1991 saw some different changes towards the series. First off is the leaving of Bluebird themes, one of the people who composed the music for the first two series, which led to Mike O' Donnell and Junior Campbell to do the music alone. Thomas started his debut in America in the show 'Shining Time Station', which lead to hire George Carlin as the narrator for the US dub to suit for the American audience. This also meant a new narrator for the UK as Ringo Starr left the show to go back to his music career and around that time, was in production of his critically acclaimed album 'Time Takes Time'. He was also the US narrator during 1989 - 1990. The narrator that replaced him for the UK/AUS is Michael Angelis, now the series long standing narrator. This is also the time when Robert D. Cardona left the show, as he moved to Canada to work on 'Theodore Tugboat', he and David Mitton were working on their own show 'TUGS' at the time when Britt Allcroft and Ringo Starr went to America in production of 'Shining Time Station'. But TVS was bankrupt, TUGS' second season was cancelled, Clearwater closed down and David moved back to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends with the Britt Allcroft company.
Series 3 was also a controversial series for the Awdry family as some of the stories are not actually based on the Reverend's or his son's books and were written by Britt Allcroft or David Mitton and even the episode 'Henry's Forest' gave the Rev.W.Awdry a spark, but we'll get to that later. Right now, let's take a look at the new and improved Series 3. But first:
THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
A SCARF FOR PERCY
Originally Written by
The Rev.W.Awdry
Adapted for Television by
Britt Allcroft and David Mitton
Air Date:
12/09/91
Plot:
A snow storm swept across the island and the fire lighter was late for Thomas and Percy. While they were waiting, Thomas and Percy were thinking about warm things like Sunshine. But the one thing that crossed to Percy's mind was scarfs. The next day, Percy saw scarfs everywhere. As he was boasting about to Henry, Percy teased him for having a small funnel. But as Percy was about to shunt some coaches, he bashed into a luggage trolley. Jam, clothes and even a pair of trousers coiled lovingly around his funnel, which belong to the Fat Controller. Percy had a nice wash down and learned his lesson about scarfs.
PRO:
- I like the extended parts of the episode.
CON:
- Why on earth did Percy flew up for a short minute when he smashed into the trolley?
- A crash like that would not make the stuff fly in the air.
Comparing the episode's story towards the Railway Series, it does make it look better as the story in the book, 'Henry the Green Engine'. In the book it was short and its for the wrong engine at the time. Though I don't know why CiTV in the UK shortened up just for the time slot? The episode runs for 5 minutes. Though I do like how the episode is extended with Britt and David's own words at the start and the end, there are two things wrong with this episode and that is when Percy arrived at the station. He bashed into the trolley which made fly up for a little while. Percy is a steam locomotive. Steam locomotives are heavy so why on earth was lifted up in the air and with a crash like that, why did the top hat, trousers etc. fly up in the air like a bird? The box will be crushed, but the clothes and jam would scatter everywhere but not up in the air.
But those are just nitpicks, the episode is good and I do enjoy it and I love how they extended the story despite that the Railway Series story was short.
Rating: 3.5/5
