Ultra Q

Monsters

Eiji Tsuburaya’s status as a filmmaker and his ties to Toho—which invested in and sat on the board of Tsuburaya Productions—led his crew to order him to raid the prop warehouse for the series. They pulled the large Manda prop for the dragon Kairyu, using its head as the front of a Viking ship in episode 12. The giant octopus from Frankenstein vs. Baragon became Sudar, and the Maguma suit from Gorath was turned into Todola. Other suits were refurbished: Godzilla became Gomess, King Kong became Goro, Baragon became Pagos, and a small mechanical Rodan prop was stripped and rebuilt as the bird monsters Litra and Largeus.

English dub

In 1967, Ultra Q was licensed from Tsuburaya and TBS by CBS Films, producers of The Twilight Zone. For the task of dubbing, CBS hired Film House in Toronto, Canada, what is now DeLuxe Toronto. Tsuburaya provided translated scripts, plus English language opening and closing credits, and a custom, swirling title-card. The series itself was dubbed in its 28-episode entirety.

At some point, CBS Films backed out of licensing the series, and it was picked up, along with Ultraman, by United Artists Television, producers of The Outer Limits. Subsequently, United Artists Television hired Titra Studios to dub Ultraman. Ultraman was syndicated, however, Ultra Q was not, due to being in black-and-white at a time when most television was switching to color. After Ultraman finished its run in syndication, audio and film masters, and other materials, for both series went into storage, eventually finding their way into the MGM vaults, after MGM acquired United Artists in 1980.

Initially it was commonly believed, even by Tsuburaya Productions, that only one episode, Episode 3 ("Gift From Outer Space"), was dubbed into English as a pilot. Over the last decade, other episodes have been discovered in the hands of U.S. private collectors on the 16mm film format.

Production

The original concept of the show (when it was going to be called Unbalance) was ultimately used for a 13-episode horror anthology series entitled Horror Theater Unbalance that was produced by Tsuburaya Productions in 1973. Various Ultra Q monsters were reused or redressed for various monsters in Ultraman.

Kemur and Ragon (both of them now giant-sized) returned, while the Garamon suit was reused and repaired to serve as Pigmon. Other suits were altered to play other monsters, such as Pegulia being altered into Chandlar, Kemur being altered into Alien Zetton, Pagos being altered into Neronga (and later Magular and Gabora), while the head of the Cicada Human was modified to become the head of Alien Baltan. Finally, Peter's suit was modified to become that of Guesra.

Home media

In 2013, Tsuburaya Productions and Bandai Visual released the series on Blu-ray, in monochrome and colorized editions. In 2018, Tsuburaya released four episodes in individual Blu-ray and DVD sets with newly produced special features, as part of their Ultraman Archives project. In November 2019, Tsuburaya released a 4K restoration of the series on Ultra HD Blu-ray. In August 2013, Shout!

Factory released the series on DVD. In July 2019, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that it had acquired most of the Ultra series library from Tsuburaya Productions through Indigo Entertainment, including 1,100 TV episodes and 20 films. Mill Creek released the series on Blu-ray and digital on October 15, 2019, in standard and steelbook sets. In July 2020, Shout!

Factory announced to have struck a multi-year deal with Alliance Entertainment and Mill Creek, with the blessings of Tsuburaya and Indigo, that granted them the exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights to the Ultra series and films (1,100 TV episodes and 20 films) acquired by Mill Creek the previous year. Ultra Q, amongst other titles, will stream in the United States and Canada through Shout! Factory TV and Tokushoutsu.