Thomas & Friends: Season 9 & Calling All Engines (2005) in Retrospect - The Thomas Retrospective 

Honestly, despite all of the crap that we give Calling All Engines, we should give it credit for the storm scene. It’s just AMAZING to look at

Season 9 is how rhyming should have been done, tastefully and not overly noticeable

Ok, but the scene when the Steamies and Diesels were getting revenge on each other was iconic as a kid.

I also enjoyed Gordon's little arc in Calling All Engines going from hating having to sleep in a tent, to actually liking having a tent 😂

42:09 The fact this one-off line from "Across the 2nd Dimension" has become a popular meme in internet culture, it just goes to show that even a decade after it's conclusion, 'Phineas & Ferb' can still live on in people's minds.

It is actually wild that Salty wasn’t a player in CAE, I’ve never thought about that before! On the subject, a funny detail that Brenden once pointed out to me, intentional or not, is that the workmen are typically always outside of Pinchy’s reach. As usual, a great comprehensive retrospective, and the shout-out at the end was a nice surprise-thank you kindly!!

Diesel 10 grabbing the V in review out with pinchie is a nice touch, looking forward to watching the review!

Respect for Gordon is one of the few HiT era episodes that is a true masterpiece.

This season was mostly a huge miss, some nice scenes here and there, but that's it. Except, for "Respect for Gordon." I love how it fully utilized the longer runtime to tell a story that felt straight out of the early days, where no one's in the right, and everyone learns a lesson. It does a good job showing what earning respect really means, and what it means to be a team. I know Tug has said it before, but I agree. It's the best of the HIT Era.

Honestly yeah Series 9 is the best of what the HIT model series has to offer, yet despite a couple good and bad episodes, there's nothing about it that warrents either high praise or bitter hatred. A lot of it is just there. 21:32 Thank you very much for the shout out! It made my day

I've always imagined that "Saving Edward" may have been better if Thomas was the one who thought Edward was going to be scrapped, which would admittedly be something that concerned him considering Edward was one of his first friends... but at the same time, Edward doesn't want Topham to know about his problems simply because we doesn't want to come across as a bother. He feels like the sort of engine who'd just try to brush off any problem he had with something along the lines of "Oh, it's nothing really", simply because he DOESN'T want to make anyone worry, because he doesn't want to make it look like he's being a nuisance. Then the moral of "you should just be honest, no matter how hard it may seem" would work better. Edward was trying too hard to undersell what could have been a big problem, whilst at the same time, Thomas was definitely overselling the situation and fearing the worst.

I was not expecting so much positivity with this Season's Retrospective. S9 is definitely one of my favorite seasons. It ironically also came out the same year I was born.

Babe, wake up. New episode of The Thomas Retrospective just dropped!

That Fight Scene lives in my head rent free

I swear, considering how far away this season is from the RWS in every other facet, the Thin Controller being introduced in this season is kind of mind boggling. Also, I remember 11 year old me basically getting conned into thinking that CAE was a TATMR sequel.

"DEAR CHRISTOPHER" MY NAME'S CHRISTOPHER, and when I was a little boy I was obsessed with Thomas. I could cry honestly cry...

19:40 Don’t be so mean Tug! Pinchy was just feeling awkward! This was his first film role after a long time!

15:57 Bill and Ben’s chance had come to take Gordon to the harbour and dump him in the sea 😂😂😂😂😂😂

19:51 Diesel 10: "We did 20 takes and that was the best one."

Another weird thing about CAE was that some of the educational segments are “canon” to the story in which what happens in them vs being “filler” like how they usually are. The most infamous is the one where it encourages viewers to pick the “wrong” car for Diesel in one of Thomas’ pranks.

When Sir Topham Hatt says "He must go to the scrapyard tomorrow", it doesn't sound like he ended his sentence, indicating that Percy didn't listen to the conversation after hearing that part. I think that it goes like this. "Percy has been late too often this week. He must go to the scrapyard tomorrow (After Percy stops listening) to collect scrap for the smelters, and then pull the mail train all week."

