Season 17 - The Thomas Way

Pros:

-Duck's backstory

-Duck acting in personality

-Thomas' trick

Cons:

-Point switching errors

-Loading gauge errors 

Now, here is Duck's first proper CGI episode, and it was a great (western) one (It's ironic that I heard the radio talking about First Great Western trains being late)! But this episode didn't come without it's flaws. Here's what I like/dislike about this episode.

First positive, Duck's backstory. This was unexpected! Duck's backstory was great! This was the first time since season 2! And the image and mention of Duck working at Paddington was awesome! It even had his season 6 model in it!

Second point is that Duck was acting in-personality, talking about doing things "the great-western way, or the wrong way". This worked very well in my opinion. One thing that could've been added would be Thomas mentioning that Duck wanted to see things from the water, similarly to how Harold wants to see things from the tracks.

The third pro is Thomas' trick. It seems very Thomas-like and similar to something that could've happened in the earlier seasons.

Now on to the negatives. The first one was the point-switching. When Thomas goes to Knapford no signalman is seen to switch the points. A bit of interaction with the signalman would've been nice. I also noticed some 'wrong-roading' at the end with Duck & Thomas.

The second is the loading gauge errors. Although it is mentioned and this is the reason why Thomas is needed, Harold being transported via rail like this is heavy on the unrealism. There could've been 2 alternative solutions to this:

a. Harold has his blades and floaters dismantled to make travel safer or

b. Thomas & Duck need to double head a long goods train.

Overall, the episode had it's strong points and it's weak points, some of it good, some of it bad. Also notice that the Misty Island tunnel is boarded up, a sign of the end for Misty Island?

Rating: 4/5