The Worst Parts of Every Thomas and Friends Series | 1 - 7 

What do you think is the worst part of each classic series?

Season 4: This is Duke. He's a very old and wise engine that lived on his own little railway many years ago. He acts as a mentor to the younger engines on his line and after being abandoned for many years, he was eventually rediscovered. He is regarded as a hero among all the engines, even after all those years. Season 5: This is Bertram. Buy him. Roll credits.

The most common problem that I see in the Awdry seasons 1-4 is the story adaptations not being in chronological order as you had mentioned. I can’t wait to see your season 8 review.

My biggest problem with season 2 is how for the most part, the engines are blamed for the accidents when it’s not their fault. I know there’s other instances like Something In The Air, but it seems so apparent in season 2. It’s not Thomas’ fault he crashed into the stationmaster’s house. It’s not Percy’s fault he was pushed into the brakevan. Its not Donald’s fault he slid into the signal box.

Man season 3 is really a masterpiece .

I think if Alcroft was still in charge with Season 6 we might've had the characters we got from Season 5 expanded upon if not for Thomas and the Magic Railroad being a failure.

6:07 Thanks to TheUnluckyTug, I like to think Percy went to work at the harbour during that time because of the hot sun damaging the rails on Thomas' Branchline in Thomas Gets Bumped.

Apparently the reason Diesel replaced Daisy in "Mavis" was cause Rick Siggelkow (Shining Time Station's co-creator) disapproved of her design.

I feel like 1 & 2 aged poorly in terms of picture quality. 3-5 look great for being from the 90's, and the Gullane era looks downright modern, even if the lighting isn't one's cup of tea.

I always saw season 6’s grayish tint and scene color to represent winter. They already went out of the way to replace the intro with a snow variant, so why not go all the way?

In Season 2's defense, they did get like a bigger layout tow work on. That must've been harder to keep track of everything because it was bigger and they were now doing more moving camera shots. Then in season 3 they got more used to it and improved. This defense sucks but I tried lol.

You forgot about Butch in S5 He may not have a major role, but he is always in the background helping out.

I’d say for Season 2, it would also definitely the placement and squishing of stories, cause man somethings you can absolutely tell didn’t get properly adapted.

When Series' 1-4 were produced, Britt Allcroft was producing the stories under a condition that they had to appear in printed form first, which imposed a restriction on creative freedom to be more flexible with the stories, which primarily - but not necessarily only - caused the restraints imposed on maintaining chronological order off all the stories and retconning some stories to have more action taking place and balancing out the gender ratio more. Then in Series 5, the prominent focus was on action and suspense, and emphasis on new characters kind of got pushed by the wayside as a result. Series 6 was a transitionary time for the series; a writing team had been introduced rather than just Allcroft and David Mitton drawing out stories between them as before so the writing style could go all over the place, and inevitably lightning techniques weren't figured out yet when determining the new order. Series 7 crossed the line between symbolising a farewell to the old order and going in with a new format, as indicated by the strong use of stock footage and some characters losing touch with established continuity. Regards, Samuel Farris.

Based on Thomas’s face, he’s not going to like this video.

I can understand why Season 5 had one-off characters, I believe atleast half of them were just made as plot-devices and it wouldn’t make sense for the original Thomas crew to just make them for toys and another thing is that Magic Railroad came after it and once Season 6 came around they focused more on the main cast so I think that probably had something to do with it and in my opinion Season 5 is the only Season to not have a mediocre episode and every Season 5 episode is either good or Great in my opinion and I wouldn’t say it’s fast-paced all the time with episodes like Happy Ever After or Make Someone Happy or Sir Topham Hatt’s Holiday and a few others and Season 5 feels like Thomas more than any other Season after it and I disagree with your points with Season 5 but I respect your opinion!

I do know Season 7 had lots of stock footage because both of the Pack series' production, as well as HIT stepping in and wanting to quickly move to their vision of Thomas. I don't mind outdated stock footage when it is in opening scenes (Henry's old shape, Peter Sam's old funnel), but it does get egregious in some scenes. I do lament that S6 and some of S7 were never properly released on US TV at the time it was around though.

