Aboard Space Station V3, agent Mizuno receives multiple transmissions from an alien source, but has been unable to decipher them. Meanwhile, two hunters find a small, single passenger alien spacecraft in the woods and are attacked by the fish-eyed, gas drinking alien traveling inside. Upon transcribing the messages, it turns out the monster is a murderous fugitive escaped from an intergalactic prison known as Alien Quraso. The Ultra Guard members and local police seek him out before the beast can kill more people. After the monster kidnaps Anne and hijacks one of the ships that make up the Ultra Hawk 1, the chase is on.
This episode was actually the eighth produced after the official start of the series' filming.
In this episode, Dan transforms into Ultraseven to escape, but there are no battle scenes. Ultraseven's appearance is limited to the transformation sequence and three brief shots, totaling only seven seconds.
In response to a viewer's question about whether this was the shortest appearance of Ultraseven in the entire series, and if there were any network requirements for minimum screen time, director Kazuho Mitsuta clarified, "There were no such rules. When we made Ultraman, we explicitly stated that battle scenes would last three minutes. As a result, children actually timed them with stopwatches and even sent letters about it. So, when we produced Ultraseven, we decided not to impose such restrictions."[2]
In Shinichi Ichikawa's novel My Beloved Ultraseven, a scene depicts TBS producer Mikuni furious after reading the script for "The Stolen Ultra Eye" due to the lack of battle scenes, declaring it "completely unacceptable." This incident is based on real events, though it occurred during the production of this episode, not episode 37. Mikuni's character is inspired by TBS producers Toshimichi Miwa (70%) and Yoji Hashimoto (30%).[3]
Early in Ultraseven's production, Miwa trusted the series' quality based on Ultraman's success and did not strictly review scripts. However, upon seeing the rough cut (or learning about the shooting progress), he was shocked to find that the episode concluded with Dan escaping after transforming into Ultraseven, without any intense battles. Miwa strongly protested to Tetsuo Kinjo and the production team, warning, "If this continues, kids will stop watching Ultraseven!" Consequently, following Takeda Pharmaceutical's suggestion, the team filmed the two-part episode "The Ultra Guard Goes West: Part 1" and "Part 2," which featured extensive battle scenes.
Ichikawa, who witnessed Miwa's passionate protest, later adapted this experience into his script. Interestingly, Hashimoto, who joined the production later, did not object to "The Stolen Ultra Eye."
Dan's line after witnessing Alien Quraso's self-destruction—"Even in the vastness of space, you have nowhere to run, Alien Quraso. But I'd say you reap what you sow. In space and on Earth, justice is the same." was ad-libbed on set and not part of the original script.
The female customer at the gas station was played by Shirley Sprecks, not Cathy Horan as credited. Initially, Horan was set to play the role, but Sprecks replaced her just before filming. The credits were not updated accordingly, and the original script had this character merely passing by Alien Quraso without any interaction.[4]
The gas station employee at "Route 36" was portrayed by Yasuhiko Saijo, who previously played Ippei Togawa, one of the main characters in Ultra Q.
The "Route 36" gas station where Alien Quraso steals gasoline was an actual Idemitsu Kosan station.
The Idemitsu Kosan station featured in the episode is located near Jindaiji in Chofu. Situated at the center of a five-way intersection, the station still operates under Idemitsu and remains in business to this day.[5][6]
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