THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
POP GOES THE DIESEL
Originally Written by
The Rev.W.Awdry
Adapted for Television by
Britt Allcroft, David Mitton & Robert Cardona
Air Date:
26/09/86
Plot:
Duck is proud of his Great Western heritage and talks all about it. But he works hard too and makes everything goes like clockwork. But the big engines were irritated by it. One day, the Fat Controller had agreed Diesel to take on trail and the Fat Controller have asked Duck to teach him. But Diesel began boasting that he is a revolutionary engine which made Duck irritated. He later told him to collect his trucks while he shunts Gordon's coaches. Diesel wanted to show off and he purred away. When Duck returned, Diesel was taking some old and untouched trucks from a siding. They have caused trouble and had angered Diesel. Duck happily puffed away with his real trucks and told Diesel that he needs to improve the yards and Diesel was left fuming with anger. The trucks were laughing at him and sang 'Pop Goes The Diesel' around the yard.
PRO:
- Ringo did a superb job on Diesel's voice.
CON:
- Why was Percy at Tidmouth sheds when Diesel didn't mention him?
- The old trucks didn't happen in a siding it was on the main line
We had the 'Misty Island Engines' trilogy and that wasn't perfect, but this is the trilogy that comes to mind when you mention a trilogy in the TV series. It's a shame they didn't adapt 'Domeless Engine' for this trilogy as it shows 'City of Truro', one of the world's famous steam engines, along with Duck showing his pride of the Great Western region. But at least they adapted it for the next season. I have one big praise for this episode. If were to choose between Ringo Starr or George Carlin's Diesel voice my choice is Ringo's, hands down, he has the best voice for Diesel. He gave Diesel a rather oily, devious and villainous sound and it was the inspiration for my Diesel voice, so thank you Ringo!
But there are some cons I have with this episode and there are many errors in this episode that I think many fans have pointed out already. First, why was Percy at Tidmouth? He was never seen in the Railway Series book 'Duck and The Diesel Engine', he should be working on Thomas' branch line, there was also the old trucks, that didn't even happen in a siding, it happened on the main line. There was even a scene when Diesel was backing up towards the trucks when the narrator says 'Diesel recovered and tried to push the trucks back', there was an extended scene of Diesel backing down towards the breakdown train, then with the next transition we see the first truck derailed with the buffers out of place.
But despite the errors I enjoy this episode.
Rating: 4.5/5
