Probably the most small-scaled episode of Ultraseven, Space Captive 303 can be regarded as Tsuburaya’s take on an early mass-murder slasher film. What makes it a bit of a black sheep for the series is how nearly all the show’s humanoid aliens have some sort of plan in mind. Some sinister intention to exploit humanity or wipe it out to suit their desires for this flourishing planet. This episode, however, shows a completely new side of extra-terrestrials. The nemesis is no mastermind with a clever use of technology, but a near-total savage monster who roams and kills people with his bare hands for no reason other than a mentally-ill hostility.
While its good to see Tsuburaya show a very creative variety with alien behaviour and how some simply cannot be communicated with, it becomes clear why this sort of plot dies out after this one entrée. Although it brings a simplicity unlike anything else in the show that completely focuses on tension and the capabilities to this obscure fiend, it’s a barebones murder vs justice trope that has some terribly-aged suspense and a predictable execution, making it a very hit-and-miss sci-fi romp.
One thing noteworthy is that it's the episode to introduce Space Station V3, an orbital satellite base of the Ultra Garrison that specialises in detecting and translating alien signals. I do admire how we see the stretches of the Ultra Garrison’s technological capabilities and how it sustains a much more professional worldwide military identity for them, making it a lot more credible as to how they can realistically defend the planet's entirety, not to mention having different HQs around the globe.
Mizuno, a foreign-transmitter decoding expert who serves at V3, desperately tries to translate a foreign message from planet Quraso. Upon realising its from the inhabitants’ police force warning nearby civilisations of a hostile prison escapee who somehow left the planet in a spacecraft, urging anyone who comes across him to shoot him on sight, stakes are raised as he rushes to inform the Ultra Garrison back on earth, but not before the disturbed Captive 303 has gone on a disturbed killing spree.
For a serial killer-themed episode, the actual murder scenes are disappointing and cheaply-shot and just occur too quickly and out-of-nowhere to be anything truly noteworthy. We never see Quraso stalk his prey to get more familiar with him, only half a minute to connect with each victim before he instantaneously strikes. But what makes it ultimately forgettable is the surprisingly dull lighting and cinematography that refuses to amplify the tension, which is unfortunate given how timeless the show’s camerawork generally is and could’ve made it a lot eerier.
It would've also been much improved if we had some more time with the victims and more general fear-of-the-unknown to get the full impact of his kills rather than just cutting to random people and have a pair of hands swerve in and crush their necks. Although, a more personal and gripping scene hinted this when we see a family sheltering indoors after a news broadcast urges all families to stay locked up, leading to Quraso assaulting a teenage boy after breaking into their garage, who goes to cower with his family. But after he inexplicably backs away and leaves them after we cut to a small neighbouring boy witnessing and reporting the scene to the police, all impact is gone and Quraso's intimidation factor is dumbed down.
One of Space Prisoner 303's main method of implying tension is an occasional close-up on 303’s bulging luminous eyes to try and intimidate the audience with how inhuman it seems while not revealing its full appearance until the climax, adding an admittedly effective murder-mystery feel. But the attempts to shock you with its appearance just comes across as laughably outdated, making this one of the franchise’s episodes that’s aged the worst with basic camera and effects work, which leaves the simple underlying mystery theme noticeably unsupported.
But one interesting concept that the episode presents about Quraso is his petrol consumption. The first scene of him sucking and draining a petrol pipe is rather cleverly shot, not to mention being totally unexpected with his savage behaviour, with one of the more clever shots being the petrol monitor price digits rapidly inclining with the more he consumes while still blurring out enough of his features to retain an air of mystery. The second scene where he raids a family’s garage for a petrol tank is even more unnerving for how darkly it’s revealed through torchlight in a garage before you see his luminous eyes and crescent: a charming use of lighting which should’ve been used more.
But given he’s only seen drinking petrol and doesn’t do anything with his victims’ bodies, a question can be raised to just why he kills and how distant he is from human minds. Is he scared of his victims and he kills out of a sort of sick self-defence?
While 303 is initially a hostile being with some unremarkable traits, the writing could easily have worked around this by harnessing a correct environment to feel like an unpredictable horror rather than just a cheap slasher. One idea could’ve been putting either a main Ultra Garrison or a pedestrian character in a closed-quarter showdown with him. Maybe Soga or Furuhashi could’ve tracked him into a sealed environment, only for it to turn into a corner-a-cat-get-scratched scenario. This would’ve been a perfect opportunity for some of the most vivid intensity of the show if our focused character and 303 hunted each-other in a dark building, only for his luminous eyes to again be revealed in the darkness to play another part in rallying up tension for our viewpoint, maybe even giving him some abilities like wall-crawling to play around with our observation and add to his other-worldly personality. Sadly, this is just an example and the episode only hints at professionally-conducted suspense. Normally, I’d say this due to the show only being seven episodes in, but given how beautifully shot Dark Zone was with its lighting matching the surreal themes and clever use of miniatures, this feels like a heaving step down.
