Thomas And The New Engine (Thomas & Friends)

Thomas and the New Engine
After this episode, Thomas & Friends would not be the same again for a long time.
Series: Thomas & Friends Part of Season: 9 Episode Number: 11 Air Date: October 7, 2005 (UK) October 9, 2005 (US) Writer: Marc Seal Director: Steve Asquith Previous episode: "Rheneas and the Dinosaur" Next episode: "Toby Feels Left Out"

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

1. The Steam Team engines (except for Toby, Gordon, and Henry) are very unlikable as they (more notably Thomas) pass on rumors to each other about Neville disliking steam engines.
   • Thomas, in particular, first starts the rumor all because he saw Neville with Arry and Bert and immediately assumes that they’re friends without any evidence whatsoever.
   • The other steam team engines are quick to jump to conclusions just because they heard all about said rumor from Thomas without any second thought.
     • Even Edward takes part in the act, and he's supposed to be a wise and kind engine!
   • They think that a steam engine talking with and being friends with diesels is an outrageous idea, yet they have all befriended diesels such as Mavis, Salty, BoCo, Daisy and many others before and since. Hypocritical racists aren't they?
2. Speaking of Thomas, this is one of those episodes in the HiT model era where he’s portrayed as being stupid and unlikeable.
3. This episode is basically a rehash of "Thomas and The Rumors" from the fifth season. And as well as being a much better episode, that episode had a great moral to tell viewers that you shouldn't listen to rumors, unlike here.
4. As usual in Seasons 8-10, Emily is also unlikeable as she is rude to Neville all because he said hello to her, due to Thomas spreading the rumor.
   • This should be noted that Emily is also written inconsistently. First, she tells off Neville because he was trying to make friends with her despite jumping to conclusions about Thomas' stupid rumor, then next she talks sense to Thomas by reminding him about that racist rumor that he spread.
5. Thomas, as in Emily's New Coaches, gets cross with Neville when he sees him pulling Annie and Clarabel.
6. Major plot hole: It's never explained why Neville was pulling Annie and Clarabel in the first place.
7. When Neville is racing through the countryside, he crashes through the barrier of the broken bridge and then dangles over the broken track, which could've killed all of the passengers aboard Annie and Clarabel if he didn't stop in time. The signalmen should have prevented Neville from crossing the broken bridge.
8. 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.
9. This episode officially started the first downfall of Thomas & Friends, as the series wouldn't recover until Season 17.
10. 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?
11. Some think that this episode started Thomas' flanderization, though it was actually "Saved You!" that started his flanderization.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The beginning of the episode is decent.
2. 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 is one of the one off HIT era characters who only exists to sell merchandise, toys, and nothing more. Fortunately, he's had better luck compared to other one-offs, and has been fleshed out in fan stories.
3. Toby, Neville, Henry, Sir Topham Hatt, and Gordon are the only likable characters in the episode and Toby still has his original personality in this episode, unlike what he would later become in the next episode.
4. The episode thankfully doesn't follow the three strikes formula.
5. The Story Library version at least doesn't have Edward take part in the rumors.
6. Good ending: Thomas realizes that Neville is innocent and saves him from falling off a bridge.

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.

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