S18 Ep.3:Flatbeds of Fear

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

FLATBEDS OF FEAR

Written by

Paul Larson and Laura Beaumont 

Directed by

David Stoten

Produced by

Robert Anderson (Arc)

Ian McCue & Halim Jabbour (HIT)

Air Date

27/08/14

Plot

It was a foggy and windy on Sodor and as Thomas was delivering some pipes to the shunting yard so they can be taken to Vicarstown by Henry, a strange noise can be heard.

PRO:
- The fog
- Moral: Don't believe in tall tales
- The whistling sound in the UK dub

CON:
- N/A

A lot of people have been comparing this to 'Percy and the Monster of Brendam'. This episode is nowhere near any of that. When you look at the two episodes and compare, Percy's one is him going around the entire Island looking for the monster which is suppose to be situated at Brendam. Here the flatbeds of fear can be anywhere with no mention of a location anywhere in the story or visual. Plus how many complained about Henry's rhyming ('I don't want to hear the flatbeds of fear, I don't want to hear the flatbeds of fear'), I was not even annoyed by it. Rev.W.Awdry had brought in a rhyme for his story 'The Sad Story of Henry' in his first RWS book at the start and where's the complaint about that? Most of his books have some references to nursery rhymes ('Oh Dear! What can The Matter Be?' can be heard in 'Bertie's Chase'). The sound effect had changed too for the UK dub, but I think it's better that way, it gives a more spooky feeling. The episode is not the best, but it is better then what we've got from S13-16. Paul Larson and Laura Beaumont's writing are not as terrible as Sharon Miller's writing. They are more of a hit and miss writing team, some of there episodes are good (e.g - No More Mr. Nice Engine or The Afternoon Tea Express) and some episodes are not so good (e.g - Steamie Stafford). I don't hate this episode at all, it was good but it's nowhere great. However I do like the fog, it's more natural then how the way Nitrogen did it, being very thick. I believe the moral of the story is don't believe in tall tales, that's my guess. It was also nice to hear Emily's S8 theme again as well.

Rating: 6/10