One issue I have with classic Thomas in the US, is that with the first two VHS releases, "Thomas Gets Tricked" and "James Learns a Lesson" they kept to a consistent episode order. But begining with the "Tenders and Turntables" VHS, they just stopped trying with consistency as the episode "Thomas Comes To Breakfast" which features Toby, plays before his debut episode on the very same tape.

9:36 Makes sense you don't count that, the kids are literally like "Who's that?" They don't know who he is.

OK, a little bit of a hot take here, but I don’t really understand why people have issues with the lighting in season four. I feel like the slightly darker lighting works in this case considering the fact that a lot of the Narrowgauge episodes had a more melancholic tone, so it just seem to work in that case. Although, it might just hit differently for me because of the fact that I am visually impaired and don’t see smaller details, so maybe that might invalidate my opinion for some people.

One thing you’ve gotta give season 6 credit for is how busy it felt, engines constantly passing each other all throughout the episodes which isn’t that present in the other seasons

I'm happy someone pointed out the technical goofs about season 2. I love the grittiness of that season and the synth soundtrack. But the amount of goofs is alarming and honestly comes off as lazy and incompetent at times even tho I know the production crew had a lot of passion for the show. I mean, James' face falling off is just so wrong. Seeing his eye mechanism takes away the magic of the engines having faces.

I feel like season 3 at least for its original stories started being more obvious with the morals of friendship and it became repetitive. Like I was watching it all recently praising it to my friend and then when we got to season 3 it just felt it step down in maturity and charm.

I think the only part I have a little nitpick is how season seven is somewhat of a transitional season, most notably in the episode The Old Bridge where Skarloeys persona changed for how we knew in the hit era.

About the presence of studio equipment in Season 1 & 2, you’re showing the remastered versions of the episode where they opened up more around the sides of the picture, exposing the studio equipment. If you look at the non-remastered versions, you don’t see these problems because they intended to crop it out in post, but whoever remastered it in 2004 unnecessarily exposed more picture and as a result showed the studio equipment and edge of sets.

Man I wish Derek appeared again.

I thought season one was boring as it just introduces characters to us

I really wish I could go to the Awdry extravaganza.

to be honest, I enjoyed every season of the classic seasons (1-7), but my worst thing is how Better Late Than Ever could've been so good, but for me, it was boring.

Jesus I can't get over James' face not being placed right in season 2

Can't wait for Sharon Miller Era yes

Usual Bloke Luke: premiers video in 2 days. My impatient ass: I want my video now! Jokes aside I can’t wait, see you at the stream.

You must upload that Calling All Engines review sometime this month.

14:11 Man I can't unsee that now, thank you

After you finish your opinons on series 8-12, do this video again BUT flip it on its head and do the best things.

To be fair to Series 7, the Pack spinoff was shot at the same time.

What’s your favourite part of each classic season? For me: Season 1 - The fact that they made something great with a low budget Season 2 - Crashes, better modelwork, music and awesome sets Season 3 - Visuals and music Season 4 - Visuals Season 5 - The cinematography! My favourite Season! Season 6 - Angelis’ Naration Season 7 - The music (I love season 7 music, It’s not my favourite season when it comes to music (That spot goes to Season 5) it’s defintly)

Butch the Tow truck (I think?) Is also present for a good chunk of the series.

Series 5 taking it self too seriously as an issue is something I have to disagree with.

My biggest problem with the Classic series as a whole was continuity errors. As for each season it's mostly the same as what you said

Once you've reviewed most of the Hit series, could we get a video similar to this one, where you talk about the worst part of seasons 8 to 16?