While it’s a fresh take to see our main characters as a sort of CSI after discovering 303’s three murder victims at a gas stop, I wish this got exploited more and we got to witness the resourcefulness of Dan and the crew if the episode didn’t want to focus more on the victims. Unfortunately, it’s only shown at the gas stop scene and when they come across 303’s spacecraft, ending up with the episode’s pacing being all over the shop. Even Mizuno doesn’t get as much characterisation as one would wish, as his role is centred as a messenger, which isn’t nearly as significant as the tension implies given the Ultra Garrison were already hot on the threat’s tail with or without the police force’s warning.
Then again, the whole point of the interstellar warning from 303’s home planet people seems to be for the message that the universe has places of order and peace as well as earth, and that co-existence is certainly possible with understanding and dedication, which creates the positive feel the episode ends on. This is the whole selling morale of the episode, which does make it more memorable than if the Ultra Garrison simply hunted and killed an unknown alien with no context or impressions of other alien worlds to go on. This is also the first episode that ends with an improved connection between humanity and an alien race, which is nicely ironic to have an improved connection after the Pegassan tragedy which show these close encounters aren’t always destined for tragedy.
For what it is, it raises an interesting question to just what his people are actually like, given how the Quraso aliens claim to have an actual police force to ensure law and order and just how they could form this with how monstrous and inhuman this one is presented. If anything, 303’s backstory and his seemingly contrasting, orderly race makes his premise and the episode a lot more interesting.
Where Space Captive 303 drops the ball is the third act, which seems to notice the grind of it's slasher identity, so it completely abandons all horror and resorts to a more typical dirty-work Ultra Garrison trope with some admittedly clever ideas but a rushed execution. 303 is shown to have ventriloquism abilities when he mentally manipulates Anne into smuggling him from a crime scene into the Ultra Garrison HQ and hides him off into a single Hawk jet with her as a hostage, showing he’s not actually savage and is somewhat resourceful. This leads to a more personally consequential situation for Dan and the team, who then come up with an incredibly corny but rather clever tactic of using the other two jet constituents of the Ultra Hawk to sandwich Quraso’s into the fully formed jet. I honestly never understood the rather ridiculous concept of the Ultra Hawk jet breaking off into several smaller jets with singular pilots which look intensely fake in action when separated, but this episode at least takes full advantage of it for a small-scale intense rescue mission
The ultimate finale is debatable to how well executed it is. While to some, the fact that Dan only transforms into Ultraseven to escape the crashing ship can be considered disappointing and poor writing given the giant-scale fights are the show’s selling point, I think it’s not only necessary to free up space for the already-squeezed narrative but to show that Seven himself isn’t a true necessity and the Ultra Garrison are capable of succeeding themselves, as their plan goes flawlessly and makes Dan feel like an actual team member rather than their guardian angel. But the most memorable moment (and ironically most haunting) for me is Quraso’s demise. After somehow growing to a giant size after his ship crashes, he stands among the flames in the night forest and howls amongst the fire with the pained baying of a dying beast. It’s one of the most obscurely entrancing (and dare-I-say, out-of-body experience) moments of the show, as it’s the only time we hear Quraso emit any sort of speech and it comes off as oddly haunting with the night setting and flaming environment. The icing on the cake for this short scene is Dan’s judge-and-jury line for the agonised prisoner: ‘Space is vast, Quraso. But you’ve nowhere left to run.’
Quraso’s explosion death after the consumed petrol inside him ignites is also an impressive pyrotechnical effect and a fitting, atmospheric climax for an overall forgettable episode.
Space Captive 303 is without a doubt one of the weakest and lightest episodes for Ultraseven. While it’s interesting to see one that focuses on the effects of the monster’s carnage and the unification of the Ultra Garrison formed when dealing with a threat rather than Quraso himself, it’s noticeably sloppily handled with the few kills coming and going much too quick to be ultimately enjoyable. The slasher theme it tries to go for is handled too basically and the more suspenseful elements are mostly shoved aside due to little being done to actually treat 303 as an actual big threat to the Ultra Garrison other than the short plot of Anne being kidnapped, which goes against what he was like at the start. While there is some enjoyment to be had with the crime investigation narrative, there’s too little effort with effects-work, characterisation and cinematography for this episode to be above an average messy ride.