Thomas And The New Engine (Thomas & Friends)
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 After this episode, Thomas & Friends would not be the same again for a long time.
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Thomas And The New Engine is the eleventh episode of the ninth season of Thomas & Friends. It aired on October 9th 2005.
Why It Has Bad Rumors
- The Steam Team, with the exception of Toby, Gordon, and Henry, are portrayed as quite unlikable since they, especially Thomas, spread rumors among themselves about Neville harboring a dislike for steam engines.
- Thomas, specifically, initiates the rumor simply because he observes 'Arry and Bert laughing at Neville and hastily concludes that they are friends, despite lacking any proof.
- The other steam engines are quick to jump to conclusions, simply because they heard the rumor from Thomas without giving it a second thought. Eventually, the rumor morphs into one where Neville is going to bash into all the steam engines, even though Thomas had only mentioned seeing 'Arry and Bert laugh at Neville.
- Even Edward participates in the act, and he is a wise and kind engine!
- The notion that a steam engine interacting and forming friendships with diesels is considered preposterous, despite the fact that they have all formed bonds with diesels like Mavis, Salty, BoCo, Daisy, and many others in the past. It seems contradictory, doesn't it?
- Regarding Thomas, this is one of the episodes from the HiT model era that depicts him in a less favorable light, portraying him as unintelligent and unlikable.
- This episode essentially revisits the theme of "Thomas and The Rumors" from the fifth season. Besides being a superior episode, it conveyed an important lesson to viewers about not listening to rumors, a moral that is lacking in this one.
- As usual in Seasons 8-10, Emily is portrayed as unlikeable, being rude to Neville simply because he greeted her, a reaction stemming from the rumor spread by Thomas.
- It should be noted that Emily's character is written with inconsistency. Initially, she rebukes Neville for attempting to befriend her, having prematurely believed Thomas' baseless rumor. Subsequently, she speaks reasonably to Thomas, reminding him of the racist rumor he propagated.
- Like in "Emily's New Coaches," Thomas becomes upset with Neville upon seeing him with Annie and Clarabel.
- Major plot holes:
- It is never explained why Neville was pulling Annie and Clarabel in the first place.
- The signalmen should have prevented Neville from crossing the broken bridge.
- When Neville is racing through the countryside, he crashes through the barrier of the broken bridge, then dangles over the broken track. If he did not stop in time, Neville's crew and the passengers (if any) aboard Annie and Clarabel would have been killed.
- It sends a terrible moral to kids as it shows that it's okay to spread rumors and lies by slandering the innocent, and you won't get any repercussions for it.
- This episode marked the beginning of a decline for Thomas & Friends, which the series did not overcome until Season 17.
- Even if Thomas rescued Neville, he would have been called out for being responsible for spreading out discriminative rumors about Neville and for not doing his job that (of course) he agreed to the Fat Controller on doing! That job was that Thomas would warn the other engines about the damaged bridge, but he didn't do it anyway since (again) we already see him angrily tell off Neville. How has there been no discipline for this engine?
- Neville has only three lines of dialogue.
Redeeming Qualities
- The beginning of the episode is decent.
- It introduces Neville, who himself is a likable character and has a unique basis (the Southern Railway Q1, often nicknamed the "Ugly Duckling", shaped they way it was so it could use the same washing stations as the carriages). Sadly, he was only created for merchandise and nothing more.
- Toby, Neville, Henry, Sir Topham Hatt, and Gordon stand out as the only likable characters, with Toby dispelling the false rumors about Neville's friendship with 'Arry and Bert. Additionally, Toby retains his original personality here, contrasting with the changes seen in his character in the following episode.
- The episode thankfully doesn't follow the three strikes formula.
- The Story Library version at least doesn't have Edward take part in the rumors.
- Good ending: Thomas realizes that Neville is innocent and saves him from falling off a bridge.
Video
Reception
Thomas and The New Engine was heavily panned by fans and critics of Thomas and Friends alike. It is considered one of the worst episodes of season 9 and one of the worst episodes of the entire show in general and it received a 4.3 on IMDb.
Trivia
- Some think that this episode started Thomas' flanderization, though it was actually "Saved You!" that started his flanderization.
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