(First Aired: April 2, 1967)
Screenplay by: Shozo Uehara
Directed by: Hajime Tsuburaya
At a NASA institute, a group of scientists are watching an exploration robot’s eyeview of the newly discovered planet Qnote . The robot is under command of the space station V2, and all is going swimmingly. Then the robot catches a gigantic insectoid eye directly in front of its camera. The monster eye closes its eyelids very slowly. When the eye reopens, a powerful flash of light hits every man watching the screen, temporarily blinding them. Science Patrol are among the viewers and receive a call from NASA. The flash of light has also destroyed NASA’s communications with V2, so Science Patrol has been assigned to see if the V2 astronauts are fine.
After twenty-eight hours of fairly uneventful spaceflight, Science Patrol arrives at V2. The team docks their NASA-lent spaceship, Shiratori, and soon finds the V2 crew all suffering from a temporary but severe blindness. As Fuji takes care of the astronauts, Muramatsu speaks to them. They reveal that the flash of light was so strong that V2’s systems are all severely damaged. The worst damage was done to the BM fuse, which is causing V2’s computers to dangerously overheat to the point that it could cause V2 to explode in twenty-four hours! As they are too far away to head back to Earth for a replacement BM fuse, Ide suggests that they retrieve one from the exploration robot on Kodon, which has three BM fuses and, ideally, only one should have been destroyed by the mysterious eye flash. However, a round trip takes twenty hours, the time to fix the damages takes two hours, meaning the stay on Kodon should last one hour and Science Patrol has no time to waste.
Muramatsu, Hayata, Arashi, and Ide rush back to Shiratori to head for Q, while Fuji stays to tend to the astronauts. When they arrive on Kodon, their first sight is two monsters battling each other on the rocky wastes. The monsters in question are the waddling, lizard-like Saigo and Kiyla, a bipedal mix of a woodlouse and a dinosaur with huge glowing compound eyes. Saigo’s blasts of sand from its mouth do not bother Kiyla, who responds by closing its eyes slowly and emitting powerful flashes of light upon reopening, making it evident who was behind the mysterious light flashes. The blinded Saigo begins to tunnel through Q’s dusty soil, fleeing from Kiyla’s wrath. Science Patrol keeps their attention on the search though.
On Kodon’s surface, Muramatsu, Hayata, Arashi, and Ide (wearing spacesuits, of course) move quickly by piloting a crawler vehicle. The crawler gets stuck in a ditch about 6 miles from the explorer robot’s location though. The team’s attempts to get it out attract the tunneling Saigo, who bursts from the earth to lumber towards the vehicle. Saigo’s prey isn’t helpless though, as a volley of freeze missiles blast the beast turning it to ice and causing the monster to shatter underneath its own size. Saigo’s blasts of sand end up creating the extra ground the crawler needs to escape the ditch, so the team carries on.
The explorer robot is soon sighted, so Arashi and Ide get out to retrieve the BM fuse. As Ide carefully removes the BM fuse, Arashi spots Kiyla towering over the crags behind them and recognizes its eyes as the one that attacked the robot's camera. Some communication with Muramatsu determines that the monster is to be ignored, even if it is the one behind the flashes. Ide finally extracts the BM fuse, but panics upon noticing Kiyla. Kiyla moves in to attack, so Arashi begins to fire. Kiyla responds with its eye flashes, blinding Arashi and forcing Ide to escort him to the safety of the crawler. Kiyla marches towards the fleeing vehicle, blocking off its only path with a rockslide formed by smashing some nearby formations. Out of choices, Muramatsu, Hayata, and Ide exit the vehicle, leaving the visually-hindered Arashi behind.
As Hayata fires away at Kiyla, Ide and Muramatsu climb the craggy peaks of planet Q. Shiratori is still a good distance away, so Muramatsu takes a risk. He convinces Ide to let the oxygen out of their spacesuits’ tanks, as the incredible force of the copious amounts of escaping air will push them through the sky like jetpacks towards Shiratori. Miraculously, it works, but Kiyla has taken notice of the two and is now walking towards Shiratori. Hayata decides to save the team by becoming Ultraman!
Ultraman soars into the fray, saving Shiratori from Kiyla’s massive foot before wrestling the alien beast. Kiyla’s eye flashes prove to be capable of blinding even Ultraman though. To make matters worse, the monster is unharmed by the Specium Ray or the Ultra Slash. With his standard abilities useless, Ultraman switches to his Ultra Psychokinesis. Paralyzing Kiyla and lifting it into the air, he floats the monster into space, killing it. Shiratori (with Ide and Muramatsu inside) has already left Kodon by this point and is well on its way to V2.
At V2, the BM fuse is replaced and everything is fixed with no problems. Hayata and a still-blind Arashi are picked up from Q by Ide and Muramatsu afterwards. After some much-needed relaxation with the astronauts, Science Patrol heads back to Earth, though Arashi would remain blinded for the next six hours.
Tropes:
- Diving Save: Ultraman saves the Shiratori from Kiyla by ramming into the monster full speed before it can crush the spacecraft under its foot.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kiyla has literal ones, as they can emit intense light that can cause explosions and blind its opponents.
- Jump Jet Pack: Muramatsu and Ide make an improvised one by letting the oxygen out of their spacesuit's tanks in order to clear a jump from a peak towards Shiratori.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: None of Ultraman's usual finishers work on Kiyla, so Ultraman uses his Ultra Psychokinesis to defeat it.
- Recycled with a Gimmick: The episode's plot is essentially recycled from "The Lawless Monster Zone", but with the setting changed to an alien planet.
