The Flying Kipper (Thomas & Friends)

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"The Flying Kipper"
"I'm sending you to Crewe, a fine place for sick engines. They'll give you a new shape and a larger firebox."
Series: Thomas & Friends Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 19 Air Date: 11 December 1984 (UK) 30 April 1987 (AUS) 13 November 1987 (NZ) 2 April 1989 (US, Ringo Starr) 27 September 1990 (US/CAN, Ringo Starr, VHS) 13 August 1993 (US, George Carlin) Writer: Rev. W. Awdry (original story) Britt Allcroft and David Mitton (adaptation) Director: David Mitton Previous episode: Coal / Henry's Special Coal Next episode: Whistles and Sneezes

The Flying Kipper is the nineteenth episode of the first series. It is based on the story of the same name from the Railway Series book Henry the Green Engine.

Plot

Henry is chosen to pull the "Flying Kipper". However, ice jams the points and snow forces down a signal, leading Henry to crash.

Why It Rocks

1. It remains highly faithful to the Railway Series story from which it is adapted.
2. The music here is very passable.
3. The dawn sequence to the winter scenery is one of the most beautiful to look at.
4. Henry's crash, the first on-screen one in the series, is very realistic.
5. After Henry's accident, the Fat Controller sends him to Crewe, where he's given a new shape and a larger firebox, allowing him to go back to using regular Coal again and ending his illness.

Bad Qualities

1. Henry's crash scene, and the moments leading up to it, are quite disturbing. In the original book, the crash is treated with a touch of humor involving the two trains' firemen, Henry's gets stuck headfirst in the snow and the goods train's lamenting over his spilled cocoa. Despite both trains' crews escaping in time, the episode portrays Henry's crash as completely serious, and it shows human life in jeopardy.
2. A blooper involving Henry: in his final two close-ups, he appears in his original shape instead of his new one. In the episode "Coal", there is an almost identical close-up of Henry in his new shape. This suggests that the episodes were filmed at the same time and the editors accidentally used the wrong footage.
3. Regrettably, the narrative inconsistency regarding Henry's need for special coal, which had been eliminated, resurfaced in "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" and Seasons 10-16 without explanation. Fortunately, this issue was later addressed and fixed.

Trivia

• Henry's accident was loosely inspired by the Abbots Ripton rail accident that occurred on the East Coast Main Line at Abbots Ripton in what was then Huntingdonshire on the evening of 21 January 1876.
• This marks:
  • The first episode to feature an on-screen crash and derailment.
  • The first episode where Henry derails and/or gets into an accident.
  • The one of the few episodes in the US dubs where the word "caboose" was used instead of brake van.
  • The only episode to keep its two yellow splits transitioning from the intro when it was aired individually.
  • The first appearance of Henry's stuffed-up face.
  • The last appearance of Henry's surprised face until the third series episode, Henry's Forest and ill face until the fifth series episode, Something in the Air.
• One of the workmen at the harbour just before Henry sets off resembles Ringo Starr.
• While the narrator talks about the harbour, there is an engine seen moving in the background; this is the unmodified Märklin Engine.
• The brake van that Henry collides with has additional side windows.
• In both US narrations, the term "guard" is used at one point when Henry's train with the Flying Kipper was ready to go, marking the first time a conductor is called by its original British term in the US dub.
• The original Railway Series story displayed an angry goods train fireman waving his empty mug while venting at Henry over his spilt cocoa after Henry crashed into the goods train, this wasn't present in the television adaptation as the scene where Henry wakes up dazed and surprised is played more seriously than the original story,
• The events were later mentioned by Gordon in the next episode and Off the Rails and later mentioned by Thomas in the twenty-fourth series episode Thomas and the Royal Engine. Additionally, a reference to the line, "This is good cocoa," is also made in the twentieth series episode Love Me Tender.
• The two shots where the narrator says, "The Fat Controller came to see him," and when the Fat Controller said, "won't that be nice?" are both freeze frames.
• Thanks to the increased clarity of the restored footage, it shows the engine at the front of the goods train to be James. It is confirmed that James was pulling the goods train that Henry crashed into the brake van of at the time, since he is nowhere to be seen at the sheds at the beginning of the episode. The shape of his cab windows just as Henry approaches the goods train from behind also gives this away. This is also coupled with the fact that he can be seen pushing some trucks at the scene of Henry's accident.
• Henry loses his wheel splashers after his rebuild but he later regains them in the second series.
• In the restored version, most of the nighttime footage from when Henry passes Knapford Sheds to when he lands on his side during the accident is framed lower than on the original print. While thought to be due to film deterioration, it would not make sense as the camera recorded vertically and any damage to the tops of the frame would show on the bottom of the next one. It was likely done to hide the top of the set backdrop which is visible as Henry passes through Wellsworth in the original print. The rest of the footage was possibly left lower by accident when trying to correct the framing of this one scene.
• When Henry flies off the rails, his impact with the ground very obviously jars the surrounding trucks and crates; this effect was not simulated but was instead a direct result of his very heavy Märklin chassis slamming onto the set.
• Two deleted scenes from the previous episode are used.
• This and the next episode were the last two episodes of the first series repeated in 1987 on Children's ITV until Thomas' Christmas Party on Wednesday, 30 December.
• This episode and the next episode are the first episodes being introduced by Matthew Kelly on 2 December 1984. Kelly also introduced the following two episodes before his departure from Children's ITV as the remaining two episodes were used as standalone episodes on Christmas Day of that year. Due to this, Children’s ITV briefly ended until 7 January 1985 with constituent programmes all introduced by Roland Rat, who introduced the final episodes on 8 January, thus finally ending the series since its debut.
• The JEI TV version of the Korean narration added subtitles to inform viewers what a yellow signal is.
• In George Carlin's dub and the Japanese one, the brake sound effect when Henry slips on the icy rails is different from both Ringo Starr's dubs and other international ones.
• The sound effect when Henry crashed into the brake van was heard in the 1983 film The Wind in the Willows.

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