THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
TRUSTY TRUNKY
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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Episode Rating
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.
Number One Engine - 8/10
Forever and Ever - 8.5/10
Series Rating (So far):
43/50