Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Samaji Nonagase. Airdate Nov. 13, 1966.
Ultraman has three classic sentient alien villains. We’ve already met Alien Baltan. Twice. Later we’ll meet Alien Mefilas, maker of dark deals. Today we meet Alien Zarab, who wants humanity to believe he’s their pal, the brother from another mother planet who’s looking out for Earth’s best interests — just like the aliens from the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man.” And look how well that turned out.
This episode not only introduces a classic villain, it’s also the first to delve into the concept of the “Evil Ultraman,” which became a running franchise feature. The kids in TV Land wanted to see what would happen if Ultraman fought Ultraman, and here it is. And it’s fun.
Tokyo is choking under a deadly fog, a reflection of Japan’s real-life crisis with air pollution. Professor Morita (Yoshio Tsuchiya) discovers the poison is a type of space dust that will wipe out life in Tokyo in a matter of hours. Then a savior arrives — a silvery alien who identifies himself as a “Zarab from the Eighth Galactic System.” Not only does Alien Zarab remove the killer space dust, he rescues the stranded crew of a Saturn rocket.
Why is Mr. Zarab being so helpful? According to him, it’s because he and his race believe in the peaceful brotherhood of races. But it’s not an equal brotherhood, as Zarab explains to the Science Patrol: humans are the less developed “younger brothers” who may need to learn a few things from the grand wisdom and benevolence of their older space siblings.
Of course, Alien Zarab is lying and up to no good. His condescending attitude, weird laugh, and freakish design where he talks through a pronged hole in the middle of his head are warning enough to the audience and most of the SSSP not to trust him. Zarab soon shows his hand, hypnotizing Ide to do his will and disguising himself as Fuji so he can drug Arashi. Alien Zarab is actually looking to seize control of Earth, but that requires first getting the SSSP and Ultraman out of the way. And the best way to undercut Ultraman is to pretend to be Ultraman and start smashing stuff in public.
So we have our excuse for our Ultraman vs. Ultraman showdown. Alien Zarab disguises himself as “Ultraman Imit” (shortened from Ultraman Imitation), an Ultraman decorated with wicked slanted eyes that will become a common design feature in many future Ultras, and faces off with the real Ultraman. It isn’t the end-all, be-all battle of Ultra-against-Ultra, but it’s a good one with copious amounts of building destruction. You can always tell when Tsuburaya Pro thought they had something big: they made a concerted effort to slam the giant heroes and villains into buildings to give the audiences the thrill of watching urban destruction. The fight doesn’t last long, but the quality makes up for it, and everything with Alien Zarab in the build-up is fantastic. Zarab has the most personality of any alien baddie yet to show up in Ultraman.
This is the first episode where Hoshino is a full-fledged member of the SSSP after his promotion in “Passport to Infinity.” This brings me to my “Hoshino dilemma.” I like this character. He often transcends the kid sidekick role, especially when he has scenes with Fuji, who has an older-sister bond with him. Akihide Tsuzawa is an excellent child actor who showed great dramatic potential in Ultra Q’s “I Saw a Bird.”
But … it was a mistake for the writers to make Hoshino into a Science Patrol member so early in the show’s run. The SSSP is prone to some off-kilter choices, but it’s irresponsible for them to make a middle-schooler into an official member of their dangerous weird-science and monster-fighting elite unit. It would’ve been better to delay Hoshino’s promotion until the last few episodes (which means it would never happen, as Tsuzawa left the show early because of an injury). Or let him remain a civilian mascot.
The script tries to lampshade the oddity of Hoshino in the Science Patrol by having Captain Muramatsu give him the assignment of “staying out of Hayata’s way” and Arashi ordering him to get coffee. But the story pushes Hoshino into the role of saving the day in the episode’s weakest bit, which uses the maudlin device of tears as a deus ex machina.
Yoshio Tsuchiya makes his second Ultra show appearance. His part of Professor Morita was originally planned for Akihiko Hirata’s Professor Iwamoto, but perhaps the actor was busy. Tsuchiya doesn’t have much interesting to do — again. It’s strange that such a fascinating performer ended up playing routine roles in his Ultra show appearances. Watch his performances in Battle in Outer Space, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to see a weird actor truly commit to being weird.
Shin Ultraman remade “Brother From Another Planet” as the second of its four segments and gave Zarab a nifty redesign as a two-dimensional being — which makes it all the easier for people to think, “There’s something phony about this guy.” Whatever hiccups the episode may have (Hoshino’s magic tears that free Hayata from his bonds … sheesh), Zarab and Ultraman Imit make sure we barely remember the stumbles when it’s all done.
Rating: Great
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