After the success of King of The Railway and Season 17 last year, fans are now wondering about the 18th season of Thomas & Friends. Season 17 had shown some changes in writing, characters and animation with the return of old classic characters like Duck, Bill, Ben and Harvey and better developed characters that were introduced in last year's DVD special and Porter, who was seen on DVD in the UK and US, 'Spills and Thrills' this year and on Australian and Japanese television last year. This year a new Wal*Mart exclusive DVD came out on April 8th known as 'Trouble on The Tracks' and with the titles of the selected episodes that were released, it has full potential with the return of old characters like Toad the Brake Van and with S18 airing, we see old characters like Oliver returning to our screens since 2008. So will Season 18 be better then the previous? Well let's find out. But first:
THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
OLD RELIABLE EDWARD
Andrew Brenner
Directed by
David Stoten
Air Date:
25/08/14
Plot:
The bigger engines tease Edward for being old and unreliable, especially Gordon. But when Gordon sees some red trousers blowing by the tracks, he mistakes them for a red danger flag and stops, ending up stuck on Gordon's Hill. Edward has to come and give him a push, but Gordon does not even say thank you, so Thomas and Edward decide to teach him a lesson.
PRO:
- Thomas and Edward's characterisation
- The mention of 'mixed traffic' and 'banker'
- Edward's branch line being mentioned
- The bantering
- Moral: Always say thank you
- The mention of 'mixed traffic' and 'banker'
- Edward's branch line being mentioned
- The bantering
- Moral: Always say thank you
CON:
- N/A
This is defiantly a great episode as the season's opener. I love how Andrew Brenner had captured Edward's characterisation so well and the chemistry of Edward and Gordon as well, giving this episode such a classic flavour of 'Edward and Gordon'. Yes Gordon's mistake of red trousers over a danger signal doesn't sound good at first, but the animators at Arc Productions had disguised it so well that it looks like a danger signal. Now I understand some fans are saying that Edward is 'out of character' in this episode but looking at the episode, his sarcasm and teasing works. Gordon is boastful and didn't stop to say thank you to Edward, which will annoy many people who are like Edward and of course he deserves his comeuppance in the end (Gordon) with Thomas going on his line to slow him down, yes it's unrealistic, but it works well. Besides it happened in real life as well in the UK, staged or not, it still happened. Edward being in it works because he doesn't want to be taken for granted by Gordon, which brings us the moral 'Always say thank you.' I love it also how Thomas was handled in the episode, he's not shoehorned in as he too also have problems with Gordon in the past and his characterisation was handled so well with his cheeky manner.
It's also great how Andrew Brenner implemented the words 'mixed traffic' and 'banker', teaching kids at the target range about railways and plus the word 'banker' is much better then 'back engine.' I don't recall in any Thomas episode where they've mentioned Edward having a branch line, so of course this is a first to many, as I heard about his branch line from reading the Railway Series books. The bantering was great as well shining in on the characters. I love the episode, it's a great opener and it's already a firm favourite.
Rating: 10/10
