The Skarloey Five (Thomas & Friends)
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 The five poorest episodes from an already disappointing season (Season 12) serve as a prime illustration of how not to write The Skarloey Railway episodes.
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"Mountain Marvel", "The Party Surprise", "Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon", "The Man in the Hills", and "Push Me, Pull You!" are five episodes from the twelfth season of Thomas & Friends. It aired between September 4 to September 25, 2008, in the UK.
Why All Five of Them Caused Confusion and Delay
In General
- The main critique of these five episodes is their lack of the distinctive charm found in earlier Skarloey Railway episodes, particularly those from Seasons 4-7, and to some degree, Seasons 9-11. Although Seasons 9-11 were not the pinnacle for Skarloey episodes, with titles like "Skarloey the Brave" falling short, they still contained some hidden treasures. In contrast, the Skarloey Railway episodes in Season 12 derail in various aspects that could have been easily avoided or mitigated.
- Each episode follows a predictable, formulaic pattern akin to a typical Season 12 episode. The railway controller announces something special, prompting an engine to volunteer. The engine then makes mistakes three times and eventually finds trouble, either by accident or design. Subsequently, the engine admits, "It's all my fault!" and offers an apology. After rectifying their errors, everyone is content, and the story concludes.
- The pacing is tedious and monotonous, so much so that it's comparable to the sluggish crawl of a snail or the slow climb of a sloth ascending a staircase.
- These episodes surpass the Skarloey episodes from Seasons 9-11 in terms of flaws, showcasing an abundance of glaring mistakes. They are riddled with continuity errors, out-of-character actions, and illogical decisions, highlighting the numerous issues present in all five episodes.
- As usual, the narration, which frequently points out the obvious, seldom falls silent. This even detracts from certain scenes, such as the crashes in "Push Me, Pull You!" and the crash scene in "Mountain Marvel."
- As typical for Season 12, the combination of animation and live-action has been executed poorly.
- These episodes generally fail to impart any lessons, as they lack a moral, with the exceptions of "The Party Surprise," which presents a positive model, and "Push Me, Pull You," which requires further information.
- The episodes in question concluded the Skarloey Railway-themed series on a disappointing note, with none of the five episodes being particularly memorable. Consequently, the Skarloey engines did not make a reappearance until four years later in both Season 16 and "Blue Mountain Mystery". Duncan's return was delayed until Season 18, while Mighty Mac and Freddie disappeared from the series following those episodes, never to be seen or mentioned again.
- The five episodes in question did not influence the Thomas and Friends franchise, as the events they depicted were never referenced again. You can enjoy any episode from the 1984-2020 series, omitting the five Season 12 Skarloey episodes, without missing any significant content.
Mountain Marvel
- Similar to its counterpart, "The Magic Lamp," the episode comes across more as a television commercial than a genuine episode.
- The statue of Proteus isn't even a statue of Proteus, it's a Sir Handel statue!
- Peter Sam's milk churn train has no brake van, which means that Peter Sam is screwed!
- Peter Sam telling Duncan, Freddie, and Mighty Mac not to take the shortcut feels repetitive, not only has it taken 53 seconds to get to the point, but it would have been easily cut short to 10 seconds before getting to the point.
- Plot hole: How come Peter Sam's brakes were dysfunctional in the first place?
- It started the second downfall of Thomas & Friends, and it didn't recover until Andrew Brenner became the head writer in season 17.
The Party Surprise
- Colin is portrayed as a rather superfluous character, lacking an introduction, backstory, or any character development. He epitomizes the archetypal one-off character created solely for merchandising purposes, similar to many characters from the HiT era, and is devoid of any discernible personality. His appearance is limited to this single episode.
- It's also puzzling how he suddenly appears in season 12 at the wharf, despite the wharf having been introduced back in season 9.
- In the UK version, Freddie is portrayed with an Irish accent, while in two other episodes from the same season, "Mountain Marvel" and "The Man in the Hills," he is depicted with a Welsh accent, which is an infrequent choice for Angelis.
- At one point, he addresses Mr. Percival, his wife, and children, saying, "The party is now at the Wharf," in James' Liverpudlian accent.
- Indeed, it's yet another episode that refers to Christmas as Winter Holidays.
- The story of this episode lacks development, leading to a monotonous experience.
- The train laden with gifts that Peter Sam was pulling could have been carried in narrow gauge mail trucks rather than on flatbeds.
- Freddie, being an old and wise engine, ought to consult Mr. Percival before deciding to organize the Christmas party at the wharf on his own.
- The narrator saying "Colin was puzzled, but he still had other work to do." is not only obvious but repetitive and irritating.
- Two inquiries regarding the scene after Mr. Percival reprimands Colin:
- How could Mr. Percival fail to realize that the tree, lights, and presents were intended for the party?
- Why would Mr. Percival instruct Colin to unload the three items if they were intended for his own party?
Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon
- This episode is one of the few in the series where Duncan behaves out of character. While the episode aims to reveal a more amiable side of Duncan, contrasting his usual stubbornness, this approach was successfully executed in "Duncan Does it All." However, in this particular episode, Duncan is depicted as somewhat foolish, deviating significantly from his established personality for the sake of this single narrative.
- The hot air balloon is inflated on the flatbed. If you remember "James and the Red Balloon", the same balloon Thomas was delivering to Dryaw was deflated before it would become inflated later in the episode. Here because this episode is dense from any reality or logic, they show a fully inflated balloon.
- Continuity error: Thomas does not remember what the red hot air balloon looked like despite having pulled it before.
- The general episode is the model-era version/equivalent of "Up, Up, and Away!", which is an even worse episode than this episode, and to put one exception; "Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon" aired in 2008, three years before "Up, Up, and Away!".
- The front buffers on Duncan's flatbed biffing the basket would easily break the basket.
- Duncan's shenanigans, not only are they forced, feel rather pointless since Duncan can just deliver the balloon without making any ideas anyway because delivering the balloon to Mr. Percival's house is far too easy to come up with any ideas at all.
- If Duncan was told to only deliver the balloon to Mr. Percival's house, then why the heck did he not tell Duncan that he was to pick up Mr. Percival's twin children earlier? This whole inconsistent mess could have been easily avoided/prevented if Mr. Percival sent another one of his engines to pick up the twins so he could give them his balloon ride before Duncan suggested his idea to set things right.
- Duncan's flag would have been easily burnt by puffing really hot steam and ashes coming from his funnel.
The Man in the Hills
- This is another episode where Thomas is depicted so foolishly that it enables the plot to unfold.
- This episode depicts Thomas as not only utterly foolish but also as visually impaired. He mistakes both a dairyman and a miller for the Man in the Hills, despite it being expected that he would recognize the difference between them.
- Two plot holes in the same episode lead to asking questions:
- If Duncan, Rusty, Skarloey, and Rheneas are responsible for transporting decorations, flowers, banners, and balloons, then why are they hanging out at the Wharf instead of performing their duties?
- How did Skarloey, Rheneas, Duncan, and Rusty know which jobs they were given to each engine?
- Sir Handel's explanation of the Man in the Hills may seem like inadequate research, even though the episode is a tribute to The Long Man of Wilmington.
- Questioning the statement "no one has ever seen the Man in the Hills" seems reasonable when there are railway tracks adjacent to it, suggesting accessibility and the likelihood of passers-by.
- This episode is known for introducing the know-it-all aspect to Thomas' flanderized personality. How could Thomas be aware of the Man in the Hills without having seen or heard about him before?
- Distinct from the previous three episodes, this one features a notable use of alliteration and rhyming.
- Sir Handel's accusation towards Thomas, "You said you'd bring the best present of all! Now Mr. Percival doesn't have any presents, and we're all late!" comes across as hypocritical since the narrow gauge engines are neglecting their duties and hanging out at the Wharf instead.
- Transporting a birthday cake in the cab of an engine may result in the cake melting before Thomas and Freddie arrive at Mr. Percival's birthday celebration by the episode's end.
- Indeed, it may be deemed unnecessary to use an engine for delivery when someone else could simply transport the cake to Mr. Percival's birthday party by road.
- Thomas' crew could have informed Thomas about the Man in the Hills rather than Sir Handel.
Push Me, Pull You!
- Skarloey and Rheneas are 100% miscast choices since this idea for the episode could be for Bill and Ben instead of two brother engines who have lived longer on Sodor than any other engine.
- The plot is downright abysmal: Skarloey refuses Rheneas' help to pull a train for a puppet show and ends up playing games with Rheneas when both decide to play tug of war to show which engine is the strongest.
- This is another one of those rare episodes with both brothers acting like little kids rather than old wise engines.
- Skarloey is at his absolute worst in this episode, as his flanderization has gone way too far.
- When being asked for help from Rheneas considering that he is doing it very hard, Skarloey downright refuses help because he wants to be very strong. This is Skarloey at his most childish, even worse than how he acted in.
- Somehow Skarloey doesn't get any consequence for his actions. Sure he crashed into a river, but he was never scolded by the Fat Controller or Mr. Percival. This normally happens back in Seasons 1-7, and even Seasons 8-11. But here, he has to go fix the mess he created because a story needs that to happen so Skarloey can redeem himself.
- Sometimes, it's necessary for an engine/engines to fix a mistake they saw how they caused confusion and delay, but here, no one would be that stupid to let that slide because Skarloey was responsible for screwing around and he was the one responsible for causing the party stuff to be ruined. So no, there is no point in letting Skarloey go fix the mess but get no punishment.
- Rheneas himself is also unlikable, (particularly at the beginning, though a little and nowhere near as bad as Skarloey) as he also battles to take the puppet show along with Skarloey.
- There was no reason for Skarloey to run loose during the second and third strikes, which means the last two crashes for the episode were completely pointless and unnecessary the entire time.