I am reviewing on a separate comment 5, 6 and 7 because RU-vid will probably not let me send such a long essay in one go. Anyway, I will continue to tell my thoughts: Season 5: My favourite Thomas season and it's no surprise why. This was the one I was actually most exposed to on VHS as a child, watching its episodes divided on 3 of them, one of which I owned, another I had borrowed from a library one summer in England at my grandparents and the other I watched at somebody's house. There was also a fourth VHS distributed which contained another 5 episodes from this series that I never watched. But boy oh boy, looking back at it, this truly was a great series to grow up with and marvel as you compare it to what came before and after it. Especially after. This was the true peak of the series for me and the last of its greatness. But with all that said, I do have to agree its nº1 flaw is the fact that it doesn't develop many of its new characters introduced besides Cranky. The rest are all one-off episode characters for the most part except Old Slow Coach who gets two notable appearances in the same season, and 'Arry and Bert would get one episode here but appear in later seasons though their future appearances would never compare with what could be the biggest villainous deed attempted by anyone in the series, beating the original devious Diesel by a mile. That said, I actually enjoy most of the new characters and what they do offer in this one series as something special pertaining to this one series and viewing it as the last great one. But that really depends on your perspective. I'm also surprised you didn't mention the Lorries in "Horrid Lorry". They were also memorable antagonists in my opinion and one of the most defining episodes of Season 5. However, the highlight of Season 5 amidst its epic production and cinematic scope, really is the development of the characters we all know and love from The Railway Series, getting all at least one outstanding episode and a new side to their characters which is similar to what Season 3 did with the original episodes outside the Railway Series as well as expanding a bit on the adaptations. For me it's just my favourite by virtually every aspect and measure. Season 6: Ok, so Season 6 I consider the start of the show's main downfall and I don't even bother with the CGI series though I know the quality got shaped up in the later seasons before the horrible downturn by Mattel. But I was still exposed to this season as a child through its magazine merchandise as well as Season 7 on 3 VHS tapes, two of which were of 6, also borrowed from the local library in England when I was 8 in 2005. And I remember finding them at most entertaining because I would watch anything as a child but I could feel they weren't as endearing as the episodes of the series I was used to watching before. The ugly look of Season 6 really is the main letdown especially if you're a child, you can just see it in its visuals, especially in contrast to 5. However, being exposed to many other Thomas material, especially The Railway Series Complete Collection by Awdry, I believe the worst thing of Season 6 onwards which would also apply to 7 from the ones I was exposed to and you go into great detail in your reviews, are the forced, obvious morals carried on many of the episodes to become a simple kids show right before Hit took over but at this point it was post-TATMR and Gullane Entertainment. Season 7: I pretty much have the same to say about this as well as Season 6 in terms of its morals though I only saw one VHS as a child and was pretty entertained by it, remembered it looking better than Season 6 after seeing S6 on other videos clearly and it contained the infamous episode "The Old Bridge", which I remember enjoying but looking back, not only does it write Skarloey completely out of character once knowing the series proper, but it really is made in a lackluster fashion in terms of storytelling while trying to be original. That said, S7 actually had a lot of Rheneas in it as well as a lot of the Narrow Gauge crew in general when his previous standout episode was only limited to "Gallant Old Engine" from Season 4. However, the cringiest episode I remember watching when looking back from this series was clearly "Fergus Breaks the Rules" being placed on the same pack as "Bill, Ben and Fergus". But it was mostly the designs of the new characters introduced here and in 6 which I enjoyed the most. As for all the archive footage you said being the worst part of this series and a dud for the series as a whole in every episode that contains reused shots from previous episodes, I personally don't have much of a problem with it as long as it doesn't harm the setting of the episode. Yes, it might be a lazy tactic but I actually like all the callbacks it does reminding you of previous episodes even if they may be from past seasons, not in flashbacks but in similar situations relating to certain characters with their expressions and going on a same line, riding to a similar accident or fate which reminds you of another episode. Most of which I remember noticing in many episodes of Season 1. Those are my thoughts on the bad bits of each season. Overall, good list and cheers!

What ´s the worst part of season 3 ? This season should have a bigger budget to finish TFS and for a great ending for Gordon ´s season 3 arc .

This’ll be hard for me to come up with this list of my own problems with the classic series. Series 1: While being the most important first impression series adaptation, some of the stories being just kind of existing stick out. Series 2: The goofs and Wonky Eye syndrome. Series 3: Hard to say, but the out of order continuity is the only slight problem. Series 4: I agree with the unfocused second half after the narrow gauge perfection. Series 5: I only find the reused shots watching back to be a problem. The new characters that just kind of gets only a select few moments didn’t really make me feel like nitpicking them. Series 6: I didn’t mind the visuals being more dull in your eyes. I didn’t really mind. My only complaint was some minor bits of characters “character” inconsistencies. For example, like with Edward talking down to Harvey and not having more of a wiser outlook on that moment. Series 7: Reused clips and stock footage are definitely what makes it not as great. However, the highs still makes series 7 better than I remember.

