S24 Ep.2: World Of Tomorrow

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

WORLD OF TOMORROW

Written by

Laura Beaumont & Paul Larson

Director

Joey So

Produced by

Tracy Blagdon (Jam Filled)

Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)

Plot

Amid special demonstrations on Sodor, Thomas and the gang worry they'll be replaced by new inventions until a mission shows how useful they really are.

Air Date
1/05/20 - US

9/05/20 - AUS

To me, this wasn't a bad episode and although they had the 'fear of replacement' trope it didn't feel hammered down as what we got in the past. One of the things I loved from this episode is that they had added in women inventors, nice to see some encouragment towards the female audience that they can be anything. Plus it had some funny moments like Gordon getting covered all things metal, the Fat Controller getting covered in milk and controlling the robot and Baz and Bernie's antics. 

I've been hearing some fans saying that Sonny was more like Skiff but to be honest I see a major difference between the two. When we first met Sonny he was in part of Baz and Bernie's stealing spree but in this episode we see him wanting to be useful and that he had a change of character. Honestly I think Sonny was better than Skiff, yeah I know some fans treat Lost Treasure like an amazing thing but this is how I feel and you can see my recent views of the 2015 special later on this month. The thing is Sonny had some character development whereas Skiff sort of does but it felt very shortlived. 

The chase scene with Thomas, Gordon, Rebecca and Kenji was great and I like that they've acknowledged that Kenji runs of electricity and I was surprised to hear the mention of the Sodor Airport, which is funny because Paul Larson penned the 2005 special and I'm surprised that he'd mentioned it with Luara.

I do get it that the idea of hover cars and giant robots are an oddity for Thomas but I feel that it fits the 50's-70's timeline that Ian McCue had mentioned in an interview with 'The Big Issue'. At the time of the 1950's - 1960's, the idea of the 21st century sounded very futuristic and so the idea of flying cars, robots etc. was something to think about as that idea. The term for that is 'retrofuturism'. So I don't see a problem with all this over the top stuff since the idea of the 21st century back in those days does look ridiculous by today's standards. Kenji didn't offer much in this special but I suppose that's why he has an upcoming episode later on.

Looking at these two episodes, I feel that these were better than 'Digs and Discoveries' and these two specials kind of make the two episodic specials feel a bit more plain and underwhelming. All in all, this was good.

Series Rating (So far):

A New Arrival - 7/10

World of Tomorrow - 7/10

Overall Rating (So far):

14/20