Directed by Samaji Nonagase. Written by Tetsuo Kinjo and Ryu Minamikawa. Airdate Jan. 29, 1967.
After a string of great episodes, Ultraman was due for something on the routine side. When Goldon, a gold-consuming monster, bursts from the side of Mt. Otayama only seconds into the episode, it signals that “Challenge to the Underground” is going to be fairly standard monster-centric material. Which it is, but the average Ultraman episode is still a decent time.
As monsters of the week go, Goldon makes par: a quadruped dinosaur creature that has eaten so much gold that it’s now made out of precious ore. It’s responsible for destroying the gold deposits of the once mineral-rich Mt. Otayama, and now it’s threatening to destroy the town near the mountain with its rampage.
The star of the episode isn’t the monster, however. It’s Ide’s newly unveiled invention, the first drill vehicle in Ultra history: the Subterrene Vellucidar. When Captain Kiriyama declares that the SSSP will take the battle against Goldon underground to avoid more casualties, he and Ide hop into the Vellucidar and drill into the mountain to find the golden kaiju. The rest of the Science Patrol remains above ground to rescue the people in the town.
The drilling expedition doesn’t go as planned. After Goldon damages the Vellucidar, the drill malfunctions and starts boring out of control. The locked downward course threatens to cook Ide, the captain, and a crazed miner they found in an underground pocket of the mountain.
The Vellucidar is the main draw of the episode, and that’s not good news: as far as Science Patrol tech goes, it’s mediocre. The design is basic, and the model is too small to create any feeling of weight as it bores through the earth and confronts Goldon.
Ide’s drill machine may not spark much excitement, but Ide and Muramatsu put in a lot of work to bolster the tension. This is the second episode in a row where Captain Muramatsu gets to play the main hero as he and Ide drill into the center of the action. Ide again shows that, for all his levity, he’s the most reliable member of the Science Patrol. He has ingenious solutions and never gives up. It’s a pleasure seeing the two men work together: the episode highlight is a simple but effectively directed scene of Ide and Muramatsu struggling in the crushed Vellucidar to launch one last torpedo to force Goldon to the surface.
There’s not much tension or drama elsewhere. Goldon’s threat to the town never feels immediate; we don’t see the monster doing much damage. Goldon does manage to injure Fuji, annoyingly putting her out of the action again. This happens just to force Arashi to fly her to the hospital and leave Hayata behind to do his Ultraman thing on his own.
The Ultraman-Goldon fight is decent, although it plays like the off-brand version of the fight with Dodongo in “Cry of the Mummy,” with Ultraman spending a lot of the battle riding Goldon’s back. Ultraman does devise a clever method for turning the tables on the monster that doesn’t rely on any of his special attacks.
There’s a great dramatic gift in the episode that isn’t explored enough, and that’s Yamamoto, the miner. He originally discovered the gold deposits in the mountain and therefore feels entitled to all the gold in Goldon’s body. Yamamoto’s gold lust and time underground have turned him into a brain-fevered lunatic who briefly threatens to derail the SSP’s operation. But the story soon forgets about the character. He doesn’t get a full arc, and his claim to the gold isn’t even mentioned in the finale.
There was real potential here, especially since the actor who plays Yamamoto is Senkichi Omura, a fascinating performer with a long career that includes films from Ishiro Honda (he’s the translator in King Kong vs. Godzilla) and Akira Kurosawa. Omura appeared in several Ultra shows, mostly prominently as the panda merchandise-stealing alien from Ultraman Ace’s episode “Return the Panda!” Omura brings the right level of madness to Yamamoto, so it’s disappointing that he doesn’t have a bigger impact on the story. His role is to deliver the background on Goldon and then irritate Ide and Muramatsu. Omura and the viewers deserved more.
Although the Vellucidar wasn’t a smashing success, Ultraseven would fix the defense team’s drill-deficiency. They introduced the impressively built Magma Riser in “Underground Go! Go! Go!” and “Destroy Earthquake Epicenter X.” The latter episode feels like the improved version of “Challenge to the Underground” with a similar story focused on a drill machine in peril but with the special effects that do it justice.
Rating: Mediocre
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