S22 Ep.11: Thomas In The Wild

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE

THOMAS IN THE WILD

Written by
Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter

Air Date

13/09/18

Plot

Thomas is taking a film crew to a nature reserve in China to make a film about giant pandas. He is excited by the prospect of seeing one in the wild, but he is not sure what they look like, so he slows down every time he thinks he sees one.

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Probably the weakest China episode in my opinion, the plot was thin and there was nothing of entertaining value. It was educational about the different animals in China but that was pretty much it sadly. I will say that the animals do look great in CG and the Panda cubs were just adorable to look at! I mean when I first saw them my heart just melted that I just want to hug them. But sadly the episode felt bare and I expected it. However I did like the fantasy sequence of Thomas not knowing what a Panda is and that can be forgiven considering we never saw Panda in any of the past seasons before BWBA was a thing. Rob Rackshaw was the voice of the man that was part of the film crew and he gave the character a bit of a David Attenborough and Chris Tarrant, although I felt he sound more like the latter, the latter is another documentarian from the UK show 'Extreme Railway Journey's', I recommend watching it. So the episode was OK in my book. It was not a bad episode by any means but it feels more educational, bland and unentertaining.

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10
Samson and The Fireworks - 10/10
Runaway Truck - 7/10
Rosie Is Red - 10/10
Thomas In The Wild - 5/10

Series Rating (So far):

90/110

S22.Ep.10: Rosie Is Red

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

ROSIE IS RED

Written by

Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter

Air Date

12/09/18

Plot

After the engines tease Thomas that Rosie is his 'special friend', he acts meanly towards her.

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I remember after this episode had aired in Italy, some fans on the twittersphere were having a meltdown because there's an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine with the subject of romance in it and with that that means shipping. Now here's one thing, I'm not a Thomas shipper. I don't see how that can work as they are engines but I'm fine with people liking it. But it doesn't mean that they [the engines] care about each other deeply when it comes to there. Some fans say that this episode felt awkward because of its plot and that's their opinion. But to me it didn't feel awkward. Plus in the end, they did say that Thomas and Rosie 'Just friends' and that's that and that where I think the fan freakout is something that was over the top and uncalled for, a bit like how a year ago some were dreading the thought of the refresh of the series. But what's wrong with engines showing deep care for one another? Rev.W.Awdry had said in 'The Thomas the Tank Engine Man' documentary that his characters have human characteristics, so why can't feelings towards another character be among one of them? They have faces like humans and relatives like humans. They have emotions like sadness, anger, impatience, happiness etc. but strong feelings towards somebody, another human character trait, is something that goes way too far? Yet we have things like an engine loving their job or Thomas loving his coaches and branch line too. Sure they are engines but they have humanity in them as well.

Awdry also said that his characters are like children and so children can find romance to be a bit awkward at a very young age, and I think some of us in the older fanbase can relate to that as well when we were young. The teasing from the other engines (Gordon, Diesel, Bill and Ben) is something that kids have to deal with when it comes to the subject. If this is suppose to be Mattel's way of making Thomas more relative to kids today then Mattel did something right, that or Davey Moore had fulfilled Mattel's idea.

The rest of the episode was really good too. The pacing of the episode was nice and there was quite a nice variety of characters, heck even Edward was used quite well and yeah I like the moment between the two porters at Vicarstown. I quite like Percy saying that people should their love everyday and not just on one day, which is something that I often say. Not that the day is bad or anything but I just believe in that because we do that everyday to a loved one like maybe a girlfriend or boyfriend, a family member or even just a friend.

Many fans have been saying that this is not Awdry's vision. Well S5 goes against Awdry's vision, heck same can be said about S3, S4, S6 and the Brenner/McCue era with the likes of Lost Treasure, and some fans would go on defending it and same can be said about a certain flop of a film that focuses so much on magic and some mystical railroad and yet there are some fans of the movie that will defend it for the sake of nostalgia despite the awful plotholes. With S4 we have Stepney who works on the Bluebell Railway and in the books that was mentioned and in the TVS he was treated as a fictional character who works on the Fat Controller's railway with an episode that goes against 'Awdry's Vision'. Plus there's the infamous 'Henry's Forest' an episode that goes against Rule 55 that Awdry had stated and yet that episode is treated as some sort of holy grail because Rev.W.Awdry had a negative opinion about it. I'm sorry but that seems hypocritical to me.

Although I do like railway realism, and still do, I've learnt over the years that realism is not the main factor of the show's popularity, it's a part of it but not the sole reason why Thomas is so great in the first place. It's mostly about the characters and their personalities, the stories and the morals. Something that the show had been doing so well over the years. Yes Awdry had based his stories on real life events but they were used for morals for everyday life about impatiences, friendship, working together etc.

Some fans think that it's inappropriate and yet we had a special where Sailor John was threatening to kill Skiff and not to mention abusing him too and a special where a giant piece of harden clay was about to smash towards Percy. We had two episodes of two seperate engines escaping near death experiences, an engine being walled up in a tunnel, turning a steam engine into a generator etc. and yet this episode is deemed inappropriate? Kids know about romance for a long time, why do you think Disney is still around?

