Classic Series Review Revisited - Series 7 (2003)

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

SERIES 7 (2003)

Written by

Jam Page

Paul Larson

Brain Trueman

Robyn Charteris

George Tarry

James Mason

David Mitton

Jenny McDade

Polly Churchill

Robin Kingsland

Lee Pressman

EPISODES

EMILY'S NEW COACHES

Honestly I think the story could've been better. I think they should've expanded on Thomas thinking that the new coaches were for him and he was wondering why and he saw Emily taking his ones, assuming his coaches were given to Emily instead. Thomas was cross and told the other engines that she was a thief. Then it turns out it was Thomas' ignorance that was the problem because the coaches were for Emily. But I think they wanted a reason to give Emily her new coaches. For that idea, maybe the episode could've gone as a two parter. Episode one is about Emily assuming that Annie and Clarabel were just random coaches and didn't ask permission, which annoyed Thomas and then episode two would be about Emily redeeming herself to Thomas. In the end, the episode was alright but it wasn't a strong opener in my opinion.

Rating: 4/10

PERCY GETS IT RIGHT

I think they should've gone with Gordon getting stuck in the mud instead of Thomas, perhaps the message that we should listen would've been better if they have gone with him instead. With Thomas it just felt mandated because he's the star of the show. I was going to add about the Fat Controller ignoring Percy but I think the intention was to showcase that he's not at all perfect and should've listened to one of his engines. Anyway, the episode was alright but could've been better. 

Rating: 4/10 

BILL, BEN AND FERGUS

I feel that Fergus was introduced just to give Bill and Ben something to work with. While I understand that Fergus' persona is him being fussy about the rulebook and a goody two shoes with a big heart. The plot feels like your generic 'Bill and Ben causing trouble' story.

Rating: 3/10 

THE OLD BRIDGE

I look back at this episode and realise that probably had given this episode too much flak. Yes, Skarloey is an old and wise engine but he can be immune from being scared about anything. We never saw him dealing with an old bridge before so I think this episode is nice to give him some traits and it showcases that he's an engine with some flaws too rather than being the one dimensional wise old engine.

Rating: 7/10

EDWARD'S BRASS BAND

Honestly, it's nice to see Edward with an episode that is not him proving his own worth to someone like Gordon or James but despite that, this episode didn't bring out anything new towards him. There was conflict but it was not done by him and nor he deserves. I think it was trying to show that things can go south but he was repaired and rewarded in the end as if that message doesn't even matter. To me this is another mandated Edward episode. It's good that they thought outside the box but sadly there was nothing new and you can see why writers would rather stick with Edward dealing with him being old or proving his own worth at times over the years before they replaced him with Nia in 2017. Please don't take my word about Edward as if I'm sort of a Mattel 'shill' or a 'bootlicker', honestly, unlike some people. Not every decision they make is great or flawless and I like Edward and Henry, but if you like to have characters who are out there proving there worth to a superior or having to deal with an illness over and over and over again to the point they are flanderised or having episodes where there characters are tarnished for good for those who enjoy them back when they were kids then there'll be problems. The two work well as secondary characters in my opinion, as they were in some Railway Series stories. They can't hold an episode to themselves.

Rating: 3/10

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HENRY?

One thing I'll say, I like that they add Emily in the show more but her original persona is kind of like of how fans reacted to with Nia's persona when she was first introduced and honestly I'm glad that they had changed up her persona in S8 to give her more conflict, say what you want about S8 but at least they weren't afraid to try something different. While it was nice to see Emily being this big sister type character, she feels very one dimensional and take a look at her right now, she hardly has any episode, though are some upcoming ones this year and we had one back in 2019 but with that nice persona it doesn't make her interesting. OK I digress, as with the episode. I feel that this is another mandated episode for the sake of giving Henry an episode and it's quite odd to go back with him being sick only that they resolved it quickly this time rather then being for a whole series until nearing its end. I remember hearing a few months ago on twitter, one person pointed out everyone else ignored Henry's illness but there's one problem, they had done that back in series 1. I'm not saying that the person was wrong, there are people in the world who do that sadly. But the idea of Henry being ill for this episode just feels forced and unoriginal and adds nothing new for Henry and we would see this again further down the track during the 'new series' era. 

Rating: 2/10

JAMES AND THE QUEEN OF SODOR

This was your typical James is a splendid engine story, not the best episode I've seen but it was decent. I think maybe they should've made James dirty when he crashed into the pipe of sludge just to add some conflict and a message that you can't keep clean all the time, although as of writing this, it feels strange to say that since we have to keep clean because of COVID-19, wash your hands thoroughly. 

Rating: 6/10

THE REFRESHMENT LADY'S TEA SHOP

I do like this episode and it's also good that we have an episode that gives the message that we need to think outside of the box and that there are solutions to some problems. I also like how they paired up Peter Sam with the refreshment lady again after three seasons and the episode fits with his kind hearted side of his persona. 

