I remember watching this on a video tape when it was recorded off the TV. The final episode the Rev. W. Awdry wrote for the Railway Series. I love the runaway scene with Toby and the trucks. The music makes it epic and it makes you wonder 'will Toby stop in time?' The thing with Percy and Mavis is something I never thought about. It would have been nice to see both of them interact more as they would have a lot more in common 😀.
I think Mavis is one of the ones who has had the most consistent character development. From this episode onwards and even into the CGI series she has remained matured and is a lot more wiser.
I first saw this one on either Cartoon Network or Nick Jr as a child and I found it a bit scary then but now I love it and the original RWS story was the final story to ever be written by Wilbert. Plus I think Micheal Angelis’ first narration is so much better than the later and more familiar as he sounded voiced a lot better and a couple of lines were cut out in the later.
Toby's Tightrope is very interesting for me because as a kid, it was one of the few Classic episodes I never get to watch as I didn't have Trust Thomas or Thomas & Bertie's Great Race VHS releases, which is strange as I only saw Mavis and I thought it was a standalone episode (and I haven't got the full RWS book at the time, which I have now). That wasn't until I rented the former tape did I see the episode for the first time and I was glued to it. So now both that and Mavis are two of my favorite episodes from S3 and are some of the most underrated episodes nobody ever talks about. Onto the episode itself, it really caps off Mavis' character arc very well and what you said about her and Percy having similarities w/ asking trucks to do a silly thing except the latter have no intentions to put Toby in danger is true. It may just be me, but I'm one of those people who's very supportive of Mavis becoming mature after her arc when she now becomes the next mentor figure in S6 onwards and I'm glad they stuck to it. Plus, the bridge scene is really tense indeed with Toby hanging on for dear life.
This was mostly a faithful adaptation. Though I would have liked to have seen Mavis’s Manager in The TV Series, I wonder what he would have looked like. I also wonder why Mavis was on Duck’s Branchline at the end of the episode, but maybe you could shrug it off saying she was delivering stone there or something. But this episode was a mostly faithful adaptation, I loved the parts with the trucks, especially the runaway theme and the collapsing bridge. For a 90s ep, it was very well made. And it was nice to see Mavis getting a complete to her character arc.
Oh, I have so many fond memories of "Toby's Tightrope". Like I said on the previous episode, Mavis is a really interesting character, with a lot to learn, and it's amazing she realises her mistake. Plus the suspense of Toby on the bridge, which is like a tightrope, is epic! Certainly one of the best series 3 episodes, no doubt.
I can remember first reading this story known as Toby in Trouble (tie in with the episode) before watching it and the previous episode so this was my introduction to the character Mavis. The images chosen for the book had my attention and when I saw the episode many years later I adore the wooden bridge sequence with the water effects and the intense music as Toby is stuck on the bridge.
I remember reading the original story and watching the episode and it's possible why they got Percy as he knew about trucks but Mavis had no idea about them