I’m not sure why but the rhyme gimmick that Sharon Miller is known for makes me wonder if she got some inspiration from Dr. Seuss. At least that’s how it feels like to me.

Lol I remember seeing a video of Sir Handel coming up with the stories for the narrow gauge engines, telling the script writers, and Skarloey and Rheneas being shocked by how they're potrayed as children

The best way to describe Mighty Mac is that they’re basically the CatDog of Thomas who hate each other’s guts despite they share their own guts (boiler, firebox etc)

Oof, Gordon's possible fate reminds me of an engine that was pretty much used as playground for kids for a while in Anchorage Alaska. Eventually they closed it off and put a tall fence around it, but for a time, the poor engine was suffering that same fate.

Finally some more love for Thomas & the Statue. As a kid, I wasn't a fan of this one. But as I got older, it started to grow on me and has become another favorite ep of mine from S9. Respect for Gordon is also my No. 1 favorite episode of this season. Also, Henry & the Flagpole and Thomas & the Toy Shop are two guilty pleasure episodes of mine that I can rewatch back-to-back because of how Henry was portrayed as an actual character (almost yeah, but I don't care). Anything's more enjoyable than the Wishing Tree or Lucky Trucks concept.

Diesel 10 grabbing the v in the title is just incredible

I'm glad you shoutout to Usual Bloke Luke's rewrite of Calling All Engines!

42:02 Honestly, I didn't get the meme at first. But after looking it up, I finally understood what it is, and I realized it was from Phineas and Ferb, another one of my favorite shows from my childhood. Good one, Unlucky Tug.

Even as a kid seeing that wood fall on Diesel 10 was hilarious And the fact that Neville has a total of 4 lines in the show, with two of them literally being the same word, is perhaps the most notable instance (aside from Norman) of “yeah this character’s just for toys”

You've finally caught up with Usual Bloke Luke!

Emily, in the first half of the movie: shut up thomas. im trying to sleep! Emily, in the second half: dang, i sure miss, thomas

the season nine engines have been given a bit more love recently. Carson’s video workshop made two stories revolving around dennis, ilovetrians323 made a pretty hilarious christmas special staring mighty mac, and dcg12b made a story explaining molly’s past. it goes to show that the members of the fandom care more then the owners of the franchise themselves.

Honestly Thomas sometimes being the voice of reason and sometimes cheeky is similar to Season 5. He was still cheeky in Season 5 (Toby’s Discovery, Put Upon Percy and Snow) but also very mature.

I love the moments where Henry’s jerk side and faces come out in both the season and special. I haven’t seen it in awhile but in CAE, Henry is easily the rudest and most like his classic counterpart he’s ever been in the HIT Era

4:22 Tug…that background music unlocked so many memories I thought were lost forever. Thanks for choosing that music, the Aether is one of the best Minecraft mods of all time.

This episode of S9 and CAE was so complete and definitely in my opinion the most entertaining part of the Hit Era. We all definitely needed this and we wouldn’t live without it. Major props to you, Nick, congrats. 🤩🤩🤩

I died when you flashed Bill & Ben talking about dumping Gordon in the sea, but at the same time I was like OMG that’s PERFECT!! 🤯😂

I actually quite like Molly as a character. In my eyes she's quite relateable, being an engine that struggles with anxiety. Basically a CGI Henry toned down a bit. As someone who deals with anxiety issues, I get how Molly feels. She has a lot of story potential too and her design is excellent.

42:09 The unlucky tug is Doofenshmirz confirmed

Honestly, Neville is my favourite character, right there with Edward, since i feel really nostalgic for him, but i still think they did him dirty by making him say 4 WORDS.

Very thoughtful of you to mention Usual Bloke Luke!