Season 5 is my favorite, but some dramatic elements scared me as a kid. Also, I've rewritten every season 5 story with my own characters, and a few changes. But before, here's the characters so things don't get confusing. Blankee - Thomas Chris - Percy Hatsune Miku - Rusty Eric - Gordon Len - Duncan Paul - Henry Sarah - James Billy - Duck Paige and Sage- Bill and Ben Ariana grande - Stepney Fred the Penguin - Toby Rick Rurpelson - Cranky Sebastian - George Dua Lipa - Sir Topham Hatt Meiko - Skarloey Jon Taffer- Oliver Secret Police - Harold Cecil - Edward Meep Meep - Caroline

Perfectly justified to reuse footage because of the way production worked, builidng and rebuilding sets, but not that often, and not from years ago. And def not flipped with a number. I know its cut out but the editor saw it and included it

I always thought the reused shots were okay.

I think it was understandable that they used a lot of previous seasons stock footage in Season 7 because they were also making the Jack and the Pack Series along with it.

Diesel getting sent a way and then the next season sent back again

Some think tells me Gordon had a bad day in TTWT and when people have a bad sometimes they are angry .Probaly this was the reason for Gordon in first half of episode .Also Gordon was in the second the Gordon we love and know .

My guess is that with series 7 there was way less of a budget

Season 1: I will pretty much never get given by the fact I can barely even get bored of Season 1's first half (as in the first thirteen episodes of the show produced). However, I will say some of the shots placed in episodes end up looking out of place, especially in the episode, "Coal". This was quite evident the production crew were really getting their ways to find their footing. Season 2: It's pretty obvious the production behind that season is pretty rushed. Great batch of episodes made from 1986, but I never expected wonky eyes or notable mistakes made during production. Some good examples would be Percy maintaining his smiling face when being pushed by the freight cars when he should be having his wincing face in "Percy Takes the Plunge", Donald being derailed tender first in a close up shot of Percy in "Thomas Comes to Breakfast", the stationmaster's house being noticeably destroyed in "Thomas, Percy and the Coal", some bad editing (especially for its time), and once again, the wonky eyes on some of the engines. It's like looking at an animation cel where a character looks or goes off model through either animation errors or simple bad character drawing. Season 3: I believe with "Percy's Promise", it canonically takes place before the former from Season 2. Had they decided not to adapt "Percy's Promise" in Season 3 later. And I haven't noticed that "All at Sea" and "Diesel Does it Again" were meant to take place before "Donald's Duck" until you brought it up. But with Diesel being shown in the adaptation for "Mavis", I was glad they did that at the time knowing that if they had Daisy in Season 3, I would fear they would have reset her back to square one. But that was illogical reasoning on my part, so that I do apologize. I believe that can be blamed on Rick Sigglekow for removing Daisy from having her episodes be placed in Shining Time Station because of his executive decisioning to consider her a "sexist" stereotype, which is never the character Awdry even created her as such at all. That I still am pissed at Sigglekow over that, even after hearing about it last spring. Season 4: I'm actually grateful we even got them adapted after Seasons 1-3 anyway. So it's not worth complaining about. Even if "Henry and the Elephant" had some notable changes made unlike the original RWS story. It is better than nothing after all, shouldn't anyone agree regardless if the stories outside the Skarloey Railway are in random order? I don't really care about "Toad Stands By" taking place after Season 3's "Oliver Owns Up" because I do believe Mitton and Allcroft wanted to save that episode after that season because of the amount of episodes they were going for, as well as a few of Andrew Brenner's magazine stories they adapted for Season 3. But because Thomas is nowhere to be found in "Bulls Eyes", still don't get how that is even a problem here. Season 5: Bertram, I wish he did stick around after "Toby's Discovery." Thumper, I believe that was the point to have him be a one-off given he was meant to be a plot device anyway. Even for a really ridiculous, but daring story. And since when did Tiger Moth even come off as a character if it was a faceless aeroplane? I will admit that Old Slow Coach, out of the newbies that never appeared again, really should've made a comeback sooner or later, and could have been a popular character outside the main characters (yes, Nia and Rebecca included despite neither engine appearing in the first seven seasons) like Rosie, Whiff, Diesel 10, Cranky, 'Arry and Bert, Daisy, the Skarloey engines, etc. The same would apply with Derek. Shame neither of the two were seen again. Season 6: I know everyone has complained about the poor visuals given by the really crappy camera font made for this season. But, I think the worst parts of that season are the awful and rushed editing in "Middle Engine", the unnecessary choice of making 4:3 and 16:9 versions of episodes that have shots filmed in 4:3 to be cropped into 16:9, and Alec Baldwin's narrations for the US dub dropping in quality that it's just so sad to listen to. Though, I still like his narrations for "Elizabeth the Vintage Quarry Truck" and the Pack episodes. Some others, he was alright whilst most others, he sounded quite unenthusiastic and depressed that I feel sorry for the guy given how he had been going through a divorce with Km Basinger. That does not help this happened the exact same time Season 6 was released on TV in the UK, but on home media in the US. Season 7: Had they just used a deleted scene from say, "Thomas, Terence and the Snow" instead of using footage from "It's Only Snow" as "transition" footage in the episode, "Thomas and the Avalanche", there would be no such thing as the worst transition scene in the series.