- This episode sends a bad message to children that you can refuse help from others all the time and cause a ton of problems.
- Idiot move: When Rusty saw Skarloey losing control, he just straight up stops in Skarloey’s way. If Rusty still kept on going, Skarloey would have passed him! Why couldn’t he do that or speed up a little when he sees Skarloey losing control?
- It's worth noting that Rusty becomes upset with Skarloey, despite being the one responsible for the crash by stopping in front of him.
- As typical as it is, the constant narration never shuts up during the crash scenes, which is obvious because the amount of narration in general never takes a break.
- Although Skarloey is not portrayed as a hypochondriac pansy who is scared over the smallest things without any reason, he is still portrayed as a childish engine anyway. But unlike the wimpy Skarloey episodes, he's selfish.
- Duncan and Rusty served no purpose to the story (neither did Thomas). Rusty and Duncan served as test subjects for the sake of the three-strikes formula to run rampant.
- Like the typical Season 12 episode would be, the mixture of live-action and animation hasn't aged well (Well, especially for 2008 standards) and goes off and on in some parts.
- The CGI faces for Skarloey are creepy. If you take a look at how bulgy his pupils are in his eyes, you can tell it's more creepy-inducing than nightmare-fuel-looking.
- Overall, this is by far the worst of the Skarloey Railway episodes in not just Season 12, but the entire show. Not only that, it ended the Skarloey Railway episodes in the model era on a sour note. To quote a line from Johnny Test, "Woah. Didn't see that coming."
Redeeming Qualities
In General
- The concepts for the other four Season 12 Skarloey episodes are interesting. A balloon ride for Mr. Percival's twins, a Man in the Hills, a party at the Wharf, and a puppet show train. If they were executed properly.
- The narrow gauge engines would return to their normal personalities starting in Season 16 and also "Blue Mountain Mystery".
- Although the narration inserting was annoying, both Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon still put their effort into their narration for both respective English dubs.
- "Mountain Marvel", "Push Me, Pull You!", "Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon", and "The Party Surprise" are the only episodes without any alliteration and rhyming. The alliteration is used only when Peter Sam is telling Duncan, Freddie, and Mighty Mac not to go to a shortcut, and is proof the alliteration in that episode is minimal.
- Thankfully, none of the specials from these episodes given to each of the engines were called "special specials".
- The model and live-action work for Season 12 is still good if only HiT Entertainment stuck with either CGI or general live-action instead of both.
- Fearless Freddie and Mighty Mac are still likable characters.
Mountain Marvel
- It is quite nice to know Proteus was not forgotten, let alone give out facts this episode is a sequel to "The Magic Lamp".
- One of the crash sound effects used from the Classic Series returns once again in the scene where Peter Sam crashes his milk train into the buffers after losing control.
- There's no 3 strikes formula in this episode! Thank Jeebus!
- The shot where the camera moves an angle a bit during the scene where Freddie stops by Peter Sam is quite nice to look at.
- Out of all the episodes in the Skarloey Five, it is the least bad of the bunch as there are people such as Thomas Cynic and Can You See Fish who consider this episode decent/good.
The Party Surprise
- Freddie and Colin's chemistry is a great idea for an episode if only the latter was also properly executed.
- We finally get to see Mr. Percival's twin children, even though they were minor characters.
- This episode does show a good moral that you should ask first before doing something later.
- For once we did get a character who is a narrow gauge railway equivalent of Cranky, albeit only one episode.
Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon
- The animation with the funnel smoke looks pretty good, although not the best.
- Duncan reacting to the balloon floating down on the top of a bridge is somewhat funny.
The Man in the Hills
- The episode was a semi-nice homage to the Long Man of Wilmington and pays some tribute to British culture.
- There are only TWO strikes for this episode. That's right, just TWO!
- The animation for the miller is clever and creative. He is fully white at first until when comes out of Thomas' cab, all the flour comes off after Thomas takes him to the Wharf.
Push Me, Pull You
- Even though Skarloey still acted out of character in that episode, at least he no longer has his wimpy hypochondriac side maintained since it was never used again after "Skarloey Storms Through" from Season 11.
Reception
The five Skarloey Railway episodes from Season 12 weren't received well and met with negative reception from most of the fans of the original 1984 Thomas and Friends series due to the poor storytelling and predictable executions for each plot. Though a lot of fans said "Push Me, Pull You" is the worst episode out of all of the five for all the reasons why, and of course, no one was surprised or happy this was the send-off for the Skarloey Railway episodes in model form.
"Mountain Marvel" and "The Man in the Hills both received a 3.2/10, "The Party Surprise" received a 3.9/10, "Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon" received a 3.5/10, and "Push Me, Pull You!" received a 2.8/10 all on iMDB.com.
Videos
Trivia
- Concept art indicates that Colin was initially set to reappear in "King of the Railway," but he was ultimately omitted from the final version for undisclosed reasons.
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