Hello everyone! Sailor Q once again to take you on a fabulous journey through the world of Ultraman! Today we have episode 3 of the series, "Charge Forth, Science Patrol" ! So let's get to it then!!

So we open up with a shot of a beautiful Japanese Castle and Fuji is coming down the stairs with....*sigh*...Hoshino. Ends up there are some weird noises coming from a well there and it's not the cries of help from Timmy either. Hoshino, being the smart boy that he is, decides to climb down it to see what the heck is going on. Fuji, realizing that the kid is monumentally stupid, climbs down after him, just in time for an earth quake to strike, burying the entrance. Oh did I mention Hoshino also sees a giant eye down there, cause he does. ANYWAY!

During this, we see the nearby power plant get destroyed by something invisible and apparently shoot lightening. Back in the well, Hoshino and Fuji find water and immediately assume that it will lead them out. Ok ok, the guide from earlier did mention it was connected to the sea, but still that's a pretty big thing to assume there! Back at HQ, the men of the science patrol discuss the destruction of the power plant and that one of the works saw a monster. They realize that's where Fuji and Hoshino went and immediately strip....down to their uniforms.

We cut back to the sea where we learn that Fuji was saved (yay) and so was Hoshino (boo). The captain interviews one of the workers, who declares the monster must be eating electricity cause that's what invisible monsters do of course. Interviewing Fuji and Hoshino, they all start to draw the same conclusion: ELECTRICITY PIRATES! No no...of course it's a monster and they manage to see it soon after this.

Use Lightning Bolt! It's not very effective...

Arashi bravely decides to take the monster head on and of course is shocked stupid by it. After draining the power plant, the monster walks away, leaving Hayata to make the genius observation "when it sucks out the power it turns invisible. What a monster!" OUR HERO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

Once more back at HQ, they all try and come up with plans to deal with the monster, Ide coming up with the plan to starve it and everyone calling him a dumbass for it. Fuji and Hoshino shows up and Hoshino reveals himself as the Wesley of this episode, revealing the monster to be Neronga and that it has been around since the samurai era. How he learned all this in such a short amount of time who knows. Maybe he can talk to fish? They decide to go and protect the last power plant in the era, not noticing Hoshino has stolen a gun and climbed onboard their plane. Again...where is this kid's parents? At the power plant, they suddenly realize Hoshino is there and go looking for the stupid suicidal know it all. Neronga shows up and starts attacking the plant as expected.

Wow. Sure looks happy there.

During the attack, he throws a boat over the side of a hill...where it came from who the hell knows. HOSHINO TO THE RESCUE!!! It goes about as well as you can expect. He fires at the monster, somehow managing to blow out one of its eyes. The gun then loses power and Hoshino manages to knock himself out by simply tripping. Hayata decides to show the kid how it's done by...running towards the monster.

Is everyone on this team suicidal for some odd reason? Anyway, Hayata transforms into Ultraman and shows off his badassness by taking a blast from Neronga to the chest.

BAD..ASS

Ultraman manages to pummel the rather plump monster good, breaking off it's horn, tossing it around a bit and then blowing it up with his Specium Ray and I mean really good, with chunks flying everywhere. We end on a happy note with the entire team smiling and flying off into the sunset and talking about how they can't believe they fought a monster even thought that's their entire job.

Sailor Q's Thoughts

Coming after both the first episode which introduced Ultraman in the first place as well as the awesome second episode with Baltan-Seijin, it is easy to think of episode 3 as being nothing more than just another mediocre story. In fact, episode 3 is the first story to really cement the formula that would be used in all subsequent episodes. The formula goes something like this:

1.       Something strange occurs, often while a patrol member is at the location

2.       Monster/Alien shows up

3.       Patrol tries to come up with some way to stop the monster and fails

4.       Ultraman shows up and defeats monster, ending the threat

Other noteworthy facts about this episode is the source of Neronga's costumes. To the sharp eye of any kaiju fan, the dorsal fins of the monster may seem familiar. This is because the Neronga costume is simply a redressed version of the Baragon costume, as seen in the film Frankenstein Conquers the World. This costume would be reworked and reused so much on Ultraman, in fact, that by the time it was time to use it on the film Destroy All Monsters, it was pretty much completely destroyed. Another interesting fact is that the man inside the monster costume was none other than Haruo Nakajima, the original man in the Godzilla suit. Other than this, the episode's story is pretty straight forward, with the only other thing that it provides is one of the first instances of spotlighting Hoshino among the rest of the group.

What you learn from Ultraman

·         Always run up to invisible lightening shooting monsters. You're sure to get shocking developments.

·         Super guns only hold a ten second charge.

Next time on Sailor Q's Ultra World, we visit the warm sunny shores of Chiba and get terrorized by another recycled monster costume! Next time is Episode 4 "Five Seconds before the Explosion" Seeya then!