Thirteen new characters. Those other four being the horrid lorries and Butch.

Series 6 would look better as a restored season if it had better visuals. So they won’t be looking so pale.

Well this is going to be interesting.

Another series 4 issue was many of the SKR episodes shown in a funny order, showing characters then introducing them in subsequent episodes. Was careless from the production crew really - all the had to do was a few episodes around

I think Series 6 had such poor visuals because the entire set had to be rebuilt after it had been dismantled and sent to Canada for the Magic Railroad. Once it was shipped back, a lot of the set and models were damaged. I wonder how much of it had to do with that.

There is a huge continuity error in Season Three's MAVIS. The narrator says Diesel knew about cars, even though we've seen him around freight cars in Season Two's POP GOES THE DIESEL and DIESEL'S DEVIOUS DEED and Season Three's DIESEL DOES IT AGAIN.

Apparently britt had plans for the series 5 characters if she didn’t leave after magic railroad flop

No no no no no. I don't count that. You're funny.

I 100% agree with season 1. Its to the point where I don't even enjoy episodes like Thomas Gets Tricked anymore, I just skip to the second half of it

4:04 I saw that a few months ago and it’s honestly kinda funny!

I think that season 1 was like gonna be like a painting and stuff I guess-

For the earlier seasons,I agree with u about the continuity. In s2, I know the wanted Thomas stories bc it’s his show, but they could’ve stuck with the order of the stories from the rws to expand on the rest of the characters like s4 did with the narrow gauge while fitting Thomas is when they could. The music and sound effects of s1 and 2 can be a bit too intense for my liking… some of the faces were also jarring as well… s3 is the best looking classic season… s4, 5 and 6 would be so much better with some color correction. S7 had good visuals but the stock footage thing… they should've waited longer to produce and release this season bc it seemed very rushed. The previous seasons had at least a 2 year wait between seasons.

In re-watching Season 4 on Amazon and DVDs, I always see a blue lense in the top left corner in the picture. It is in at least 5 shots every episode and it drives me insane everytime I rewatch Season 4. Weird how its only that season I see a problem with the lense.(I still love Season 4 btw)

Don't be too harsh on series 8, Luke.

8:39 some of these episodes might scare younger viewers

Me The Worst Parts In Thomas & Friends Is The Ugly Visuals and The Lack Of A Cosistent Continuity Flow Form Series 6 Using Stock Footage From Series 7 Hands Down

Good analysis!

Great vid, can't wait for the series 8 review!! Also very glad you're learning to appreciate series 2 for the absolute masterpiece it is, wonky eyes be damned!!!

well... they didn't have enough money to create more footage for season 7 so they had to resort to stock clips and they were in the middle of selling the IP to HiT entertainment they just wanted to finish the season

My worst points of these wonderful seasons: Seasons 1-4: Some noticeable goofs (wonky eyes, wrong faces, etc.) Season 5: Some parts of the music being omitted in the UK dub. Season 6: Alec Baldwin’s unenthusiastic narration Season 7: Robert Hartshorne music being used instead of Mike and Junior.

I get why Diesel was seen in Mavis. In the episode, Diesel was telling Mavis bad advice. However, in the original RWS story it was Daisy, but her role was replaced with Diesel because Rick Sigglekow did not like the fact that Daisy had makeup, something that is stereotypical for American females. None of Daisy's episodes, barring Bulls Eyes aired on Shining Time Station for similar reasons.

