Thomas and Friends Season 11: Poll Winners

Another day, another set of reviews. It's the season eleven poll winners!

Episode 5: Hector the Horrid!

Written by Simon Spencer

This episode was the winner of season 11's poll, and if you ask me, it's easy to see why. At first Hector does come off as a bully, but really, he's just scared of being filled with coal so he doesn't want to be shunted - either he's worked at a quarry or he's newly built, you decide. Thomas' fear around Hector is understandable, but when Hector scares Rosie off, Thomas is fed up with his attitude and bumps him a little too hard, and he learns why Hector behaved this way. So yeah, there was a double moral there - stand up to bullies, and face your fears. Not much else to say here, it's just brilliant.

Episode 19: Thomas and the Stinky Cheese

Written by Paul Larson

Did you know that before the show officially went CGI, this episode (at least, a few clips of it) was given the treatment to give a visual test on how it would look? Thankfully, what we see on TV or our computers looks nothing like the visual test as it looks rather hideous - if it did, people would've avoided it like the plague.

As for the episode as whole, it was also pretty good, but yeah, the steam vs. diesel rivalry was starting to wear thin as time went by, but I don't like how it's said that Thomas doesn't like working with diesels, unless they meant Thomas didn't like working with Diesel, Arry, and Bert specifically. A little change like that could prevent unfortunate implications. For the crash itself, while nicely filmed, did feel like the crash from Thomas in Charge, but at least this had some merit for happening... sort of. Oh, and the new facemasks are pretty darned funny.

Episode 26: Wash Behind Your Buffers

Written by Paul Larson

Ah yes, the very last episode filmed with full models (The Great Discovery not withstanding). I do find it off-putting that Madge would stick around Rheneas and Skarloey solely to make sure they were clean - I get that she's meant to be a motherly figure, but isn't that a bit much? That said, you got to say that Skarloey and Rheneas' models look brilliant when they look so clean - I've never understood why they were weathered during seasons 9-12; maybe it was to emphasize their supposed age? On whole, I think it's quite nice.

And no, I didn't forget about Skarloey Storms Through, which came second in the initial poll. Why did I choose not to review it? Well, frankly, there's so little I could say about it, and it just isn't worth it. 1/10 for that - it's just that bad.

Thomas and Friends Season 11 Scorecard

2. Emily's Rubbish: 8
3. Dream On: 9
4. Dirty Work: 6
5. Hector the Horrid!: 9
6. Gordon and the Engineer: 10
8. Henry's Lucky Trucks: 6
10. Thomas and the Big Bang: 1
11. Smoke and Mirrors: 1
12. Thomas Sets Sail: 1
13. Don't Be Silly, Billy: 0
14. Edward and the Mail: 5
16. Toby's Triumph: 1
17. Thomas and the Runaway Car: 8
18. Thomas in Trouble: 7
19. Thomas and the Stinky Cheese: 7
22. Sir Handel in Charge: 2
23. Cool Truckings: 6
25. Skarloey Storms Through: 1
26. Wash Behind Your Buffers: 7