New ROJ Episode 3 Notes

NEW RETURN OF JETMAN

"Some Say In Ice"
(Episode 3)
Production Notes
by Christopher Elam
© 2007-2012 Christopher Elam

 

New ROJ Episode 3 - "Some Say In Ice" was begun in October 2005, and wrapped principal writing on August 25, 2006. Quite a long stretch, no? All I can say is that I was suffering from a lot of personal issues for several of those months, and had a severe case of writer's block, too. But, it all eventually came together and I got the story finished before too much time had passed.

Unfortunately, the significant amount of time it took to finish this story made it somewhat unsatisfying to me. Oh, there are plenty of things about it that I really like. It just sort of disappointed me that it took so long and I couldn't come up with something truly impressive (to me). But then, this story's plot didn't really lend itself to opening up the action too much.

The idea of doing what amounted to a "locked room" type of story (i.e., one where the heroes are trapped in a building and must fight in a confined space) was one I had while writing the original ROJ series. In fact, it was the projected plot for "Caught In The Web", one of the stories which never happened. My main reason for not pursuing it then was that I had no idea if I could do it the way I wanted it. So dusting off the idea for this tale was a bit of a challenge. I didn't quite meet it, in my opinion, but it was exciting to give it a try.

• The title "Some Say In Ice" was derived from the poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. You should totally look it up if you've never read it.
  
  
  
• The opening sequence (and a portion of the next scene) were the only elements of this story actually written in 2005. All the rest was crafted in 2006, when I found the ability to resume working on it.
  
  
  
• The Antarctic base "Tazawa Station" was named after the character of Dr. Tazawa (played by Ryo Ikebe) from Toho's 1962 film GORATH. That film also featured a base at the South Pole.
  
  
  
• "Professor Sadao Maeda" is named after action film star Shinichi Chiba/Sonny Chiba. "Sadao Maeda" is, as it turns out, Chiba's real name.
  
  
  
• The fact that Ryu Tendo refers to Shinsei as "Gai" almost out of habit is a trait to reinforce the fact that it is hard for people who knew both of them to necessarily be able to separate them. Shinsei, on the other hand, is confident in his distinct identity.
  
  
  
• The exposition bit about the forcefield afforded me one last opportunity to drag out really terrible music jokes in relation to Funkyman. Their robot mentor "DJ Microbo" gets his name from the mash-up of "micro" + "robo", plus the (completely insane) idea that he is a disc jockey. The planet "Rokku" is a phonetic Japanese rendering of "Rock" and was inspired by Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 hit "Planet Rock". And the headquarters called "Funkytown"? This was a really obvious joke which eluded me when I wrote Episode 1, and you can thank Lewis Smith for calling that to my attention. You have probably heard the 1980 hit from Lipps Inc. entitled "Funkytown" or the 1987 cover of it by Pseudo Echo. If you haven't, you clearly have been hiding somewhere.
  
  
  
• I actually did a fair amount of research on Antarctica and included some facts to give authenticity to the setting.
  
  
  
• Hellvira Spitfire was another character originally conceived as "cannon fodder" for the ill-fated GMB/ROJ crossover. What's more, her name is a bit of a parody of the character names in Lewis' other big story project, SEVEN SPHERES LEGEND (It's worth noting that "Hellvira" is also the name of a character in the mid-1980s series SPIELBAN). Well, as it turned out, the character herself drifted away from that point of inspiration, and ended up incorporating elements from several different sources. That includes the "Deviarchy" backstory, which was largely made up as I went along.
  
  
  
• The Succubus Girls (and I really adore that name) were an attempt to give Hellvira some henchwomen. I'm not sure if the explanation for them makes sense or not, but that's something I try not to think about very much.
  
  
  
• Ying, with her black belt in hapkido, is an homage to 1970s female action star Mao Ying/Angela Mao. At one point, I had wanted all of the staff of Tazawa Station to be named after action film stars. This would have included a Dr. Ho Chung Dao (named for Bruce Li's real name). Ultimately, I abandoned the idea after Professor Maeda and Ying, because the rest of my attempts were not moving me. So instead...
  
