Season 17 - Luke's new Friend

Pros:

-Narrow gauge engine lamps

-CGI render of Blue Mountain

-Narrow gauge engine's voices

-Ulfstead castle

Cons:

-Weak plotline

-Brake van changing

Episode no.8. How did it go? It was quite good, better than previous episodes (e.g. 'Percy's new friends) but not enormously great. There were some things I liked, but a few bad things as well. Here they are:

Firstly, the narrow gauge engines now have lamps, matching up quite well (or at least in my opinion) with the standard gauge engines (e.g. Thomas, Duck etc.). It also enables them to have lamps at night, which look quite good. More great work by Arc!

Speaking of Arc, the CGI Blue Mountain quarry and Ulfstead castle are very good. I quite like the lighting in the Blue Mountain quarry, even if it is a bit orange-y. I also like the narrow gauge railway at Ulfstead castle, it looks very vibrant and nice.

I also like the voices of the narrow gauge engines, Skarloey and Rheneas especially, because they sound very Welsh, like the engines themselves. It fits them, being based on real Welsh steam engines (Talyllyn and Dolgoch).

But there were two bad points. For one, the storyline seems a bit weak. It just isn't that good to me. It has no real 'charm' or 'action' in it, and so can become a tad dull. The second being that when Skarloey shunts the trucks on to Luke's train, the brakevan is, at first, a white, standard-gauge one, which then disappears but then reappears again as a brown, narrow-gauge one.

In conclusion, the animation was the main high of the episode, although the storyline was a bit dull. Although having said that, it's still better than previous episodes and is also still enjoyable.

3.5/5