Honestly the way Diesel Ten “shrugs off” the wood piece basically whacking his face in that one scene kind of just adds to how tough of an engine he is in a way, and it shows he likes doing such work

Molly the Yellow Engine is memorable imo because of her face and design. I used to have a crush on her when I was little. 😂

You give me a sense of nostalgia, a time long gone, a time when everything was easier, where I am not as tired as now. Thank you for making videos

The storm scene is genuinely one of the best model scenes ever Plus I love how Gordon actually ended up liking his little tent by the end

Unlucky Tug: Talks about Lady's appearance in CAE and says this is how he imagines her. Oh, you're not the only one. From the Thomas fan-works I've seen, this iteration of Lady caught like wildfire with all of us!

I've been waiting for this retrospective on this season for a while now! I honestly love season 9 purely for the fact that there are a few gems. I love characters like Mighty Mac, and Dennis and even Molly and Neville despite them not having much personality but as a fan can decide what their personalities are. And all around there are generally some good episodes in this season. I was surprised when you mentioned the narrow gauge engines you didn't talk about Sir Handle being absent but then again he's been absent since season 5 so I guess we'll have to wait for you to touch on that next season. Absolutely love this one Nic keep up the good!

I believe the storm scene is easily the best scene of CAE. Also if I were to ever do my own version of the movie, I would absolutely cut ALL the learning segments entirely and the songs to only have the movie parts 14:15

I am a big fan of Mighty Mac and the Ffestiniog Railway's Double Fairlie's in general. 52:10 I really love that Tug loves their episode.

I love the foggy atmosphere in The Magic Lamp as well as the tunnel scene in Bold and Brave! The music in that scene gives me goosebumps every time! These are probably the only instances in the HIT era where they played with tone!

Honestly this proves how underrated the HIT era can be.

I really appreciate that Calling All Engines is more nuanced than Magic Railroad in how diesels are portrayed. It’s almost like Calling All Engines was meant to fix the issues that Magic Railroad had in just making the diesels black-and-white villains with no humanity. I have a theory that because Magic Railroad and several animated films (specifically the early Pixar films) were made before September 11, 2001, where those films before were always about defeating a greedy gang of villains and that violence ends up saving the day. But I personally think 9/11 made America more humble and while a couple of films that were wrapping up production during 9/11 still had these cliched villains with acts of violence and killing, I respect the Disney films and shows like Thomas that changed their morals and views on villains after 9/11. That could be why Season 7 lacked sound effects during the crashes and added slide whistle sounds, since Season 6 was already wrapping up production during 9/11. But by Season 8 onwards, they brought the sound effects back. But I think Calling All Engines and the Disney films that were coming out during the mid to late 2000’s had more nuanced stories, characters and less focus on characters punching each other in the face to solve their problems by defeating greedy gangs of black-and-white villains. Those reading this might laugh and scoff at these examples but these were childhood favorites of mine and I remember them coinciding with Calling All Engines, Disney’s films at the time, Chicken Little and Bambi 2 have more focus on characters learning about each other, living their lives and connecting with one another. There’s still exciting action and chase scenes, but these films along with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (and his many films and shows) connected with me back then and still to this day, because it’s the same reason why I love the classic era of Thomas. During that same time in the 2005-2009 era, some of my favorite Thomas DVDs were James Learns A Lesson and A Big Day For Thomas, along with the VHS tapes from my early childhood like Thomas’ Trackside Tunes and Best of Percy. The stories in those videos, and many others I watched, were very slice-of-life. They help me as I go through my journey in life. When James Learns A Lesson was released on DVD for the first time in 2005, I got that DVD for Christmas in 2005 and watched it throughout the Spring of 2006, it was my first Ringo Starr narrated video and it was also the same time I first saw the Bambi: Special Edition VHS from 2005 and around that time, I first saw Bambi 2. And seeing the other classic films being fully restored and released on DVD like 101 Dalmatians in 2008 and the Winnie the Pooh movies, it made me appreciate the more laid back stories and slice-of-life Disney films and Thomas DVDs

42:49😡Alright we get it!