Rating: 8/10

THE SPOTLESS RECORD

I honestly think this would've worked better with James since he and Arthur share something in common. They both like to keep clean. Plus this could've served as a sequel to 'James & The Queen of Sodor' if they had gone with that idea, have James feeling very annoyed that there was an engine being better than him at being clean and the other engines were praising him as well and not giving James any sort of attention. It's much better than Thomas because his, according to the Wikia, jealously towards Arthur was just out of nowhere and he was just a complete jerk for no reason. I mean that was in character in this era but with what he was in the first series there was a reason why he was like towards Terence. He was different and thought he was funny looking with his caterpillar tracks. That was until he realised that he was useful in the end. As for the episode was good though and Arthur's character was decent too. In the end, the episode was good but it could've been better.

Rating: 7/10

TOBY'S WINDMILL

I think this episode showcased that we should help those in times of need. There's really not much else to say then that this episode was decent.

Rating: 8/10

BAD DAY AT CASTLE LOCH

They should've reworked the script because this episode had wasted away its potential to become a better story. Donald and Douglas do play jokes and I think they should've gone with one of the twins playing a joke on one another to see who is more brave when they go to Lord Callan's castle. It the episode feels like they went with this 'We have a scottish castle episode who should be the characters? I know Donald and Douglas.' I feel like they went with that idea because their are scottish twins. It's good that they added some scottish culture in but I wish they did more with the twins. 

Rating: 3/10

RHENEAS AND THE ROLLER COASTER

Reading in the triva section of the episode on the Thomas wikia, the original idea was to have Peter Sam doing the tour and that he wanted the tour to be over and done with. But perhaps instead of Peter Sam or Rheneas since they'd developed the script, why not Duncan or if he were in this series, Sir Handel? Both characters seem to fit perfectly for that role and the original idea seems to be much more better compare to this. Honestly writing for the narrow gauge engines isn't easy, that's why you don't see much of them in my series. From my experience I feel that in order to have conflict with them it works with Sir Handel and Duncan mostly and maybe with Peter Sam and whenever I have idea that could work for them, I usually groan because I get tired writing stories for them. Rheneas is a good character but with personality he doesn't have an episode that would make him lead. I know I had mentioned about 'thinking outside of the box' but even so it's hard to think what could work for him outside of his persona. Sure he wants to make something memorable for the school kids but maybe have Rheneas go around the railway and he thinks he had done nothing special but it turns out he did and that was kids knowing more about the places and sites because history can be fun and exciting in the end, yeah a bit of cliche but it could work without the whole roller coaster business.

Rating: 3/10

SALTY'S STORMY TALE

Honestly this episode could've been improved. While I think Thomas and Percy's teasing scene is a good way for kids to learn not to hurt anyone's feelings, since this world is full of some who don't consider that, I feel what they should've done was have Thomas and Percy bored of Salty's stories because they were the same and sometimes very unbelievable which hurts Salty and then the storm happened. It would give the message that there's always something new. I think the episode was alright but not great.

Rating: 4/10

SNOW ENGINE

I think this episode was nice and it was good to see an expansion on Oliver's character but then again this could've gone to any character to be honest. But yeah it was nice and some nice development from Oliver when it comes to snow. 

Rating: 7/10

SOMETHING FISHY

This episode was alright. Nice to see more of Arthur and seeing him having an interest in something. But I feel that the episode was just there. I think maybe they could've introduce another character just for this episode and have him rivaling up on Arthur into getting his own line to make him feel important and he got it because maybe he had sabotaged Arthur's work or something. I feel like that every episode from this series that I've reviewed there's going to be ways that I think would work much better. I don't hate this episode but I think it could've been better.

Rating: 4/10

THE RUNAWAY ELEPHANT

I think this episode was quite good with its message that we should be safe then sorry. Plus it shows the importance of brake vans too on a railway, yeah and we all know what happened in the next series onwards of course. But aside from that this was still a decent episode

Rating: 8/10

PEACE AND QUIET

I honestly find it a bit confusing that we have an engine who wants peace and quiet when really he's an engine that makes noise. But I think with the episode it shows that there are worse noises out there. But yeah I don't have much of a problem with this episode apart from Murdoch's character.

Rating: 7/10

FERGUS BREAKS THE RULES

I think it could've been better that if it were Diesel who was to find Fergus. It would be a punishment for tricking him to make Fergus leave the cement works. Plus there is one little annoying nitpick, that camera zoom to the Fat Controller at the end of the episode. What was that? It was there what was it there for? The story was OK though.

Rating: 5/10 

BULGY RIDES AGAIN

Not much to say for this episode. It was nice to see Bulgy again, before his 14 year come back. But taking away his hatred of the railway kind of made him uninteresting in this episode that trait at least made him interesting. It was alright but not great.

Rating: 4/10

HAROLD AND THE FLYING HORSE

I think the story could've been about Harold going to take part of the fair giving rides to children. But was called to do some rescue operations, one of them being rescuing pegasus. He would be upset by this and would miss out but it would give the message that we all have to make sacrifices in the end. The story was nice and all and Percy's ignorance about flying horses was funny to say the least. 

