Author's Note: Just like my Friendship Is Magic episode reviews, I'll begin writing them for Thomas & Friends, starting with the season debut, Thomas the Quarry Engine. This one and four other episodes are released for the U.S. DVD, Trouble on the Tracks, on April 8, 2014.

Review bumped April 9 to feature the episode and cleanup.

As a longtime Thomas fan who stuck with the original seven series and eventually lost plenty of interest because of the really bad storytelling during the HiT Era, Series 17 revived my interest to sky-high limits by being the first good season since Series 7. Great characterization. Lively interaction. More attention to railway realism. And BETTER STORIES AND STORYTELLING. After Mattel acquired HiT Entertainment, the writing team (led by Sharon Miller) was gutted in favor of those experienced with the series before, with new head writer, Andrew Brenner. Bill or Ben? was the best Thomas story not just last season, but the whole CGI Era, too. Thomas the Quarry Engine — written by head writer Andrew Brenner, who also wrote Bill or Ben? — not just rivals Bill or Ben? as the best Thomas episode in the CGI Era, but it's objectively the best season opener since Cranky Bugs.

Strengths:

1. Last year, Arc Productions replaced Nitrogen Studios as Thomas's primary CGI animation company, and it provided not just great camera angles, but also plenty of extra details on the characters and scenery. In Bill or Ben?, the red paintwork on their bufferbeam was slowly crumbling away, displaying their hard work and energy they endured over the years. Overall, Arc had a trial year last season; despite its lack of refinery, it was spectacular. Kudos to David Baas (the director of the animation last year and this) for giving the CGI a fresh experience.
    
   Arc Productions stepped that up further here: On the HD version, you can see so many tinier details in the rocks, rails, wood, and paintwork of every single engine. And it isn't a gimmick; it enhances the story. On top of that, it's also extremely refined, which was last season's biggest flaw from objective quality standards.
   
2. Major props to Arc and Brenner for adding Henrietta into the episode and giving her her first speaking role since Daisy in 1986. If you saw my journal, Henrietta has a face now, but it's no longer so shocking. Her characterization was mostly focused on the narrator instead of dialogue, and her dialogue was mostly plain. Maggie Ollerenshaw gave her that wisdom oozing from her voice. It fits the oldie-but-goldie aura both Toby and Henrietta share nicely.
   
3. Excellent use of Railway Series material by having Toby pick up the quarrymen so they can go home. Good to see the original source not being ignored.
    
   On the meanwhile, there's great usage of references from the classics and older Railway Series:
    
   a. Diesel calling himself and Mavis "revolutionary."
    
   b. Thomas being shoved down the hill and crashing into the buffers beside the station, ala Trouble for Thomas/Thomas & the Trucks.
    
   c. Mention of the quarry located at the end of Thomas's branch line.
    
   d. Mavis being allowed to extend her work to Brendam Docks every now and then.
   
4. Great characters VERY IN character. Diesel, Mavis, Thomas, Toby, Henrietta, the Troublesome Trucks, Salty, Cranky, Porter, Hiro, and the Fat Controller are all in top form. None of their lines were out of place, empty, or forced. They had attitude. Personality.
    
   In the previous series under Sharon Miller, the voice actors tried to have them in character, but the scripted dialogue was so bad, it only worsened the characterization. Since Series 17, you can tell how much the voice actors really love their jobs; when you write great characterization, you make the jobs much easier and apparently much more fun. Brenner, Arc, and crew took close advantage of it.
    
   And even better is Mavis's much needed character development. For a long time, her mentor role has been more or less stuck to one level. This episode advanced her character for the first time since Toby's Tightrope, where she grew from the immature, hypocritical fusspot into a mature female diesel.
   
5. The little musical number — based word for word off
   from 1909 — is a very nice twist to the Thomas formula, and with the solid pacing TtQE had, it really belonged here and gave it a solid conclusion. Reminds me a bit like the musical numbers from Friendship Is Magic, only to end the episode rather than in the middle and not be confined to a modernized form of a genre.
    
   What was a little surprising is how good the singing was.
   

Weaknesses:

1. Thomas stopped dead when he hit the buffers. The buffers can't withstand such weight; they'd collapse pretty quickly and be crushed by the train's weight.
   
2. Mavis and Diesel were able to get Thomas's train back on the line without a breakdown train. It would've been better if Mavis or Diesel fetched Rocky or Harvey so they can get the train ready for delivery.
   
3. Diesel didn't have some on-screen punishment for his misdeed. While Thomas was in the wrong for taking the long, heavy train alone, his actions were justifiable because Diesel purposefully disrupted the flow of the work from Ffarquhar Quarry, and Thomas had to deliver the load of stone before a specific time. After Thomas was scolded for taking the train alone, Diesel wasn't seen for the rest of the episode.
   

But those three obvious flaws don't deter the high quality of Thomas the Quarry Engine. In eight minutes and forty-five seconds, Brenner hones in a high-quality script filled to the brim of attitude, history, and research. Arc Productions's intricate care to the refinement of its Computer-Generated Imagery is treated as an important ingredient to the story, never leaving anything so stilted. Combined with great characterization, solid pacing, and a creative ending, TtQE will leave Thomas fans young, old, past, and present with a strong impression that Series 17 is no fluke. In all, a fantastic episode.