Thomas the Quarry Engine has some easy competition for best S18 episode!

This episode features a rather important element on the old Great Western Railway, the slip coaches. Duck describes exactly what slip coaches are and why they were very useful on the Sunshine Line. What made it clever was the sepia flashback: Instead of HD, it was in SD and sped up to make it look like a genuine tape.

James's role as antagonist works to perfection once more. He remains in character, yet has motives that reflect back to the early bird days on Sodor. Duck's stories bothered him, and he was in over his funnel once more, causing him to plagiarize and really screw up the importance of the slip coach.

There's no Rule of Thirds. After one bad mistake (warned by Duck the night before), Duck was given the coaches.

Speaking of the slip coaches, one element of the series from a long time ago was allowing the coaches to speak even though they didn't have a face. (This was dropped mostly after season two, but Old Slow Coach temporarily revived the idea.) This episode revived the concept of sentient coaches by giving them faces like Annie and Clarabel and the ability to talk. But instead of all females, two of them are male, becoming the first male coaches on the Island. To capture the essence of the RWS, the coaches have a haughty attitude with an old-fashioned tint in their voices. And wonderfully rendered, too, by giving them the maroon and cream colors. A lot of effort was put into them, from the coloring to the mechanics to the actual faces. Hell, there are varying facial figures to separate them beyond just the voice such as the noses.

And since we bronies tend to give characters unofficial names, I agree with halfbaked8: Let's give the slip coaches unofficial names! To start with the trial, how about naming them based on the voice actors?

Coach #1: Jon (VA'd by Jonathan Broadbent)

Coach #2: Becky (VA'd by Rebecca O'Mara)

Coach #3: Steve (VA's by Steven Kynman)

If anyone can think of better names (perhaps ones that fit the context of where Duck, Oliver, Toad, and the RWS coaches ran), do so.

Duck was very in character. He reminisced the good ol' days on the GWR and is proud of it. Because he obviously loved working with them, him saying "cooee" upon seeing them for the first time in years and "slipees" later make plenty of sense. Much more than anyone saying "steamie" as a word of endearment!

There are two morals, one underlying and one blatant: "Don't take credit for anyone else's ideas," and "Don't be too cocky over things unfamiliar to you." But both are so well woven in the context of the narrative, neither become so intrusive. Heck, even Thomas's appearance felt natural because he showed up in places that were natural to his environment: Tidmouth Sheds and Knapford station (towing Annie and Clarabel).

Once more, top-notch comedy: TFC getting his top hat caught by the inner tube, Duck's dry glare to James at Bluffs Cove, "What a bad railway it was," and "fuddy duddy."

Heck, even the cheeky joke with Emily being shut out worked well. To explain the context, about a decade ago, HiT plugged in Emily as part of the eight-train Steam Team to include a lead female character. Unfortunately, Emily was only introduced in Series 7 and hadn't gotten plenty of script time to develop as a character. HiT's decision, though, meant one of the most popular main characters in the show (Duck) got shoved to the sidelines*. Duck only made sporadic appearances in the series afterwards. After Series 12, he didn't make another reappearance until last season (Henry's Hero, The Thomas Way). The comedy is a very obvious tongue-in-cheek piece of fanservice to the Duck/Emily debate, something that's divided the Thomas fandom in some capacity. And even better is how the narrator said nothing; doing so would risk making the comedy act like a mean-spirited attack to the older and newer fans.

*Duck was supposed to be one of the core characters. But HiT meddled because they wanted a strong female role, so they replaced him with Emily instead. From the interview with Sam Barlow:

Ryan (SIF Admin): From Series 8 onward, the cast was streamlined down to a core eight engine characters. A lot of fans missed old friends like Duck, Oliver, Donald & Douglas – was there never any intention to expand the regular supporting cast as the series went on after 2004? Was there always more of an emphasis to focus on the future, rather than the past (in terms of characters, stories and such) with the HIT produced series of Thomas?

 

Sam Barlow: The idea was simply to cement the core characters in the minds of the audience. I remember we chose which engines would be featured – and Duck was on the list, but we had to leave him to make way for a major female engine - and that became Emily. I seem to remember there was also an issue with some of the models at Shepperton, meaning that it was not possible for every engine from the past to continue into the new series - so that too played a part in those decisions.

One obvious flaw (albeit nitpicky) is the obvious post-production error at Animal Park. When Edward tooted, Thomas's horn came out. Small, but surprising.

Secondly, it'd be better if James whispered to TFC instead of rolling down. That way, it'd be a tad bit more plausible in the approach.

Finally, the pace was a bit slow. Duck and the Slip Coaches lasted eight minutes and forty-five seconds, but it might've been better if it was only seven to seven-and-a-half minutes long just to speed the middle up the sequences a bit.

To go back to the positives and end the review on a high note, after I submitted this review for the Sonic Stadium Message Board, a friend of mine from here PM'd me about the episode, so I'll talk about the first and most obvious moral, and one hundred percent of the credit goes to him for it. The biggest component to this series is how HiT's writers really take railway realism seriously, and Railway Consultant Sam Wilkinson deserves plenty of credit for keeping the team in line most of the time (especially here). Yet, what makes it such a fantastic modern classic is the little extra layer of relatability that added depth to Duck's character. The Great Western Engine has a love for the slip coaches and really wants the Island of Sodor to succeed in running the railway. It's such a genius notion of punctual movement on the railway, and the GWR deserves plenty of credit for it. But for someone as egotistical as James to take credit for Duck's idea and be proud of it, a momentous occasion devolves into absolute disappointment.

And that's the thing. It absolutely sucks to have your genius idea be plagiarized by someone. Sure, James believes he can perform as good as Duck, but seeing how much Duck's memories piss him off, it was great for him to feel like he one-upped someone. Yet, since he has no clue how to operate the slip coaches, he risks making what should be a great way to get everyone's guests at their destinations punctually a first impression disaster. As what my friend said, James's plagiarism of Duck's idea of bringing the slip coaches to Sodor was not only destined to fail, but also be looked down upon if he royally screwed up. Especially since Duck didn't deserve the sorrow. And since Duck is such a relatable character, it can strike anyone who yearn to bring something create hard. This is why James's dish of karma is so great — He deserved it BIG TIME!

So, if you're a big Duck fan and yearn for unique history of the Great Western Railway, you're going to really love this one! Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler's modern classic definitely competes with the pre-HiT episodes and The Railway Series.