I honestly think that Series 6’s dull colors give off a more cozy vibe. Series 4 is my favorite series, but I think that if it had the aesthetic of Series 6, it’d feel a lot more cozy than it already is

9:45 technically since '95

Let's see if I can get my own thoughts and critiques of the first 7 series out here: Series 1 - the episodes really don't work too well in a vacuum; they need to be watched one after the other. Out of context, a lot gets missing if you're watching random episode to random episode, which the later series does better with in that regard. Series 2 - I used to really dislike how muddy brown the shots and scenery looked, but the restored episodes really helped in that regard. As for the content itself, I really don't know if I have much to complain about. Even the low-bar Chris Awdry stories I like a fair amount, given I had never seen them until I was introduced to the wonders of RU-vid back in 2008, when I was 13. So those hold a very special place in my heart, if only because they felt like "lost episodes" to me. Also there's barely any Series 2 footage in the music videos going forward, and I still don't know why. Series 3 - The original stories were very hit and miss, although there were some stand-outs (Henry's Forest is amazing and no one will convince me otherwise). Also, some of the attempts to isolate some of the episodes to not cause continuity snarls really doesn't sit well with me. Series 4 - Yeah, that back half feels really random, but my biggest issue is the order of the first five or so episodes - I don't really like how Duke's backstory is laid out and then we smash cut to the rest of the Skarloey railway with no mention of Duke afterwards. I would have spaced out Bulldog and You Can't Win to be after each Skarloey Railway miniarc, so to speak. Like, Bulldog would be after the "Old Faithful" arc and You Can't Win would be after "Rock and Roll" miniarc. That's just me, though! Series 5 - You hit it on the head, honestly. I like Season 5 a lot, but some of the more cinematic episodes feel like a major departure from what Thomas stood for imo. Like, compare a crash in Season 2 from a crash in Season 5. Pretty different, if you ask me. Series 6 - Percy takes up _way_ too much camera time, and I'm surprised no one has talked about it. He's the lead in, or co-lead in, more than half the series. It's insane, honestly, he got pushed in a BIG way. Also, I somewhat disagree with the visuals - sure they're not as good as they could be, but I'll always appreciate them to a degree. It's like the ugly duckling story, you know? Series 7 - this feels like a HiT lite series - characters are starting to get derailed (har har), stories are pretty safe and simple, and there isn't a lot that I want to come back to. I will give them credit for balancing out the characters better and giving more equal screentime to the Skarloey Railway as opposed to just shoving them in at the end. So that's my thoughts, I'm very late to the party.

Season 5 certainly didn't do justice with its one off characters, but a few returning characters made their final appearances in this season as well (Caroline and George, for example). The visuals of Season 6 do look bad compared to the previous season, but it could have been much worse. I'm guessing there was not much of a budget to film new scenes for Season 7, so they ended up using old footage to fill up the episodes. Continuity seems to be a major issue throughout the first few seasons.

Thomas has Dorito shaped eyebrows

season 7 was also filmed alongside the jack and the sodor construction miniseries, which probably also played a part in the use of stock footage.

Salty the Dockside Diesel Seasons 6-7 theme Plays in Salty's Secret Satly's Stormy Tale

Reusing a scene is sensible, makes the whole place seem real. Why would somewhere change every time you saw it? The trains run the same routes with the same other engines on them, so of course things repeat.

Edward the Blue Engine Seasons 6-7 theme Plays in Edward the Really Useful Engine Edward's Brass Band

My biggest problem with series 3 + 4 is when they remove real life elements ( e.g. London isn't even named neither are the Books in Thomas & the Special Letter ) or changing engines backstories like Stepney instead of being the Mascot engine of the Real Life Bluebell Railway , now works on his own branch line on the other side of the Island. or in Tender Engines when Flying Scotsman isn't even named or seen or spoke , but also Gordon having relation to him , despite being the class as him. Biggest gripe with series 6 is how much "faker " and "toy-like" everything feels , ya know , the flat lighting , those really ugly matte finishes on the engines which make them look more like toys.

Can you do the worst model in series 8 & 9 the great discovery

Well in the case of Diesel, it was mainly down to the fact of the absence of Daisy, as TheUnluckyTug's video on season 3 and the Thomas wiki explains, It was Rick Siggelkow's idea to exclude the Thomas stories "Daisy" and "Percy's Predicament" from airing on Shining Time Station when he disapproved of Daisy's exaggerated feminine design.

