The Good, The Bad and Toby: "Toby's Discovery" - The Bad Side (by MichaelSth1995)
April 15, 2017
ThomasNATION members, Megan and Michael start a four-review series, The Good, The Bad and Toby. They will review two episodes - one a good review, the other a critical. Both from Season 5. Both about Toby.
After Megan's positive review for Toby's Discovery, Megan takes the wheel to describe just why he feels that episode was a let-down, and not good at all. Which side do you agree with? Read on to find out why Michael thinks that episode was bad, before you decide...
The start of the episodes is pretty good - (an exception, in this episode). I don't have a lot of complaints although why is the map a map of North Wales? That's bothered me since I found out; and Toby's theme mixed with Oliver's isn't as good as everyone thinks, I just don't think it works but that's just me.
The good that the episode did with the beginning, it all crumbles after they discover the mine. Compare this episode with 'Ghost Train'. Sure in that episode, Toby is being a 'wimp', but he was only pretending so as to fool Thomas. Here, - although - Toby is just plain scared, plain frightened, when really he should be wise about not being scared. This, I feel, is a violation of his character's traits - its described completely wrong. Instead of him being wise, he's scaredy and afraid - which we all know is not him.
Although props to the model crew, they did do a decent job at the mine. And the music that played during this scene was good, so kudos to Mike and Junior for that. But the main let-down of this episode is Toby's character - the way they portrayed it, and some prominent story flaws.
The ending is a bit of a slap in the face when Bertram and Toby are mentioned to be good friends then it's never brought up again; if that doesn't spell pointlessness then I don't know what does. It was completely unnecessary, especially in light of the fact that Bertram never appeared, ever again.
Bertram, a pointless merchandising character. According to Britt Allcroft, he was going to be a tank engine. But due to financing, the model was not made and so the character's model was a used Duke with Smudger's face - I say bollocks to that!
If she had enough money for Thumper, a character that served absolutely no purpose other than merchandise, then surely she could have constructed a flipping tank engine, yeah Dennis, Hector and Hank were merchandise tools, at least they were actually interesting!
I'd like to note how we completely accuse Mattel for making characters just to sell merchandise - sure they do it. But the past wasn't all that good, either. Bertram being a prime example of that.
Bertram's uselessness, and undeveloped character (he was just described as "brave" - ?????) added to the fact that he was purely there for merchandise, HE NEVER EVEN SPOKE, makes me hate this episode. Plus the deadly inaccuracy in Toby's character-handling...
In ending, I hate how Toby was portrayed which is a shame because I actually like the idea, it was just awfully executed. I also hate Bertram (and people complain about Bradford and Philip, AT LEAST THEY HAD PERSONALITY AND WERE DEVELOPED).
This episode can go rot in the ground for all I care. (Quite angry there, Michael!)
It's the worst of Season 5, the worst of the Allcroft era (yes even worse than Snow and Rusty to the Rescue [it was pretty close though]) and in the top 5 worst episodes of the classic era. My rating is 0/5.
Rating: 0/5
Megan's Rating: 4/5
Thanks for reading!
● ● ●
Michael S - @MichaelSth1995
Follow me on Twitter: @MichaelSth1995
Subscribe To Me on YouTube!
Read Megan's "Toby's Discovery" Review!
Follow ThomasNATION on Twitter!
ThomasNATION is on YouTube!
Take the Ultimate Thomas Fan Quiz, now!
Watch The Season 20 Awards!
Thanks for reading! ThomasNATION will be back soon with more exciting articles! Follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our blog to stay up-to-date on reviews & Thomas News!
0 comments