We had moments in the show before that had romantic tones despite being quite subtle. In 'Hasty Hannah' there was that moment between Toby and Henrietta when they were reunited at the Steamworks and yet I don't recall the reaction, but vaguely it wasn't as big as this. Yet, the entire moment has that romantic tone. To me something like this wasn't done before in the series and I think it was a brave effort by Davey Moore to take the risk.

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10
Samson and The Fireworks - 10/10
Runaway Truck - 7/10
Rosie Is Red - 10/10

Series Rating (So far):

85/100

S22 Ep.9: Runaway Truck

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

RUNAWAY TRUCK

Written by

Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter

Air Date

11/09/18

Plot
A truck runs out of control down the line, and Yong Bao and Thomas must stop it.

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I quite liked this episode. It's actually quite interesting and creative to see Davey Moore combining Tai Chi into something railway like, it may not be 100% realistic but the series hadn't been that realistic for twenty years. Seeing Yong Bao at the start of the episode definitely showed his heroic side that many of the older fanbase had loved since he his biography was shown back in 2016 for 'The Great Race' and I liked how him teaching Thomas about his way to stop a runaway truck is a lot like his own way of dealing with trucks and it makes him feel different compare to the Sodor engines. It also had a nice teaching method that when we try to do something new, we shouldn't be upset in making a mistake but rather try and try again until we get it right.

The truck, named Lei, doesn't have much character within him. But from what I've seen from him is that he's like an accident prone vent van but he never has hard feelings for engines who caused him a derailment. I quite like how different the trucks are compare to Sodor counterparts, it makes more standout. However the fantasy sequence I felt was rather unneeded. What could've been better if Thomas was imagining himself as a hero and once when the sequence was over, Yong Bao called him out to him to look out and Thomas stopped abruptly and caused Lei to derail. Could've made the fantasy sequence a bit more needed. In the end it was a fine episode not better than Samson's but still better than the Bollywood episode.

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10
Samson And The Fireworks - 10/10
Runaway Truck - 7/10

Series Rating (So far):

75/90

S22 Ep.8: Samson And The Fireworks

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

SAMSON AND THE FIREWORKS

Written by

Lee Pressman

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Air Date

10/09/18

Plot
Samson is terrified of fireworks, and when he mistakes the sound of a warning detonator for fireworks, he is so frightened that he races off into the fog and gets lost.

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Samson was never a big favourite character of mine since his inception on the 'Dinos and Discoveries' DVD and that was because of his one dimensional persona. He's just this strong and arrogant tank engine and that's it, we never see him with any other trait that makes him interesting and today's episode is the opposite!

It's so nice and refreshing to see Samson with a new trait to steer conflict with him having fear and the episode makes it more relatable to kids who do have fear of fireworks, many do. I know I did as a kid until as I got older that they aren't scary. They are loud but we can't help that in the end. Sure some might say it could've worked with Percy or Paxton, but it just feels better if it comes from a character who was in need of such needed character development.

I also like it at the end, the scene with Thomas talking about the episode of the day, that Henry had a fear with the rain in 'The Adventure Begins'. It's a nice reminder that Henry is still being remembered. Hopefully this puts an end to people saying, 'Edward and Henry are dead!' I understand that these characters have been around for years, but they weren't given enough because they were hard to write for. In the end, it's nice that the production team is at least acknowledging their existence and I think some fans need to be at least thankful.

I remember when the episode was shown on 'Cartoonio' a website of the Italian children's channel and was so surprised by an unexpected returnee that I never thought he returned and that was Cyril the Fogman from 'The Fogman' and the last time he was seen was in S6, which was 16 years ago! It was short but he gave a nice lesson about detonators and what there uses are. So, nice to see some realism is still in tact.  

In the end, the episode was a vast improvement over the Bollywood episode. I felt that the plot was not thin, it was properly paced and even the fantasy sequence from Thomas didn't feel forced. 

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10
Samson and The Fireworks - 10/10

Series Rating (So far):

68/80

S22 Ep.7: Thomas Goes To Bollywood

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

THOMAS GOES TO BOLLYWOOD

Written by

Becky Overton

Directed by
Dianna Basso

Produced by
Micaela Winter

Air Date

9/09/18

Plot

During his period of work on the Indian railway, Thomas attends the shooting of a Bollywood film.

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'Trusty Trunky' to me wasn't bad despite the bland characterisation of Ashima and the average at best plot line. 'Thomas Goes To Bollywood' was a bit more better than the previous episode but I think the plot would've been better for Rajiv given his arrogant personality. Have him lying to Thomas and Ashima with him saying that he's going to be in the movie when really he was working on the set. Have him lying to Thomas when he too was working on the set until Rajiv was called out on by Thomas. Rajiv owns up and learns his lesson about lying. In the end Rajiv then got his big break. It could be a good teaching method about why it's not OK to lie and during the Thomas segment the pre-BWBA episode to recount could be 'Who's Geoffrey?', given how Thomas lied about an engine to get himself out of trouble. 

