Ultra Q

Ultra Q (ウルトラＱ - Urutora Kyû) is a tokusatsu SF/kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films.

Produced in B&W by Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from January 2 to July 3, 1966 (the final episode was preempted until December 14, 1967), with a total of 28 episodes. This series was followed a week later by the more popular Ultraman, the second Ultra Series.

Ultra Q can be described as a half-hour Toho kaiju film. Although series creator Eiji Tsuburaya intended this series to be more like The Twilight Zone and focus less on the monsters, TBS convinced Eiji to add more monsters onto the show, as Godzilla and Gamera were very popular at the time (the first "Kaiju Boom" was already born). This series predates The X-Files, as it is a show with continuing characters who investigate strange supernatural phenomena, be it giant monsters, aliens, ghosts, and other assorted calamities.

Regarding the monsters, some of them were modified versions of Toho movie monsters (since Eiji owned the costumes). They include Godzilla (as "Gomess" in Episode 1, "Defeat Gomess!"), King Kong (as "Goro" in Episode 2, "Goro and Goro"), Manda (as "Mystic Dragon" in Episode 6, "Fly, Turtle!"), Baragon (as "Pagos" in Episode 18, "The Rainbow Egg"), Magma (as Todola in Episode 27, "Flight 206 Vanishes"), and the Giant Octopus from King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) (as "Sudar" in Episode 23, "Rage in the South Seas").

The original planned title of this project was UNBALANCE, and was subsequently renamed Ultra Q (inspired by "Oba-Q", the nickname of the title character of the then-popular anime series Obake no Q-Taro, and "Ultra C", a popular term used for women's gymnastics during the 1964 Summer Olympics, where a Russian gymnast created an extremely difficult maneuver called the "Ultra C"). The series was produced beforehand all through 1965 (it went in production as far back as 1964) and was broadcast at the beginning of the next year. At the time, this was the most expensive TV series in Japan. (Wikipedia)