The worst part about series 1-4 are the f*caked up story order Off the rails- series 1 Down the mine- series 1 Thomas meets the Queen- series 4 Percy’s promise- series 3 Percy takes the plunge- series 2 Thomas comes to breakfast- series 2 Daisy- series 2 Bulls eyes- series 4 Percy’s predicament- series 2

11:13 That is exactly what I meant in the Season 6 review

Thomas's Trouble Season 1 theme Plays in Thomas and the Freight Cars Thomas, Bertie and the Great Race

Way to forget about Butch from season 5!

Hey, there! Been watching all your reviews so far from last year. Discovered them a few months ago but I haven't commented on any of them because I've already decided to give my opinions on every classic season of Thomas the Tank on another RU-vid Channel, that being The Unlucky Tug and his retrospectives which I technically discovered first and I didn't want to have to repeat myself, but your reviews really are just as informative with your unique quirks in reviewing and one of the truer and more nuanced adult fans of Thomas out there who does a proper review in its entirety without having to go episode through episode. However, I will comment on what you say are the worst parts of each season which for the most part I agree but I would like to share my thoughts and contrast on some things. I grew up watching episodes from seasons 1-7 but I would only consider 1-5 as the true classic series though I respect anyone who likes to consider 6 & 7 part of the package before the uglier HIT era took over which I fortunately never got to see as a child before I grew up and left Thomas for a long time until revisiting as a teenager and adult. Here are my thoughts: Season 1: I think I'm actually one of the rare fans that favours this over not only 2 but 3 as well, and is my third favourite season overall. I just had so much nostalgia for it because I had a VHS containing the first 7 stories but they were also the stories I was most exposed to through books as well as reading The Railway Series in order from the beginning without fully completing it which may have played a big factor for my love of Season 1 later on as well as a handful of other VHS tapes I watched borrowed from a library in England as a child and from other people. However, I do have to agree the first half really is more uneventful compared to the second half which would become the pinnacle of what made the series great. I'd argue the first real eventful episode is where Thomas gets stuck in the snow and is rescued by Terence which features the first on-screen crash although nowhere near as violent or shattering as "The Flying Kipper" later on. It still has that slow and calm pace characteristic of S1 but is a step-up in volume and tone from what we saw previously, but I beg to pin the exception on "Thomas and the Breakdown Train". That for me is my favourite episode on S1 because it's probably the only real episode where we see Thomas act as a hero earning his branch line after his original character arc where he learns from his mistakes, saves another engine from the trucks and becomes more likeable taken from his first book and while we don't see the actual crash happen we do see the impact afterwards so that for me makes a big change from what we saw in the previous 6 episodes which were admittedly very, very simple as well as the 5 that would follow from James' book and the first half of Thomas' sequel book. But the second half is all around great and I just love the careful, humble beginnings of where the series started that had already been building up to greatness by the end of the first season. Season 2: While I get your criticism, that is probably part of what makes Season 2 the most old-fashioned and gritty one of the series, albeit in a charming, classic way. It's like the season that serves as a sequel to its predecessor when watching them back to back yet somehow feels more old and classic, whereas if you watched 2 without watching 1, you'd totally believe it was the beginning of a series setting up the main themes for what was to come. 1 in comparison seems more storybook-like and kid-friendly while still being its own thing. But I kind of like the seriousness and complexity of Season 2 which I appreciate a lot more watching as an adult whereas I barely got any exposure to its episodes as a child and the few I did remember watching from the season on some mixed VHS compilations didn't stick out to me because I didn't see many of them. "Percy Takes the Plunge" is the one I can most remember enjoying. So maybe nostalgia does play more to me when it comes to Season 1. But as for the worst of Season 2 in my opinion, I guess it's mostly down to its continuity issues you mentioned in your full review of that series which Season 1 didn't have in abundance because that was more straightforward from the order of the books except for a few missed stories complicated for adaptation which Season 2 played more with and scrambled with the order yet somehow managed it to work as a relatively consistent sequel series, so really it's pretty much the same issue you have with Season 3 that I have with 2 when it comes to its continuity but 2 definitely has more overarching themes and tones which would get better at the same time as more jumbled as the classic series went on. Season 3: I'm of the unpopular opinion of loving great part of this series as I love the classic era but the one I am least fond of as a cohesive whole. A lot of people regard this as their favourite because of the nostalgic factor kicking in from the early 90s which I can totally understand. For me it's more the 80s first 2 seasons I feel more impacted by their tone and design, and then the next 2 are my favourites of all the classic series. I actually see 2 and 3 having a lot in common though, which is weird considering that they had the longest break between each other and a lot of things happened at once when Season 3 came out, but the impact Season 2 left with its characters, themes and even music was embedded and improved in 3. However the part I least like about 3 is how meh some of the stories are compared to its greater ones as well as the hodgepodge order in its production, with the mix of adapted Railway Series episodes along with original episodes based off magazine stories sans 2 (most of which I actually like better than the RWS adaptations, others not so much) and the drastic differences between two halves of production which I only discovered recently being the first 16 and the last 10 recorded and produced at different times, which is why some premiered on VHS in 1991 and the others came out with the full series in 1992 and new dubs for the first half and a bit. Those are my main complaints. Season 4: My second favourite season and the first to really shine in my opinion. Though I can totally understand the criticism being on the latter disjointed half from "Rusty to the Rescue" onwards. The Narrow Gauge half is just perfectly told and paced except "Four Little Engines" coming before "A Bad Day For Sir Handel" and "Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady". Other than that continuity mistake it's almost completely flawless like you said. But I still really love the second half focused on the Northwestern steam team along with some other newcomers with the best being Stepney. I don't really mind the misplaced order of the stories just because of how well they're done and you could squeeze them in their original slots with the stories and events they took place within previous seasons and arcs, just with a more boosted production. However I admit the most fun way to watch them is if you've been watching the show rigorously from the start as well as reading The Railway Series by Awdry and you notice missing stories not being adapted which finally appear in a fourth season which makes up for them after a whole new chunk of material. But watching it for the first time here could be confusing for many young viewers who look beyond just being entertained. That said, I quite like the Christopher Awdry stories as well. They also deliver a sense of nostalgia despite me not having even seen any of the episodes from this series as a child except for a few on two compilation videos, one of which only had "Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady".

