Railfan Brony Advent Calendar Day #4: TUGS - Up River

It's time to head Up River for the next adventure in Bigg City!

THE OPINIONS, THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS IN THIS BLOG POST ARE SOLELY THOSE OF ZACK WANZER, AND NO ONE ELSE'S

Up River

Written and Directed by David Mitton

The worst of winter is over in Bigg City, and for the time being, the Star Fleet is working Up River. One of the most important tasks is logging, where the Star Tugs take logs to the sawmills, but there's a log jam which Big Mac and Sunshine are working around. Despite Big Mac's warning, Sunshine accidentally causes a chain reaction in which he's trapped by logs. Big Mac calls for Puffa the steam engine and asks him to get help, and help comes in the form of Ten Cents. Despite his and Big Mac's best efforts, smoke begins to rise - the log jam is on fire! All seems lost, does it?

Maybe, because Billy Shoepack shows up with - unsurprisingly - dynamite, which Ten Cents suggests using to free Sunshine, although Big Mac worries it could blow Sunshine up as well, but he lets Billy help anyway. Luckily, the bang is enough to free Sunshine, and, as a bonus, puts the fire out. However, the problem doesn't stop there - the log jam breaks up, but it starts to head down river, most likely to endanger Uptown. Ten Cents tells Puffa to warn everyone at Uptown whilst he, Big Mac and Sunshine chase down the logs.

Up ahead, whilst Puffa whistles a warning to everyone he passes, he finds Top Hat, Warrior, and O.J. at Uptown Docks and warns them of the potential disaster. Warrior suggests using a dam to stop them, despite Little Ditcher's protests, but there's a flaw with Warrior's plan - he's on the wrong side of the dam! Oops. Luckily, O.J. suggests pushing against the logs to steer them off course... into a factory that's due for demolition. When he and the switchers turn up, Big Mac worries about the building, but O.J. sees the funny side - it was the very building that was due for demolition! Talk about a happy accident.

I think this is yet another favorite from TUGS - it was surprising that no Z-Stacks were featured, but then, does every episode need to focus on their rivalry? It was also interesting to see Puffa play a big role in the story, and it shows more life to Bigg City than its tugboats. It's pretty much like Munitions, only in a 15 minute timeslot, but Up River is still a great episode. And there's one more to go...

Rating: 10 out of 10

TUGS Episode Scorecard

10/10 - Pirate, Trapped, Up River, Munitions
9.5/10 - Jinxed, High Winds, Warrior, High Tide, Regatta
9/10 - Sunshine, Quarantine, Ghosts