Season 23 of Thomas is airing once again in the United Kingdom! Alongside that, we've got Digs & Discoveries (which I've already covered) and it's begun airing in Australia. So let's tackle the 11th and 12th episode, as well as the third and final mini-special of the season, Steam Team to the Rescue!.
I'm going to get this out of the way; the concept of the Steam Team is redundant. It's almost as if Mattel likes to treat Thomas, Gordon, James, Percy, Emily, Nia and Rebecca like they're the only engines that the audience is expected to care about. Heck, in the first quarter, we see the diesels (well, seven of them, anyway; we don't get much from Arry, Bert, Mavis, Daisy or Philip) getting trapped because of a mishap. Yes, it's treated seriously because of the impact it can have on the railway, but why would you worf one group of engines in favor of another?
Not only that, in universe, the New Steam Team is the only group of steam engines we get focus on. We don't see if it's impacting the likes of Edward (side note; this is the only time this season he appears physically, excluding the fantasy in The Other Big Engine), Henry, Stanley, Rosie, etc. It's not like the Steam Team are the only other engines on Sodor outside of the diesels!
Case in point, why didn't the dock manager at Brendam Docks consider asking Bill, Ben and Timothy to help Percy? Heck, Porter gets very much forgotten about after his accident with the flour (but considering how little attention he got after Tale of the Brave, this doesn't surprise me). Are they really trying to make us forget certain groups of characters for the sake of storytelling? In this season (for the Sodor episodes, at least), we get heavy focus on the Steam Team, the Pack and Diesel, with a couple of episodes focusing on Bulgy (Free the Roads) and Toby (Heart of Gold). Compare that to season 22, where we got episodes featuring Duck, Merlin, Philip, Rosie, Sidney, and Bill and Ben getting their own episodes.
I really hope this was unintentional and stays a one-off, because if it keeps up, then season 24 onward will probably end up repeating seasons 8-16 in which all seven members of the main cast get most of the focus (if not all of it) with other characters being pushed to the side. And if that ends up being the case, then the likes of Oliver, Donald and Douglas were rendered in CGI for absolutely nothing except a few cameos.
Okay, onto the actual mini-special itself. The story itself is about an accident at Brendam Docks (a very silly one if you ask me) leading to a domino effect resulting in a locomotive shortage on the North Western Railway. I have to say, that's a great concept to work with, and despite my problems with the Steam Team, I feel like this mini-special handled the concept a lot better than The Big Freeze, in which the railway was somehow managed without problem by a group of diesel shunters. Especially when you consider the lack of diesel muscle and the ratio of steam vs. diesel.
A lot of the character moments really help the mini-special to stand up on its own merits; Paxton crashing into his own partially opened door and weakly saying "ow" was a real highlight. Oh, and we see Sir Topham Hatt with a teddy bear. Who can't relate to that? But it's when he tries to do his job as a controller that he really shines; there's so much to do and he keeps forgetting about sending another engine to help Percy until it's too late. And also forgets that seven of his diesels are still stuck... Ah well, at least it's better than how he was treated in Confused Coaches and The Big Freeze.
But the best characters here were Thomas and Percy. In the case of the latter, you got to admire how determined he was to try and handle the docks himself, but he ends up overwhelmed and scared when piles of crates stack higher than he. Definitely far more understandable than how he acted in Panicky Percy, and I'll get to that soon enough.
Not only that, in universe, the New Steam Team is the only group of steam engines we get focus on. We don't see if it's impacting the likes of Edward (side note; this is the only time this season he appears physically, excluding the fantasy in The Other Big Engine), Henry, Stanley, Rosie, etc. It's not like the Steam Team are the only other engines on Sodor outside of the diesels!
Case in point, why didn't the dock manager at Brendam Docks consider asking Bill, Ben and Timothy to help Percy? Heck, Porter gets very much forgotten about after his accident with the flour (but considering how little attention he got after Tale of the Brave, this doesn't surprise me). Are they really trying to make us forget certain groups of characters for the sake of storytelling? In this season (for the Sodor episodes, at least), we get heavy focus on the Steam Team, the Pack and Diesel, with a couple of episodes focusing on Bulgy (Free the Roads) and Toby (Heart of Gold). Compare that to season 22, where we got episodes featuring Duck, Merlin, Philip, Rosie, Sidney, and Bill and Ben getting their own episodes.
