Toby Feels Left Out (Thomas & Friends)

Toby Feels Left Out
This heinous catastrophe ruined Toby as a character for a while.
Series: Thomas & Friends Part of Season: 9 Episode Number: 12 Air Date: 6 September 2005 (CAN) 7 October 2005 (UK/IRL, Nick Jr.) 9 October 2005 (US) Writer: Simon A. Brown Director: Stephen Asquith Previous episode: "Thomas and the New Engine" Next episode: "Thomas Tries His Best"

"Toby Feels Left Out" is the twelfth episode of the 9th season of Thomas & Friends. It aired on October 7th, 2005 in the UK, while in the US it aired on October 9th 2005 two days later.

Why It Should Be Put in a Museum

1. Though some feel that "Toby's Discovery" or "You Can Do It, Toby" started Toby's flanderization, compared to these episodes, this episode is the one that officially started his flanderization, as he keeps thinking to himself that the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt doesn't even care about him at all, even though that's not true.
2. Apart from flanderizing Toby or giving children a bad message through story, this episode does not mention the events of "Toby and the Stout Gentleman". The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt went on holiday and met Toby and Henrietta during his family holiday visit to Toby's old railway in 1951, he later saved him after his line was closed down and when Thomas got into trouble with a police constable for going onto a line that requires engines with cowcatchers and not all engines. It's no surprise the Fat Controller did not mention the events to Toby when he told Toby that he isn't going to be put in a museum.
   • It should be noted that Toby would be wise enough to not listen to James since James was saying that Toby would be put in a museum.
3. Like with most episodes in the HIT era, this episode uses the three strikes formula, but not in a good way.
4. Toby should know that Sir Topham Hatt would never put him in a museum, so why is he acting this stupid to the point where he does all the engines' jobs for them as well as his own. For that matter, why doesn't he realise that James was playing a little tease on him because James was saying that he had been "left out" to get attention?
5. There are many errors in the episode such as Henry having Gordon's whistle at the beginning of the episode and Toby taking Annie and Clarabel past Bluff's Cove which is on Duck's Branch Line.
6. This episode comes off as disrespectful to the original source material given by the fact that HiT made the decision to rewrite Toby from his normal personality as a wise engine to a cowardly, incompetent wimp who is too scared to do anything right.
7. False advertising: Toby doesn't get to be the one feeling left out in this episode, sure he may feel like he has been, but at the end off the episode it reveals that he hadn't been after all.
8. Like the crash in "Edward and the Mail", the crash in this episode feels forced and unneeded because the rock Toby hit was used as a plot device so the Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt would have a talk with him.
9. How did the boulder Toby hit get on the tracks?
10. If Toby could pull the museum carriage, then why doesn't he take Henrietta, too?
11. It shows a terrible moral to its audience that old people are no help at all, which is not true.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Thomas, Emily, Edward, Henry, Percy, and Sir Topham Hatt are still likable characters.
   • The surprising part about Emily was that she got flanderized during this season, the previous and next but it isn't present here.
2. Toby does get to take the passengers to the Sodor Museum at the end.
3. The museum carriage that Toby was pulling is amazingly modeled and structured.
4. The Fat Controller/Sir Topham Hatt acknowledged that Toby is old, and that makes sense since tram engines were a thing back in the 1900s-1960s.

Reception

"Toby Feels Left Out" received negative reviews from fans and critics alike.

Trivia

• This is the first episode since Series 2 where Toby is seen pulling a different coach rather than pulling Henrietta.
• This episode marks the only time of a few things:
• The only episode written by Simon A. Brown.
• The only episode to feature Toby's Museum Coach, although it appears in the Learning Segment, "What Goes Where?"

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