This morning, my co-workers and I were galvanized by a shriek of panic from Kate, the administrative assistant who works at our reception area. Everyone within earshot - which was actually just everyone, it was pretty loud shriek - rushed to her desk in order to help with whatever issue had caused Kate to start screaming.
As it turned out, Kate had seen an insect on her desk. She said that it was a centipede, but added that it was huge - "Like Godzilla!"
Unfortunately, as previously established, this sort of comment often gets a reaction from me which may not be exactly what the commenter is expecting.
"Well, no, not Godzilla, Godzilla was a lizard."
"Hmmmm....it wouldn't be Gidrah or Rodan, they could fly, and were also sort of lizards. Mothra was a giant insect, but obviously more of a giant moth than a centipede. Gosh, I'm certain that Godzilla must have fought a giant centipede at some point, but I cannot for the life of me bring a picture of it to my mind. I'm sorry, Kate, I'll have to do some research and get back to you."
Leaving our department head Peter courageously searching the top of Kate's desk, I returned to my workstation, where a rapid* Google search revealed that my memory is either better or worse than I thought. As I thought, none of the celluloid incarnations of Japan's favourite giant lizard ever fought a centipede monster, but that wasn't the only option when searching for Godzilla's foes.
There was also a short-lived spinoff animated series based on the unfortunate** 1998 Roland Emmerich film which starred Matthew Broderick (and Godzilla). Godzilla: The Series was based on the idea that one of Godzilla's monstrous hatchlings had survived the events of the movie, and imprinted on Broderick's character - perhaps because of residual pheromones from his close encounter with Godzilla's saliva in the movie, I don't completely remember the details. (In my defense, it's been almost 20 years since I last watched the series.)
In Metamorphosis, the ninth episode of Season TWO of G:TS, Godzilla Junior did in fact cross paths with a giant centipede named Megapede. Using this as a guide, I did a quick image search, and found a few pictures of the many-legged menace.
At this point, Kate, somewhat recovered from her ordeal, approached my desk with a question about digital letterhead. I showed her the picture that starts this posting and explained that it was a picture of Megapede.
"Yes, that is absolutely what I saw - and Megapede, that's exactly the right name. Thank you very much!!"
And she returned to her desk, which under the circumstances demonstrated remarkable courage. If that thing was still lumbering around on my desk and made another appearance, I would probably scream much, much louder than she did.
- Sid
** Full confession: I actually kind of like the 1998 version of Godzilla. I fully admit that Matthew Broderick really doesn't carry the movie, but the supporting actors cheerfully cast aside any desire to take the film seriously and do everything but chew the scenery in order to help move things forward. (Jean Reno's Elvis Presley imitation is particularly memorable.) Not only that, but I thought that the FX team did a good job of envisioning what an actual giant mutant lizard might look like, rather than a rather obvious man in a rubber suit.***
*** When the movie first came out, I commented favourably on the CGI version of Godzilla to my friend Alan, who immediately announced that he preferred a man in a rubber suit. I gravely promised not to quote him out of context, although I've been tempted more than once over the intervening years.
