Signs of Life

Signs of Life
Ultraman: Towards the Future, episode 1
Information
Release Date	September 25, 1990 (direct-to-video)
Airdate	January 4, 1992 (US) July 8, 1995 (Japan)
Directed by	Andrew Prowse
Written by	Noboru Aikawa (original draft) Terry Larsen
Continuity
Next	The Hibernator
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Signs of Life is the first episode of Ultraman: Towards the Future. It is also called The Silver Giant in Japan.

Synopsis

Jack Shindo and Stanley Haggard are on a mission to Mars, where they discover a monstrous virus called Gudis who is "destroyed" by a red and silver giant. Stanley is killed while trying to escape, leaving Jack with the giant, Ultraman Great, who merges with him. Back on earth, the Gudis virus mutates a tadpole into the deadly Bogun.

Plot

Jack Shindo and Stanley Haggard are the first men to land on Mars. Upon arriving they are met with none other than the strange alien monster Gudis. As Gudis was slowly moving towards them a giant silver humanoid by the name of Ultraman Great came to the rescue. After Gudis pushed Great aside he killed Stanley as he tried to escape in the ship as Jack was trapped by a rock slide. Great quickly got back up and used Burning Plasma to knock Gudis down. Gudis fell dead by the Burning Plasma's true power, but not before he sent a virus to Earth. To save the humans of Earth Jack had become Great's human host and went to Earth.

The next day, Bogun appeared that was created by the Gudis's virus. Bogun changed his appearance from that of a tadpole to a gigantic brute rampaging through the United States. UMA was sent to destroy it, but only succeeded in annoying Bogun. It wasn't long before Jack used the Delta-Plasma pendant to turn into Ultraman Great. As the two clashed, Great seemed to have the upper hand until Bogun used poison gas. However, the ultra persevered and eventually used Burning Plasma to set Bogun on fire.

Cast

• Jack Shindo: Dore Kraus
• Jean Echo: Gia Carides
• Arthur Grant: Ralph Cotterill
• Kim Shaomin: Grace Parr
• Charles Morgan: Lloyd Morris
• Lloyd Wilder: Rick Adams

Guest Actors

• Stanley Haggard: Jay Hackett

Voice Actors

• Ultraman Great: Matthew O'Sullivan
• Narrator: John Bonney

Japanese Dub

• Jack Shindo: Masaki Kyomoto
• Jean Echo: Yoshiko Sakakibara
• Arthur Grant: Akiji Kobayashi
• Kim Shaomin: Fumi Hirano
• Charles Morgan: Koichi Yamadera
• Lloyd Wilder: Shingo Yanagisawa
• Stanley Haggard: Eizo Tsuda
• Narrator: Hiroshi Fujioka

Suit Actors

• Ultraman Great: Steve Apps and Robert Simper
• Monsters: Mike Read and Johnny Halliday

Appearances

Ultras

• Ultraman Great

Kaiju

• Gudis
• Bogun

Trivia

• During early development, Noboru Aikawa proposed a script for the first episode titled Ultraman Divine Change, with a working title "I Saw a God in the Desert" .. The first draft was submitted on May 12, 1989, followed by a second on May 16. After receiving feedback—likely on the English translation—a third draft was completed on June 30. The final version, slightly revised, was released in Japan as "Phantom of the Desert" .
  • In the original draft, the story was told from a narrator's perspective and focused on Jean's recruitment into UMA. By the third draft, Jean was already an active member.
  • Stanley was originally written to abandon Jack on Mars and later die, but this was changed to show him sacrificing himself so Jack could return to Earth.
  • Terry Larsen's shooting script closely followed the Japanese version but added new material, such as Charles's analysis of the meteor shower and Arthur's suspicion that Ultraman might be a threat—leading him to order UMA to attack.
  • Arthur's final line was originally "God will send a savior…," but in Larsen's version it became "A savior from the stars…," likely to avoid religious references. Some of these changes were later reversed in the Japanese dubbing script to better match the original tone.