I really hope this was unintentional and stays a one-off, because if it keeps up, then season 24 onward will probably end up repeating seasons 8-16 in which all seven members of the main cast get most of the focus (if not all of it) with other characters being pushed to the side. And if that ends up being the case, then the likes of Oliver, Donald and Douglas were rendered in CGI for absolutely nothing except a few cameos.
Okay, onto the actual mini-special itself. The story itself is about an accident at Brendam Docks (a very silly one if you ask me) leading to a domino effect resulting in a locomotive shortage on the North Western Railway. I have to say, that's a great concept to work with, and despite my problems with the Steam Team, I feel like this mini-special handled the concept a lot better than The Big Freeze, in which the railway was somehow managed without problem by a group of diesel shunters. Especially when you consider the lack of diesel muscle and the ratio of steam vs. diesel.
A lot of the character moments really help the mini-special to stand up on its own merits; Paxton crashing into his own partially opened door and weakly saying "ow" was a real highlight. Oh, and we see Sir Topham Hatt with a teddy bear. Who can't relate to that? But it's when he tries to do his job as a controller that he really shines; there's so much to do and he keeps forgetting about sending another engine to help Percy until it's too late. And also forgets that seven of his diesels are still stuck... Ah well, at least it's better than how he was treated in Confused Coaches and The Big Freeze.
But the best characters here were Thomas and Percy. In the case of the latter, you got to admire how determined he was to try and handle the docks himself, but he ends up overwhelmed and scared when piles of crates stack higher than he. Definitely far more understandable than how he acted in Panicky Percy, and I'll get to that soon enough.
As for Thomas himself? There's not a negative thing I can say about him here. Considering how inconsistent he's been portrayed as of late, seeing him act as an actual leader is just satisfying to watch. It's also nice to see him remind Gordon that he's almost left the express behind at Vicarstown, as if he remembered his own mistake when he was younger and didn't want Gordon to suffer from that embarrassment (I dunno if that was the intention or it's just me interpreting that moment).
However, Thomas shines the most when he voices his concern about helping Percy at the docks. It's obvious he wants to help his best friend, but so many other jobs keep him from doing it, eventually culminating in the accident at the docks. It's probably his best performance yet in the current era, and John Hasler's vocal performance just adds to it.
"Don't Stop" was a great song; I've listened to it several times and it just gets better each time. You really get the feel for how determined everyone is both times. The first time is for when everyone is determined to get all the jobs done, and the second time is for when everyone works to clear up the mess at Brendam Docks. The rock vibe to it helped as well.
Oh, and Big Mickey spoke again since New Crane on the Dock. Cool, I guess.
Final Thoughts
This is a really tricky mini-special to rank. The entirety of the plot is almost contrived in favor of the Steam Team, a concept that should really be kicked, but the character moments within are some of the best of the current era. It's also especially nice to see Thomas act like a mature leader and not a brainless twit, which raises my opinion on the mini-special by a fair amount. And "Don't Stop" is one of the best songs the show's ever made. The humor was hit or miss with a few gags that fell flat, so it's fair that Steam Team to the Rescue! has a rating to reflect my overall feelings; it's good, but pretty frustrating at moments.Also, we've finally discovered who our new headwriter will be; David Stoten, who directed the first ten episodes of season 18, the 2015-2018 feature length specials, and also co-directed three episodes of season 19 (Best Engine Ever and the Philip episodes). How will he do as the new headwriter after Brenner's departure? I don't know, but Stoten's done a really good job as a director (yes, even in The Great Race), so he might actually do really well as a writer. Only time will tell if that's the case.
Rating: Good (7/10)
Yes, I thought it was alright, though it could be done a mite better what with a rewrite and all.
ReplyDeleteOkay. I know I have said the Steam Team concept has lost all of it's charm after "A Shed for Edward" (hell, it wasn't that great to begin with), this episode was worth watching, and discovering the fact that David Stoten is the new head writer for the main show.
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