#GHWP Midnight Spectreman Live Tweet July 10, 2015

      After a strong showing last week and some new faces, it felt like a good idea to go back and see how it all began for Spectreman and Dr. Gori. Only a few people were around for the first couple of Spectreman live tweets that happened shortly before this blog was created to catalog it, so the first few episodes perhaps did not get the attention they so rightfully deserved (not to mention those live tweets were plagued with bad links and miscommunication as I tried to get the hang of gathering people for a live tweet in the first place).

Episode 1 - Gori Targets The Earth
Episode 2 - Destroy the Pollution Monster Hedoron

     I also decided to revisit the origins of Spectreman and Dr. Gori because the first giant monster Spectreman ever fought, Hedoron, will return in a story I have picked out for the next Spectreman live tweet with episodes 13 and 14. So far, almost every live tweet selection has been free of continuity, but Hedoron was giant monster adversary numero uno, joining the pantheon of creatures like Bemular and Angilas.

No, no no. I said HedoRON. Different guy.

Yeah, that's the guy. The one with the dreads.

       This, of course, details the story of Dr. Gori and his arrival on Earth. In Japan, it was Dr. Gori who was the title character of the series and not Spectreman, an unusual step to take for a superhero series. The cyborg alien construct Spectreman himself is given very little background at all. He simply appears on Earth out of nowhere in the guise of a man named George, a man with no past and no job history, and he walks into a Daily Planet-esque job with a pollution research bureau that never really hired him and for which he never applied, somehow managing to prevent his Perry White-esque boss from coming to his senses and calling security.

King Caesar's ghost! Who is this clown?

     For the first 40 episodes, the series was known as Space Apeman Gori and Space Apeman Gori vs. Spectreman, and it would not be known simply as Spectreman until episode 41. Following the same plot as the original but wildly visually different pilot Space Apeman Gori (AKA Elementman), we learn that more than one race of super intelligent beings inhabit the stars. One such planet is known as Planet E, a world of humanoid apes. It is there that we learn of the mad Dr. Gori, a megalomaniac mutant ape whose scientific theories made him an outcast. There was no death or exile on Planet E, however, and Gori's fate was to have his personality mechanically altered to make him a peaceful and productive member of society (those advanced alien races sure love to wipe out freedom of thought). But, before his sentencing, Gori discovered he had an ally and an admirer in Karas, a military officer, and the two escape Planet E in a space ship that finds its way to Earth.

Even Hitler had Goebbels.

Someone call Nimoy and #search76. We found a UFO.

     Despite his lust to conquer, Dr. Gori has an admiration for Earth and a desire to call it home, and he and Spectreman seem to have the same idea about ridding the planet of pollution. It's method and motive that set them apart the most. Spectreman is tasked with protecting the Earth and researching how its pollution can be curbed. Gori creates monsters genetically from the creatures of Earth itself to exploit and feed off pollution in the ape genius' plot to wipe out pollution's greatest creator: the human race.

     When Hedoron appears, George's true identity is revealed (to the audience, that is... didn't you hear the theme song?) as his superior, the Overlord of Nebula Star, appears in orbit above the planet and orders George to take on his true form and stop the monster. Overlord sets it all on the table up front: Spectreman is to obey orders to the letter, and he will be deactivated and destroyed if he shows any insubordination (though that threat never is quite enforced in the series).

     Can Spectreman stop Dr. Gori's assault of giant monsters? Can George keep his job? Will the people of Earth ever listen to Spectreman and prevent the need for Captain Planet? Will the host of Gaping Head Wound Playhouse be able to think of any more rhetorical and already-answered questions before reaching the end of this promo? Find out when we take it all back to the beginning for the first two episodes of Spectreman on #GHWP. The kaiju mayhem kicks off Friday night after #Bmoviemaniacs wraps up the final episode of Agon, The Atomic Dragon. Stay tuned to the hashtags for showtime details.

GHWP Live Tweet July 3, 2015

Look, up in the sky! I see it, Queequeg!