  
  
• The other staff members of Tazawa Station - Narikawa, Ohira, Watanabe, Arai, and Ozaki - are named after the primary male actors of the show SPECTREMAN. Why? I have no idea. It just sounded good and felt right. Additonally, some of the stuff done with each character is due to the actor who is their namesake. Confused? I'll (try to) explain. Narikawa is named for Tetsuo Narikawa, who played Spectreman's human alter ego. This is why he is the first crewmember possessed. Watanabe is named for Takamitsu Watanabe, and he was apparently a skilled fighter. That is why Watanabe's martial arts skills are emphasized. Ohira the radio man is based on Toru Ohira, who played Chief Kurata. Toru Ohira is also known for his voicework (including, as it turns out, narrating a number of sentai series) and that is why the in-story Ohira never physically appears - he is only mentioned and we only hear his voice.
  

  I'm not sure any of that makes any sense either, but that just shows you my thought process. Oh, and the other two actors were Kazuo Arai and Koji Ozaki. I didn't know anything useful about them, so they sort of got the short end of the stick.
  
  
  

• "Jet Cruiser" becomes "Jet Carrier", primarily because Lewis misremembered the name for a picture he was doing (more on that in a bit). Both were equally fine names so I changed things for this new series.
  
  
  
• Now, just to be clear, I mentioned New Zealand because it is on the way from Japan to Antarctica and I just liked the way the name looked in print. By sheer chance, a lot of Power Rangers stuff is/was filmed -- in New Zealand. I wasn't thinking of that at the time, honest.
  
  
  
• Poseidon Base was first mentioned in ROJ Ep. 12. It is, of course, a reference to "Center Neptune" in the BATTLE OF THE PLANETS series.
  
  
  
• a fifth grade class that solved crimes with a submarine - Ah, this. This is a direct reference to the 1980s series "Jaaman Tanteidan Marin gumi". It was created by Shotaro Ishinomori, and is by and large exactly the way I described Gohan's idea.
  
  
  
• The appearance of the pack of cigarettes is a callback to a minor subplot in the first ROJ series, in which Reiko's smoking habit was a point of discussion between her and Gohan. Reiko ended up quitting for good during the events of ROJ Ep. 12.
  
  
  
• Ken and Kei have always had something of an adversarial relationship. It had softened a little by the end of ROJ Ep. 14, but they will probably never be best buddies.
  
  
  
• Professor Maeda being a "shootfighting champion" (i.e., something like mixed martial arts) was a gag that only came to me because his name was based on that of Sonny Chiba. The fight sequence is a bit of a cheat, but I hope that it's funny enough that I can be excused.
  
  
  
• Ymir, the Frost Giant, is indeed a character from Norse mythology. He has a long and proud history of turning up in pop culture, most notably in Marvel Comics' THOR series.
  
  
  
• I don't know where I first encountered the word "simulacrum", but I am happy that I can say that I got to use it in a story and even the characters were confused by it.
  
  
  
• Guardian Icarus was a mecha picture that Lewis created on a lark, without any thought of me incorporating it into a story at all. I really liked it, enough that I decided that I would MAKE a spot for it. The "Double Vulcan" attack was my name, but the attack formation seemed obvious based on the design of the robot.
  
  
  
• Rie Aoi was Ryu Tendo's girlfriend in the first episode of JETMAN, but she didn't survive the end of the series. Her grave appeared fairly early in the run, though she was never buried there (it's complicated). Even her ghost turned up in the last two episodes of the show, though it was not made clear if it was real or just a hallucination Ryu was having. That is sort of the path I have followed with her appearance here. Though, of course, Mr. Hoshi turns up, too. That just makes things a bit more mysterious.
  

 

© Christopher Elam.