THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANDOM
BLACKOUT!
Written by
Brent Piaskosi
Directed by
Campbell Bryer
Produced by
Suzie Gallo
Air Date
18/09/22 - CAN
7/11/22 - USA
27/01/23 - UK
15/02/23 - AUS
Plot
After a huge storm hits the Island of Sodor, the power gets cut out. Thomas is tasked to deliver the generator to Knapford Station without getting stuck, but chooses to not get help from any of his friends.
The biggest problem that this episode has is consistency, which is ironic because the inconsistency of this episode was very consistent throughout. The first problem is the contridiction of the episode. We had an episode of a power outage in S1A and Gordon told the engines that all deliveries have to be postponed until the power returns because, as he was implying, that it can be dangerous. I mean the bridge was stuck, so why do they have to do some work?
I mean sure the power generator is important because people need power for things as it's just as important for the railway for all the infrastructure but why can't the episode be about Bulstrode trying to deliver the power generator to Knapford from Kellsthorphe, perhaps the storm, after dying down, is still lingering and he has to battle through the tough and stormy sea and he was either scared of sinking from the big waves or is having a tough time to do that. It would at least give him something to do and has for traits to his character instead of being a one note secondary character. It would at least respect the continuity, which is ironic because some people, who I respect as fans of AEG, had said that the show has a better timeline than the original series but doesn't seem like that to me after seeing this, though I'm not saying the latter was any better as well.
Speaking of Bulstrode, another error of consistency is that he'd stated that Knapford can't be reached by boat and clearly in previous episodes, Knapford station is CLEARLY near the shoreline, it was even like that in 'Shake, Rattle and Roll Bruno'! The previous episode!
Knapford can't be reached by sea? Is Bulstrode just lazy or incredibly stupid?
Also the logic is inconsistent, Gordon and Diesel get stuck in mud and yet Thomas can avoid it by jumping over it despite that the former two have the power as well. Yes Thomas hauling the heavy power generator made him stuck in the mud for the sake of conflict but neither Gordon nor Diesel were heavy since they were light as a feather thanks to AEG's logic.
If I have to give credit to this episode at least it wasn't a three strikes your out type of episode since Thomas' other ideas to avoid mud only happened twice and they failed and then he asked for help and sure it had a nice moral about teamwork, even though we had plenty of those episodes. But yes this episode was flawed and it could've been better to give to Bulstrode and explore traits for his character. I think that would be a much better episode than this.
Series Rating:
Fast Friends - 1/10
Percy Disappear - 5/10
Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10
Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10
Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10
New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10
Hot Air Percy - 2/10
Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10
Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10
Blackout - 2/10
Overall Rating (So far):
34/100