7:54 What retcon?

As much as I love series 5, and I do believe a lot of it has held up rather well, I do believe its was the start of the decline of the show. It sowed a lot of seeds that the later seasons reaped. Over the top accidents, flanderized characters, newbies showing up for merchandise etc. I still think its like a C+/B- series, but to say its the best is a big stretch.

Is this a rant or you say your least favorite epside ?

Not really sure if I have any problems with the classic series. Um... I think these infamous episodes "Middle Engine", "What's the Matter With Henry?" and "Better Late Than Never" kinda suck. There's that.

idk why but when i watched season 8 when i was sick the next day i was fine and thats why i love s e a s o n 8 and s e a s o n 1 1

My main problem with season 4 is the lighting it’s way too dark almost like everything is happening at sundown.

I’m curious, Luke, have you seen the original edits of the first 3 series? They are rather/somewhat different from the remastered versions you’d find today, usually down to specific shots used (be it alternate takes or outtakes), colour grading (S1 being more greener and S2 sometimes having a red filter), the obsolescence of “goofs” (such as the edge of the Viaduct set not being visible), and audio lining up (example being Toby going off to Tidmouth in “Ghost Train”) making for an overall tighter appearance and presentation. If you want a sort of cliff-notes version then this video is what I’d recommend ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k9GbRHj1bP8.html. I say this because I feel like some of your criticism may have to do with the remastered versions specifically compared to what came out prior to 2012.

My most minor Thomas classic season is S7 as I have never seen it as a kid and it lacks my motivation as every time I tried to watch it all over again but it doesn't make me satisfied. (If anyone has a favorite for s7 I'm Sorry.)

Where do you watch TTTE? Because since all seasons have been removed from RU-vid idk where to watch them yknow :/

While I definitely agree that Series 6 is the blandest of all the classic seasons, there's just something about S7 and forward that makes the show stick out visually and not in a good way, I wish I could describe it better. In terms of the classics, I'd probably put Series 7 in second place right behind 6 for worst looking season. (Not to totally diss on the HIT era though, those are the episodes I'd catch on TV every Sunday which was always a highlight of the week)