33:41 to 33:51 Maybe because since the “Pop Special” story, that is basically the personality they chose for Duncan

Rusty bieng genderless was truely ahead of it's time

I just wish Dennis appeared in CGI Thomas, especially Day of the Diesels. And I’m surprised Salty and BoCo didn’t appear in Calling All Engines. They would side with Thomas as they’re the good diesels. I think Salty would be the best diplomat (better than Mavis) in solving the whole Steamie-Diesel conflict with his laid back and doesn't-take-crap-from-anyone personality. Along with Bo-Co. Diesel 10 would be upset towards him though. And I would've loved to see Class 40 and Splatter and Dodge appear too.

They should've given those new characters Molly, Neville and Dennis more stories

It's interesting to me watching all these videos as someone who only saw the first 3 seasons of Thomas back in the early 90s. Even at the time I had a great amount of respect for the effort and detail put into the sets, which later encouraged me to get into Warhammer and tabletop miniature modeling. My favourite characters have to be Bill and Ben. Probably with Mavis as a close second.

Unlucky Tug: I have two nickels Me: Would you like an Dime

2:36 Ah crap… we’ll be in for it. But that’s a story for another day…

Criticism of a kids show being dismissed as "it's just a kids show" is similar to dismissing bad actions as "oh I'm just mentally ill". Being a kids show isn't an excuse for being mindless. Kids need to develope thinking skills and shows can give them that. Look at kids shows that are praised, they don't talk down to the kids and give them something to think about

I cannot believe I did not notice Salty wasn't in CAE until now. Personally I think it could work much better as a rail vs. road movie about the construction of the airport’s rail network to prevent it being only accessible by road, accentuating the message of working together towards a common goal. Also I really think the story would really benefit if there were two mains, a steam engine and a diesel who get along well, with the latter letting the former know when they mess up and that gets them to reconsider instead of a dream. Imagine if Thomas *and* Mavis were the stars of this movie.

22:53 Taking a quote from Usual Bloke Luke’s Season 9 Review. “I know his type. Racist.”

49:09 “Im ThE bRaVeSt EnGiNe In AlL tHe WoRlD” He called.

Percy is laying facts in this season

Season 9 being better than Season 8 is an interesting take, not one I see often. In the end, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself more this time around.

This is the best H.I.T. season... which is kind of like being the tallest dwarf.

Ever since I first saw your video talking about Respect For Gordon, I’ve been looking forward to you finally reaching this season. Respect For Gordon and Mighty Mac place among some of my top favorite episodes and I was glad you saw them as gems as well!

Okay, there is something about Rusty I *HAVE* to say..... ..... They REALLY gave Rusty such a detailed philtrum (lip ridge) it almost gives Rusty a RABBIT LIKE look. It's especially hilarious in a lot of the more exaggerated expressions.

Out of Season 9, or any Hit-Era episode in general for that matter... *Thomas' Milkshake Muddle* has always been a guilty pleasure for me. Aside from the obvious gimmicky location that is the Ice-Cream Factory, it's a pretty decent plot in my opinion that teaches us that making a mistake can also be the solution to a problem.

I believe Calling All Engines started work earlier - copyright date of 2004, and it was already being shot as of that August

34:43-34:53 This season proves that the Skarloey Railway characters were at their peaked in Season 4. There are moments were their true characters are present, but they are overshadowed by HIT's decision to make them babies. Imagine what HIT would have done with the Arsedale Railway engines. And as harsh as this sounds, I'm glad Duke wasn't brought back during the HIT Era. He's the only narrow gauge character who wasn't written out of character. I am so glad they were fixed in the CGI Series. Just wish they had more episodes during that time.

Season 9 (and calling all engines) IS FINALLY HEREEEEE!!!!

34:06 “The real Duncan we know wouldn’t be sad about this” had me😂😂😂

I find Neville very interesting character because he’s a Q1 class locomotive in real life.

