THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
THE COMPLETE SERIES 20
Written by
Lee Pressman
Andrew Brenner
Davey Moore
Helen Farrall
Tit for Tat, Mike's Whistle &
Useful Railway
Originally Written by
Originally Written by
The Rev.W.Awdry
Directed by
Dianna Basso
Produced by
Robert Anderson (Arc Production)
Tracy Blagdon (Arc/Jam Filled)
Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)
Episodes
Sidney Sings
Toby's New Friend
Henry Gets the Express
Diesel and the Ducklings
Bradford the Brakevan
Saving Time
Ryan & Daisy
Pouty James
Blown Away
The Way She Does It
Letters to Santa
Love Me Tender
The Railcar and the Coaches
Mucking About
Cautious Connor
All in Vain
Buckled Tracks and Bumpy Trucks
Tit for Tat
Mike's Whistle
Useful Railway
Extraordinary Engines - BONUS DISC
Engine of the Future
Henry in the Dark
The Missing Breakdown Train
Hugo and the Airship
Three Steam Engines Gruff
Skiff and the Mermaid
Release Date
27/05/19
Distributed by
HIT Entertainment/Mattel Creations
After the debut of S19, some fans weren't really hyped up for S20 after what we saw last season. However all that changed when this season aired in the UK in 2016. Lots of good and interesting episodes including three adaptations of the Small Railway Engines book and the last time Railway Series stories were adapted was from the fourth season! Now that three years had passed, does this series still hold up? Let's find out.
EPISODES
I still stand by my opinion that I stated back in 2017 in my 'Team Up With Thomas' DVD review that the episode 'Blown Away' really isn't one of my favourites. Skiff to me was a bland character, he wasn't interesting in 'Sodor's Legend of The Lost Treasure' and he didn't have that much character progression. I know he stood up towards Sailor John for doing something wrong but it only lasted for like a few seconds. It's that one moment you see it but if you turn your head and focus on something you've missed it. He's not by all means a terrible character I just wish they've done more for him than being this naive little sail boat.
I'm not too much of a fan of 'Pouty James' as I feel that his character has been flanderised here. But I kind of have a bit of soft spot for it as I can see Brenner capturing the classic series feeling towards it after rewatching it for sometime. The same can be applied for 'Henry Gets The Express', despite that Henry didn't have much of a personality to shine here, it was still an enjoyable episode and I see this working in the classic series.
It's also strange that the two Glynn episode's weren't on this release despite the fact that they were released alongside two S20 DVDs and were placed within S20. There's really an unknown reason, maybe because they were placed within the S21 package? But it looks like we might have to wait until next year to find out. All the episodes from this DVD looking back is very good in my opinion and I believe they still hold up in the test of time. It's not a perfect season as there are some dudded ones here and there.
BONUS DISC
The first series collection DVD to be released after BWBA being brand new. To be honest it wasn't as strange to watch these episodes today after seeing the freshened up series. However you can see the difference in the pacing of the stories of course. Does the series still hold up though after three years? I believe so. I still have a love for these episodes and I'm still amazed that, at the time, 21 years later we finally have three more Railway Series adapted stories, something that I thought would never happen given that the show is more focused on original stories not from the books. I honestly don't believe that we'll see more of these happening within the new series that we have today and I personally don't see it as a huge loss and I'll explain that later in my overall section.
I still love 'Diesel and The Ducklings'. Diesel to me is a very complex character and the episode makes him more of a third dimensional character and honestly I liked that much more than him being just a villain. It gives the moral that it's OK to showcase your soft side no matter how rough and tough you look and quite honestly, we need an episode like that in today's world. However I do wish that Duck was the one blackmailing Diesel about his soft side as he and Diesel have a bad history together and for Duck his message would be that revenge can't be sweet, of course this is what lead me to write the quadrilogy for my NWR Tales series.
The bonus DVD is pretty much a left over from probably some unsold copies of the 2017 tent pole DVD. There are still the DVD commercials for Thomas products like the now defunct 'Adventures' range and the 'My First Thomas' baby merchandise, not the Golden Bear toy range. I haven't seen the episodes from this DVD apart from 'Three Steam Engines Gruff' and I have a bit of a soft spot for it and I think it's the nostalgia that's talking as I do love the Thomas, Toby and Percy combo here. But looking outside from the rose coloured glasses of nostalgia, the episode is still a dud. To be honest this could've worked for the likes of Bill, Ben and Timothy.
Imagine that it was Halloween on Sodor and the twins love to play spooky tricks on the engines, especially Timothy. The twins made up a story about the three billy goats gruff to easily scare Timothy and one night there was a strange sound at the clay pits. Timothy told the twins who were shocked to hear that there is such a thing. The three engines heard the sound again realising that it was Trevor helping out Marion delivering some loose rock from a storm. This may sound similar to my Halloween story in 2018, of course the idea from that episode did come from SiF's blog review of 'Three Steam Engines Gruff'.
I'm still not a fan of Hugo. I felt his debut episode was rather flat. He was never given a reason to be on Sodor and compare his episode to 'Harvey to the Rescue'. In Harvey's episode, the engines criticised him for being different because he has a crane on top of his boiler however after Percy had an accident he proved his worth by rescuing him and the other engines found him useful because of it. In Hugo's episode, he was being put down upon because of the constant fear that the steam engines on Sodor might be replaced by him but because Percy saw how they were putting him down they cheer for him. It would've been better if Andrew Brenner had gone for Hugo trying prove his worth, in my opinion he could've worked alongside Daisy and she sees him as a threat to her, it could've been unique as we have a diesel fearing to be replaced by another diesel. Just like Salty fearing that Porter might replaced him in 'Away From the Sea' in S17. I remember hearing from SiF that there were going to be more plans for Hugo but I think with the production of BWBA being green lit and with that S21 had to be cut short, he was probably given the chop. However if Thomas goes to Germany in BWBA, perhaps he might interact with him there.
Another episode that I didn't find as entertaining is 'The Missing Breakdown Train'. It was nice to see Judy and Jerome again but the entire episode was almost nothing. It was two cranes wanting to be moved again and that's it not much else until Daisy fell off the line. I think a much better approach should be the two cranes wishing to be used for an emergency but Rocky was doing all the rescue work. But when Daisy had her accident, Thomas was to fetch Rocky but he was busy elsewhere and the only cranes were Judy and Jerome. After rescuing the search and rescue centre vehicles congratulated them and the Fat Controller made them members of the team. It would give off the message that two are better than one. Plus when it comes to the running time you can see why they made it shorter now. 8 3/4 minutes for such a minimal story relies so much on filler to fill in the time and I think this episode could maybe work within the new time limit. Honestly this was probably the weakest tent-pole release in my opinion. Not much of the episodes were interesting and the only one that was good was 'Henry In The Dark'.
OVERALL
Season 20 still holds up in my opinion but it's not a perfect season. There some good stories and there are some duds. I love the Railway Series adaptations that Brenner had brought in, but with the idea of them working in the series now, I don't see it as a huge loss. It's great that more of the Rev.W.Awdry's stories had been placed in the TV series canon but with the shorter running time and the fantasy sequences eating most of it up, I see it as impossible. But why isn't it a huge loss? If you look around on the internet you will find many fan made productions of the non-adapted stories in any form (Wood, Hornby, Bachmann, Trainz etc.) it may not be the TV series but it's the best of what we got. Plus when you look at the official YouTube channel, the Railway Series stories are still being told by Mark Moraghan's character, Mr. Evans, which was 'Thomas and the Guard'. I don't know how many shorts there are but I hope there are more to come.
RATING: 6.5/10
RATING: 6.5/10
