Written and Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Airdate Feb. 11, 1968.
Professor Miyabe (Akiji Nomura) has invented a magnetic defense barrier, Project Blue, that will shield both Earth and the Moon from the barrage of alien invasions happening on a weekly basis. (At this point, the Ultra Guard is so familiar with these invasions that they know the preferred routes aliens take when launching attacks.) But Alien Bado, self-proclaimed “Emperor of the Universe,” is not going to have some Terrestrial Defense Barrier hinder their plot to explode Earth and eradicate the potentially deadly human race. The aliens covertly park their spaceship under Professor Miyabe’s home and kidnap him, threatening to murder his wife Grace (Linda Mabrey) if he doesn’t surrender the plans for Project Blue.
This episode shifts Ultraseven back to the smaller-scale thrillers from earlier in the show’s run. A good section of the action follows Prof. Miyabe discovering the Alien Bado craft beneath his house — no idea how the aliens pulled this off without anyone noticing — and then his wife moving around the home searching for him while Alien Bado plots to kill her. It’s paced deliberately, aiming for tension, and mostly succeeds. Director Samaji Nonagase clearly did his Hitchcock homework.
Because the bulk of the episode is a suspense piece about a home invasion, the Ultra Guard has a reduced role until the last third. The pressure was still on Tsuburaya Productions to put action spectacle in the show to attract younger viewers, so the climax goes for a giant monster fight that doesn’t match the lower-key tone elsewhere. This doesn’t distract too much from what’s an otherwise well-paced and plotted alien threat story. The Seven vs. Giant Alien Bado battle is a solid work of kaiju fistifcuffs, even if it means Alien Bado has to drop its premise of being a sneaky plotter and just transforms into a pugilist who uses spiked brass knuckles. Lots of gut-punching goes on; it’s odd.
There are some hang-out scenes with the Ultra Guard during the first half where the members drop exposition about Project Blue, Furuhashi complains about having nothing exciting to do, and Cap. Kiriyama contemplates how peaceful everything will be once Earth has permanently locked out those pesky aliens. Amagi and Soga are absent, up on the Moon doing part of the work for Project Blue. This leaves the investigation of Miyabe’s house in the climax to Dan and Anne, and that’s an on-screen pairing I’ll always get behind.
Matching the focus on suspense, about half of Seven’s screen time has him at human size. It looks funny to see Seven stomping around a modern house, but the special effect of him passing through a mirror that acts as a doorway into Alien Bado’s spaceship is a good one. Anne tries to follow him the second time he uses the mirror, and the effect achieved through editing and in-camera trickery is smoothly executed.
Alien Bado has a bomb capable of destroying Earth already on their ship, so they actually didn’t need to discover a way to destroy the Project Blue barrier. Maybe they were worried about being able to make their escape through the barrier afterwards, but it’s unclear. Director Nonagase was apparently aware of this logical lapse and defended it as an example of Alien Bado acting impulsive and myopic. Any alien race who unironically declares itself “Emperor of the Universe” may not have the most rational thinking, so I can accept this justification. I like most of what happens in the episode, making it easier to shrug and say, “Not every invader thinks these things through completely.”
Unsurprisingly, the Project Blue protective barrier doesn’t show up in future episodes. Similar to the personal defense shield Ide created in the Ultraman episode “Cry of the Mummy,” Project Blue is simply never mentioned again. That type of technology would wreck Ultraseven’s premise: no invaders could get through to attack Earth! Maybe the defense barrier just didn’t work out, meaning Alien Bado put themselves through all this trouble for nothing. Well, the director did say they were impulsive.
Rating: Good
Previous: Escape Dimension X
Next: Destroy Earthquake Epicenter X
The Ultra Project 