes them boring as well. The UG members are good spies and action heroes, but poor police investigators. Seeing the Ultra Guard “bravely” blow up a spaceship the size of a kids’ toy is more pathetic than exciting.
3. The ending is dull
How can a manhunt story pull off a thrilling climax that’s also satisfying for a show with an epic science-fiction backdrop? Tetsuo Kinjo had a good script idea: an aerial pursuit. Prisoner 303 kidnaps Anne and takes off in one of the stages of Ultra Hawk 1, and the rest of the Ultra Guard have to give chase and force a docking maneuver. Once again, the execution flops. The pacing is bad, the staging and editing are unexciting. I’d prefer that Anne, one of the most interesting characters, not be used as unconscious rescue bait, but these are the hazards of ’60s TV. Ultraseven makes a ten-second appearance to do nothing. The story could have skipped him entirely, which is a problem for a show called Ultraseven.
On the other hand…
If I can rally up one positive, it’s the theme of the TDF and Ultra Guard working in alliance with an alien race. Alien Quraso requests Earth’s help and then sends a message of thanks once Prisoner 303 is stopped. The narration suggests possible future cooperation between planets. That’s an interesting change from the usual state of Earth on constant aggressive alert against any aliens whatsoever. But it’s a minor event: we never see any other Alien Quraso aside from the killer, nor will the race ever reappear.
I also got a good laugh from the caucasian woman who wanders into the gas station to be a victim. She’s obviously dubbed by a Japanese actress who does a hilariously high-pitched and cartoonish voice.
I suspect this is where children started to tune out of Ultraseven during its initial run. There’s not much here to interest them, and the episode can’t even make an impression as scary. The adults who stayed around, however, were about to see the show truly blast-off.
Rating: Poor
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