The episode that we have was still alright, I've enjoyed it. The arrogant actor was funny and well acted and it has a nice message about heroism. Honestly Thomas' wonderment about different cultures is something that I like in the international episodes because he relates to how everyone learns about different cultures by going to various countries. It was also nice to see a bit of teaching method about Bollywood too, although Ashima could've mentioned that it's a combination of Bombay and Hollywood mixed together. The fantasy sequence is something that doesn't feel forced into the show and was rather funny. However there are two things that I don't like from this episode and that is when Thomas' face was being turned around at certain angles to make it look like that his smokebox door was opened just looked a bit awkward. Plus the ending really didn't pay off well, since they were going for the hero moral what was the point of that? There were mattresses ready for the actor to land safely so there was no real danger. Could've been better if say the mattresses weren't placed at the right spot and the actor nor the crew didn't know and Thomas came in at the last minute with the flowers, that makes much more sense and the moral wouldn't feel as forced.  

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10

Series Rating (So far):

58/70

S22 Ep.6: What Rebecca Does

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

WHAT REBECCA DOES

Written by

Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micela Winters (HIT/Mattel)

Air Date

8/09/18

Plot
Rebecca is so impressed by Belle putting out a fire with her water cannons, Marion's steam shovel and Harvey's crane that her enthusiasm makes her friends feel very good about themselves. But she can't help wondering if she has any special qualities too?

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So we got our second Rebecca episode and I see it as very good. It has a similar plot as 'Best Engine Ever' but I liked it better than the S19 episode because it feels like something that Rebecca could hold with her personality. It has a nice message at the end about being yourself in your own way and what makes Rebecca special in her own way in this episode is that she sees good in all other engines, as she was amazed by their unique characteristics. The dream sequence was something I have a laugh at as well, although with D10's claw there should've been a moment between him and Rebecca with her praising about his claw. Diesel 10 was surprised that someone found his claw amazing as he sees other engines finding it scary and with Rebecca saying that she doesn't, it made Diesel 10. Could be one of the sweetest moments in the show, plus the shot in fantasy sequence gave me a S2 feeling towards it, a similar shot was like that at the end of the episode, 'Cows'. There were other funny moments too like the gameshow style scene with Rebecca and Marion. There was also a cute little moment between Rebecca and Percy that I can't help but aww at. It feels like a big sister praising her little brother out of cuteness. It's also a bit of a coincidence that the voice actress of Rebecca, Rachael Miller, is actually married to Christopher Ragland, the US voice of Percy. I wonder if Davey Moore made that scene specially? Hmm...

The episode was also the debut of the new voices for Bill and Ben. To me I quite like it that they got new voices as Johnathan Broadbent's voices were a bit similar. The new voices are more distinct but it doesn't mean that Broadbent did a bad, his acting feel like something the twins would sound like in real life and I say all the best to him!

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10

Series Rating (So far):

52/60

S22 Ep.5: Trusty Trunky

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

TRUSTY TRUNKY

Written by

Becky Overton 

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter (HIT/Mattel)

Air Date

7/09/18

Plot
Thomas is working on the Indian Railway. He's amazed by all the animals on top of trains, cow sleeping on the track and elephants wandering around the countryside! He disapproves when his friend Ashima tells him the elephants used to help shunt the carriages, but when Thomas ends up derailed in a paddy field, it's not an engine that comes to his rescue.

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So we got our first India episode and to me it was average. I had liked Ashima when I first saw 'The Great Race' but after rewatching it and thinking about it, there was really nothing interesting about her. I mean yeah she motivated Thomas in the movie but that's pretty much it. There wasn't really anything to show like her flaws nor any mystery surround her like Nia. She's pretty much bland as wet bread. Rajiv and Shankar though have more personality than her. Yeah Rajiv is pretty much the James of India but we have many character who have similar traits over the years but him and Shankar look like they have a great dynamic for future stories. Rajiv is the arrogant engine who thinks he's royalty and Shankar is the diesel who seems fed up with Rajiv's arrogance. Hopefully if the writers go back to certain countries hopefully they get the spotlight. 

As of the episode, I quite like that the episode had added in some of the realism of elephants helping stricken engines. It doesn't just happened in India, it also happens in other countries as well. Here's a picture of one in Australia where two elephants pushing some trucks back onto the rails after an engine had been derailed:

I remember when info of the upcoming DVD 'Here Comes the Steam Team' was announced a few months back I thought the episode might've been about Thomas arriving at the Indian railway seeing the very busy yard, Ashima told Thomas about elephants shunting after seeing one crossing the track, Thomas disproves of it thinking it as silly. The railway got very busy and Thomas was the only engine in the yard shunting trucks and coaches. Maybe have Shankar breaking down and Ashima and was off with a goods or passenger train and Rajiv doesn't want to shunt because it doesn't fit with a royal engine. Thomas was being a bit too confident thinking he can do it by himself as a little engine, say Shankar belittled him for it. Then an elephant appeared and helped Thomas and Thomas realises that elephants can be useful too when it comes to shunting. I bet that if the running time was longer then it could've worked.

The plot was alright but just average at best. Plus the little dig at Thomas' day dreaming was something to chuckle at despite me being OK with the fantasy sequences. 

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10

Series Rating (So far):

43/50