March 2011 saw the eighteenth episode of Season 15 of Thomas & Friends...
...but before the review, the usual disclaimer:
The views below are entirely those of the author and not representative of the Sodor Island Forums as a whole.
On that note, it's time to get this review underway...
We're walking in the air,
We're dancing in the midnight sky,
And everyone who sees us,
Greets us as we fly.
---
Percy The Snowman
Writers: Lizzie Ennever
Thomas is charged with the important task of transporting the Fat Controller to the town square to switch on the Christmas lights.
Overall Impressions
The "Winter Holidays?"
When you are presenting a television series whose roots lie in the writings of a Reverend of the Christian faith (something which is made known at the start of every episode), a little more acknowledgment that the festival in question is Christmas, would not go amiss, surely?
There's a desire to involve Father Christmas, in order to no doubt make this episode more commercially viable, but aside from the "Christmas lights" comment from the Fat Controller, there's little acknowledgement that the part and presents are specifically for the holiday season's actual event.
That aside, it is specifically directed in this episode as "being for all the children of Sodor". It feels more and more like the children are shoehorned into every episode, to make the stories acceptable for children by including children in the story and CGI. It doesn't work, and it hasn't worked previously in the CGI Thomas & Friends. They are always just nameless children, who seem to have parties and presents galore, and "special specials" on an almost daily basis.
There's no real sense of the children being anything other than a vehicle on which to have a party. They don't go to school by train, they don't play sports, or do activities which real children do. They simply appear on cue and smile and cheer at the conclusion of a story.
It is therefore quite understandable when real children (those who watch this show), as I observed recently, find it difficult to relate to those animated children on screen. It's that sincere lack of a human quality in this series that has helped to make each and every episode this season rather bland and emotionless.
Even when the narrator tells you an engine is "unhappy" or "happy", and the animated face changes to suit, you don't feel that the emotion of the scene is really shining through, given the contrived nature of having a narrator describe each and every action and emotion. In this particular respect, the single narrator and model combination of the original series was much better at conveying emotions and a sense of urgency or drama.
A far better episode for working in and around the snow was Season 3's Thomas, Percy & The Christmas Adventure, which centred very much on the human characters, and their relationship with the engines and the railway which served them.
It is telling that in the Season 3 episode, not one human character's name was mentioned, only their job descriptions (driver, fireman, workman, fogman, townspeople and so on), yet the urgency of getting supplies to a stranded town of people, bringing hot drinks and clearing the rails and roads of snow, far outstripped the "special special" today for its human qualities.
Today's episode felt, and was, extremely manufactured. The "three strikes" format, as it has become known to fans and critics alike, was in full force, but thankfully whilst still contrived, was nowhere near as dangerous in moral or setup to yesterday's farcical episode.
It also highlighted another significant problem in the series: the engines no longer have set roles and places in the series. In days of old, Donald & Douglas, much missed and much loved Scottish Twins, would be the engines clearing the lines of snow, in order for the normal timetable of goods trains and passenger trains to continue their journeys. Thomas was only fitted with a snowplough originally in the television series because he worked a branchline: the twins handled the mainline which covers the majority of Sodor.
It is interesting to note that neither of the terms branchline or mainline have been used at all this season. The Big Station has been used, not as a place to pick up and set down passengers, but as a place to meet, greet, and be sent on their merry way to perform another "special special". There's a strange desire to name individual stations, but then not treat them as they were intended: railway stations.
That we have Gordon's Hill, but no Edward's Station (Wellsworth), and we have Arlsedale End (Toby's home) but no Elsbridge (the start of Thomas' Branchline), and we have Brendam Docks and "the quarry", but no Tidmouth and Little Western branchline, serves perhaps to show the problems of not having a set route or indeed, enough sets, to write episodes which flow from one scene to another in a progressive, logical fashion.
Railways are all about the journey from one place to another, and this episode continued the problems of previous episodes by not having a set route, simply destinations and transition shots without continuity. Engines do not fulfill roles: they are merely tools with which to pick up and play a story with.
