1990 - Ultraman : Towards the Future ~ Fiction Movies & Series

Ultraman: Towards the Future, released in Japan as Ultraman Great, is a Japanese Australian tokusatsu television show co-produced by Tsuburaya Productions and the South Australian Film Corporation. It is the 10th show in the Ultra series, the first Ultraman show to be produced during Japan's Heisei period, and the first Australian-produced Ultraman show: the first production in the franchise to be entirely filmed outside of Japan. Despite being co-produced by an Australian studio and filmed in Australia.

Plot

Jack Shindo and Stanley Haggard are members of the first manned expedition to Mars, and on the red planet find a giant slug-like monster, Goudes/Gudis. Suddenly the giant warrior, Ultraman, arrives and fights Goudes, but is knocked down for a period. Shindo is pinned by a rockslide and Haggard tries to escape in their ship but is blown up by Goudes. It is then that Ultraman gets up, and when he is on the verge of victory Goudes changes into a virus and travels to Earth, where it plans on corrupting all life, mutating other creatures into monsters and awakening existing ones. Needing a human host to survive on Earth, Ultraman joins with Jack, allowing him to become the mighty alien when all seems lost. He joins the Universal Multipurpose Agency, or UMA, in order to help them battle the monsters.

Publication Information

Title : Ultraman : Towards the Future
Japanese : ウルトラマンG（グレート）
Known as : Ultraman Great
No of seasons : 1
No of episodes : 13
Written by :
- Shō Aikawa
- Hidenori Miyazawa
- Chiaki Konaka
- Akinori Endo
- Satoshi Suzuki
- Terry Larsen
Directed by : Andrew Prowse
Theme music composer : Shinsuke Kazato
Composer : Shinsuke Kazato
Executive producer : Noboru Tsuburaya
Producer :
- Kiyoshi Suzuki
- Sue Wild
Cinematography : Paul Dallwitz
Editor :
- Richard Hindley
- Nicholas Holmes
Running time : 25 mins
Production company :
- South Australian Film Corporation
- Tsuburaya Productions
Distributor :
- New World International
- Sachs Family Entertainment
- Bandai Visual
Original network :
- First-run syndication
- Tokyo Broadcasting System
Country of origin :
- Australia
- Japan
Release Date :
- United States : 4 January - 28 March 1992
- Japan : 8 July - 30 September 1995

Halfway through the series Goudes reappears, more powerful than before. It imprisons Ultraman, but Jack distracts it by ultimately showing it the futility of its mission. Even if it does manage to corrupt all life, eventually there will be nothing else to corrupt. The distraction allows Ultraman to break free and destroy Goudes once and for all. For the rest of the series the environmental themes are stronger and the monsters usually arise from human pollution.

In the series finale, a doomsday scenario begins with the appearance of three powerful monsters: Kilazee, Kodalar, and the Earth itself, which tries to wipe out the human race for abusing it. Ultraman is defeated by Kodalar, but Jack survives. Ultimately the humans use an ancient disc to destroy Kodalar by reflecting its own power at it and Ultraman defeats Kilazee and carries it into space, separating Jack from him and restoring him on Earth as a normal human. The victory is seen as another chance for the human race.

Episodes

Signs of Life
- Japanese subtitle : The Silver Giant
The Hibernator
- Japanese subtitle : The Frozen Dragon
The Child's Dream
- Japanese subtitle : Charming Boy
The Storm Hunter
- Japanese subtitle : Wind of Deganja
Blast from the Past"
- Japanese subtitle : "Message from a Nightmare
The Showdown"
- Japanese subtitle : Showdown with a Nightmare
The Forest Guardian
- Japanese subtitle : Guardian Deity of the Forest
Bitter Harvest
- Japanese subtitle : Formless Revenge -Cries of Insects
The Biospherians
- Japanese subtitle : The Bios Plan - Plant City -"
Tourists from the Stars
- Japanese subtitle : Alien Rhapsody
The Survivalists
- Japanese subtitle : The 47th Hanger
The Age of Plagues
- Japanese subtitle : It's Name Was Destruction" - 2 Legendary Monsters Appear-"
Nemesis
- Japanese subtitle : Eternal Hero - 2 Legendary Monsters Appear-