3:49 Here's an interesting fact, if I'm not mistaken, the first time this practice was done was in the Latin dubbing of the series, where a female voice would say the title of the episode and then the narrator begins with the story, I don't know if it would have been done. In other countries like this before season 9 but here in Latin America it has been done before.

Still love your vids man, keep it up! They're honestly such a lovely constant in the community.

While just a small note in the bigger picture, the fact Rusty was going to be made female before they went back on that reminds me of how its been said Edward was going be changed to be called Alice and have a pink paint scheme at one point before Britt said no. While I don't know how true the Edward story is, the way it'd have been for Rusty is kind of interesting in that it'd be done to someone who wasn't referred to as male or female until then.

thank u, thank u, thank u for speaking about Rusty’s gender. so so important even if Britt didn’t know it at the time. it means a lot to a lot of people, and the history behind it is perfectly explained here. amazing

32:07 tbh you could just say the dementia’s finally caught up to them and I’d say it’s work pretty well lmao

One of the biggest missed opportunities is the wasted new characters. Molly, Rosie and Dennis had potential but it was all wasted.

The only release to not have the title cards read aloud was “Thomas and the Toy Workshop” because they changed the title card of that episode for the release. This didn’t match what Michael Brandon said on PBS which was just “Thomas and the Toy Shop”, so they just got rid of the read aloud title cards for all the episodes on that release.

45:04 I was not expecting that for the MVP award. I was certain Mighty Mac would win. Curious moving forward if James will win for Searons 10 & 12.

26:42 on that point I find it so bizarre that they decided to almost throw away the drivers at this point, I know they do later on but in seasons 1, 2 and 3 primarily they acted as the engine’s guide and connected them with human affairs that, quite rightly, puzzle the engines and lead to them making their own interpretations of whatever was said, going wrong and then being corrected by the engine crew. I miss the soul of the drivers that was so prominent in those early episodes, they had such a wholesome bond to their engines

These new characters that were introduced in season nine deserve stories of their own. These characters are actually pretty detailed and the merchandisers decided to put a lot of effort into these characters products. Their merchandise is pretty detailed.

I grew up mostly with the HiT era. Even if they are not as good as the Classic era, it will still remain close to me, no matter how terrible it was.

All of these go straight to my Thomas playlist. I enjoy them so much.

Ah I see you fixed the Peregrine Percival part, Very cool as RLM would say

Calling All Engines definitely could be rewritten as any of these seasons HiT put out but they still had their moments of course. They for the most part definitely had characters in character and other times did not but then again we all act up occasionally.

Would love to see a Top 10 best HIT era episodes video one day, I'm sure there's gems in there!

Honestly for me I love season 9 more than any other season of the hit era even with the weird skarloey and rheneas characterization

I feel like the best way to describe Season 9 compared to Season 8 is probably "higher highs, lower lows." Season 8 I feel like hovers mostly just around the "okay"/tolerable range, and while Season 9 does have some improvements (use of secondary characters like the Skarloey Railway engines) and some better episodes (Respect for Gordon and also gonna add Percy and the Oil Painting to the mix), it's also where I feel like a lot of the issues of the rest of the HiT and Nitrogen era would become more noticeable at the very least.

I also really love how in Respect for Gordon, Gordon makes up his own alliterated self motivation, “I’m the strongest and the best! Strongest and best, strongest and best, cleanest and fastest and pull the express!”

I think the reason why some of the title cards weren't real out loud, was so that they could trick the audience.

It's nice to see that, whatever folks think of the HiT era, we can at least collectively agree that Respect for Gordon isn't just a good HiT era episode- it's a very good episode.

I just realized that Mighty Mac is technically (and it's a bit of a stretch) the closest we get to a Culdee Fell engine in the model series.

There's something else rather noticeably from this season that is reused in the Brenner era too. The whistle sounds of Mighty Mac get reused for the whistles of the Small Railway Engines when they were finally brought to screen in Series 20.

I was just used to Michael Brandon’s Narration ever since I grew up watching the show😂

Season nine got Percy right 👌