The problems with a writing format such as this are compounded, because, as has been noted on the Sodor Island Forums and elsewhere, the characters then are characterless: they all fulfill and do the same roles and routines, and become so alike as to lose all personality. Every episode becomes bland, and boring, and dare I say it, identical to one other.
Creativity is stifled to the point whereby something which may look good on paper, when animated becomes dull, and in some not-as-rare-as-I'd-like cases, downright dangerous and inappropriate, as we saw yesterday with Wonky Whistle, and in Tuesday's Kevin the Steamie.
Final Conclusions With only two episodes left, it's clear that Season 15 has been the lowest point for the Thomas & Friends series in its history. At no other point in the history of the series has the fanbase been so unified in its agreement that the writing of the show has serious issues.
There's been mixed reactions to many of the episodes, ranging from loud protestations of mirth at the mixed morals being shown, and the extremely overused writing format, with poor alliterative narration and redundant dialogue.
It's strange to say, but today's episode was not so bad as the rest of the season. One small glimmer of hope in an otherwise dark abyss of substandard writing.
I plan to write a full season overview shortly after the final episode airs, to be put out on the blog next week sometime after much thought, debate, and re-reading of the comments on the Sodor Island Forums and elsewhere.
Suffice to say, as was pointed out to me recently, in order to help change Thomas for the better, we have to find negatives, point them out carefully and logically, and also quantify our views with evidence.
There's no point in slamming each and every episode anymore. If you've seen one Season 15 episode, you've pretty much seen them all. They have the same flaws and problems, though in some specific cases, truly worrying patterns emerging.
We have always known that Thomas & Friends in the new Millennium was essentially a television series designed to sell merchandise. They all are, and to be fair the original Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends sold incredible amounts of merchandise to parents and fans alike.
But it feels more and more like the series has sold its soul in the name of trying to attract or deflect attention from other television series. The Transformers-style Belle, the Fireman Sam vehicle, Flynn, Americanized engines in the Misty Island crew and even to some extent Hiro, all have felt shoehorned into the series to the extent of making Thomas & Friends something it has never been.
Today's episode did not try to do any of that, and that is where it succeeded, where the previous seventeen episodes failed. It did not by any means reach the high level of quality of the original series, but credit where credit is due, and Lizzie Ennever gets my vote as writer of the season thus far.
Given there are only five choices, with one name dominating the list most prominently, it was not a very hard act to follow, it must be said.
But to end the review on a high note for a change - I saw Henry, pulling a lovely long train of oil tankers, at least twelve - count them! TWELVE oil tankers!
And...yes! YESSSSS!!! A brakevan! Hallelujah!
Thank you Mr Greg Tiernan - that raised a great big grin for me. Henry the Green Engine pulling the length of trains he should always be pulling, and to boot, prototypical ones too.
Yes, I know it's sad and pedantic to some extent - but the possibilities of the CGI are boundless, and they've not even touched the surface on the types and variations of trains that the engines can pull yet.
Until tomorrow, the nineteenth episode of the season, and the last this week.
Individual Episode Score: 2/10 - Gordon and Ferdinand 4/10 - Toby and Bash 3/10 - Emily and Bash 5/10 - Edward The Hero 1/10 - James to the Rescue 2/10 - Happy Hiro 1/10 - Up, Up and Away! 3/10 - Henry's Happy Coal 2/10 - Let It Snow 2/10 - Surprise, Surprise 4/10 - Spencer the Grand 3/10 - Stop That Bus! 2/10 - Stuck on You 3/10 - Big Belle 1/10 - Kevin the Steamie 1/10 - Wonky Whistle
Total Season Score So Far: 40/170
Average Season Score So Far: 2.3/10
Quick Character Stats
Speaking Roles:
Thomas, Kevin, Victor, The Fat Controller, Farmer McColl, Bertie
Cameos:
Edward, Hiro, Percy, James, Bash, Toby, Mavis, Henry, Flynn
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