 This live tweet's selections:
Episode 17 - Thunder Gei The Flying Whale
Episode 18 - Infiltrate Monster Island

     Yeah, you see the big honking whale, but no one else believes in the giant flying whale attacking ships at sea. This is one of those stories that really tries to illustrate the invisible forms of destructive pollution never mentioned by name: skepticism and apathy. It seems to be an important message in this story to remind us that a lot of people suck, and it takes the writing of the cruel nonbelievers all the way for a kids show that seems to love killing off parents as an opening plot point. Margaret receives the sad news that her father went down with his fishing trawler, and George decides to accompany her to her fishing village to learn more of the details. Her little brother Tommy is pulled away from a playground scuffle when his grandfather drags him to a conference to try to determine exactly what happened. The only information available is the final transmission report from the fishing boat that mention a giant flying whale. As Tommy listens to the details of the transmission and all of the speculation flying around, reporters immediately start doing what they do best: asking questions about blame and sanity and just generally being dicks that twist the knife for a story. People suck. Tommy loses his cool and drives the reporters out, but the problem persists. With no evidence other than the reports of a flying whale, the official story is headed toward the reason airline pilots don't report UFOs: it's going to go in the books that Tommy and Margaret's dad lost his marbles. "A man can't really believe what he can't see." Is that all it is, Margaret? I'm trying not to be bitter here, but it's not working out. I guess I've just encountered one too many people that suck this week to have picked these two episodes, and I just don't have a decent outlet for my rage because I'm too polite in public. The people in these episodes seem to emulate the real world people of today involved in the heated debates raging over gay marriage, climate change, racism, and vaccinations on Twitter: a lot of misinformed, believe-it-when-I-see-it, take-a-side-without-doing-any-research, and trust-a-celebrity-or-scientist-without-question folks spewing dismissive vitriol and missing that the entire point of an argument is to find a resolution. But hey, sometimes I riff better when I'm angry. I'm hearing Lewis Black in my head now.

     It doesn't help matters when George himself believes that a giant flying whale could be out there. He's Spectreman, for crying out loud. He's fought about a dozen monsters up to this point, but a fishing boat captain is nuts if he says he sees a flying whale. George's hunches always turn out to be correct, and the giant whale is Thunder Gei, the latest of Dr. Gori's mad schemes to conquer the Earth. While the city suffers from mysterious power outages that everyone believes must be the result of anything but a giant flying whale, Tommy's grandfather senses Thunder Gei's presence just before the giant invisible flying whale strikes him blind with an electric bolt just like the one that sank his son's fishing boat. But, even blind, Tommy's grandfather still can see the electrical waves that make up the giant whale's cloak of invisibility. When Spectreman gets involved, his attacks bounce off the invisible whale's impenetrable hide, making it look to the people of Japan as though Spectreman himself has turned on them and is destroying property. Meanwhile, almost everyone in the fishing village continues to malign Tommy's father, driving Tommy further and further into a rage. People suck.

Not seen here: giant invisible flying whale.

     When Spectreman's spectral ray finally deactivates Thunder Gei's invisible cloak, don't expect to hear an "I'm sorry, Tommy" in between all of the ooh's and aahh's of revelation. With the invisible electrical shield gone, the power returns to the city, and everyone thinks things can go back to normal when Thunder Gei simply flies off and disappears in the ocean. Did Spectreman win? Not even close. His attacks bounced off the creature's hide like rubber, but the townspeople can't be bothered with details. Monster gone, life goes on. Dr. Gori seems to have it right on the nose this week about people's unwitting stupidity leading them to their own destruction, and they go right back to business as he begins the next phase of his plan: to use Thunder Gei to absorb all of the electrical energy on the planet and ravage the world with thunderstorms. I don't know the meteorology or the physics behind something like that, but Dr. Gori is the genius here, not me. When a mysterious new island appears off the coast of Japan, the rest of the world is just sitting on their thumbs. It's up to George and friends to investigate the strange island and discover how to stop Thunder Gei once and for all.

    The giant invisible flying mayhem starts Friday night after the conclusion of #BMovieManiacs' presentation of the second half of Agon, The Atomic Dragon. Stay tuned to the #GHWP and #BMovieManiacs hashtags for showtime details.