Rating: 8/10

THE GRAND OPENING

While I was watching the episode, I thought the Fat Controller was being ungrateful to Skarloey for being late despite that he was working hard. But I think after seeing it in full, he was grateful to see him after his balloon incident with his wife. So a blessing in disguise. I was thinking this should've been another Fat Controller shenanigans episode but it might've become a retread of 'Lady Hatt's Birthday Party'. I think the overall episode was good. 

Rating: 8/10

BEST DRESSED ENGINE

The maypole scene was just useless filler in my opinion since it adds nothing to the story. You could've added a scene of Thomas delivering the decorations to the sheds that were for the dress up competition. But the episode itself was good and it shows that dressing up can be fun no matter what, like cosplaying. 

Rating: 8/10

GORDON AND SPENCER

To me out of all the new characters that were introduced in this series, Spencer was probably the most interesting character and this episode is probably the best of the this series alone. On the surface it's pretty much a Gordon is jealous of Spencer episode but after listening to an audio book about Flying Scotsman, they had mentioned that the A4's took over the major expresses on the LNER (e.g - The Flying Scotsman service) and the A3's, the engines that Gordon is based on, were left to do secondary trains. So the whole rivalry between them feels a lot more deeper. To me this almost feels like something out from the Railway Series. Yeah, the running out of water stuff that Spencer faced is probably the easist reason for him to learn his lesson, but honestly it didn't bother me.

Rating: 10/10

NOT SO HASTY PUDDINGS

The episode was nice and its message is that everyone can be reliable was nice too. It's pretty much that to be honest.

Rating: 8/10

TRUSTY RUSTY

So this is where the whole 'no coal makes engine stop' thing started. To be honest, this little thing was annoying and I'm glad that they had started to acknowledge that it is water, when it runs out, that stops an engine from running in the current series. I also think Duncan's insult towards Rusty was just stupid, sure it's a way to make Duncan learn later on but it just sounds more like a petty insult. Perhaps what they should've done was to have Duncan feel stubborn saying that he crossed that bridge plenty of times and didn't see anything wrong with it. In the end, the episode was average. It had a good message that we should obey the signs and don't doubt about dangerous situations. 

Rating: 5/10

THREE CHEERS FOR THOMAS

The episode almost feels like 'Thomas and Bertie' with the race sequence but the entire episode itself gave me a Christopher Awdry feeling towards it. Like in the style of those one shot story books that he wrote back in 1990's like 'Thomas and the Dinosuar' and 'Thomas and the Tiger'. But I also like how Thomas was putting the children and their medals first instead of the race, shows how much Thomas has grown and I feel like it was a great episode to serve the end of the classic series era as well. It was started with Thomas episode and it ended with one too. So yeah another great episode on par with 'Gordon and Spencer' from the series.

Rating: 10/10

OVERALL

I'll be honest, despite some good episodes, this series did feel really weak and it had some traits that would lead into the 'new series' era like no coal makes the engine stop, lack of brake vans, Henry's illness, the too nice personas from some engines etc. I also feel that some of the stories had so much more potential then what they really were and while the new characters have the best designs some have the weakest personalities. Emily in this series was nice of course but that was it and it made her bland and uninteresting. I'll be honest, with the way HIT made her as a bossy engine I think that was a great move because it made her not perfect and with a serious flaw. She is sort of like that nowadays, her S7 persona, in the show and she barely had many episodes despite being part of the 'steam team'.

Fergus I think is the weakest newbie of them all. I understand that he didn't comeback post-S7 because his model was broken by the rockslide in the second episode, but it would be great to expand him. I feel that he was more of a prop then a character. But now with the show being CGI for well over a decade, Fergus could make a comeback in the series. Sam Wilkinson, wheather you love him or hate him, works for the show and could give reference material, like photographs, to whoever will be animating the show, since Jam Filled aren't animating the show anymore. I feel there is potential in him for more stories, perhaps he would be great with Bradford.

I will say the sets and everything was a bit more better than what S6 had done and with the narration, I think Micheal Angelis had toned down the enthusiasm way too much and it was more gentle and soft spoken and I feel that they told him not to shout like he had previously. One other thing that annoyed me was the sound effects, I feel that they were all turned down for no reason. You couldn't hear much of the whistles, chuffing noises etc.

 S7 was nice but did feel weak storywise.

OVERALL RATING
154/260

And that is it, I definetly had alot of opinion changes years after my first reviews. Will I delete my 2012-13 posts? Not really. I want to keep them up because I want to show people how far I came reviewing these episodes. Well next thing I'll be reviewing soon is 'The Royal Engine' DVD and then later on I'll be reviewing the specials (KOTR-TGR). Will I revisit the Jack and the Pack episodes? Maybe one day in the future but not right now. Thanks for reading these reviews and I'll be seeing you real soon.

- NWR1991.