Stuck in Gear: ThomasNATION Review

The episode begins early in the morning on Sodor, the night after a big storm. The audience is treated to various shots of the engines as they go about their normal jobs while facing some of the damage, such as fallen branches and flooding, that the storm has caused. We finally focus on Emily, who is pulling her signature emerald green coaches and racing down Gordon’s hill. She encounters three large tree branches on the line; the first two she is able to crush under-wheel and effectively avoid. The third, however, is much too large and bulky for Emily to move on her own. 

It is at this point that the star of this episode, Harvey, appears to help Emily out of her situation. His introduction is simple yet effective- Mark Moraghan does a great job with the narration here - it really helps to remind the audience exactly why Harvey is so unique. 

Harvey soon removes the branch from the line, and is greeted with cheers and applause from both Emily and her passengers. At this point, Moraghan explains that while Harvey might be very useful, he doesn’t particularly care for attention or praise and would rather nobody make a big fuss over him. Harvey, visibly embarrassed by all the fuss being made over him, drops the branch abruptly in front of him. Emily laughs and comforts Harvey by telling him that “[he] almost had it”. Harvey sighs visibly. 

As the next scene begins, Harvey himself encounters a large branch blocking his line; however, this particular one is much too large for even Harvey to lift on his own. He debates whether or not to fetch Rocky for a moment, then decides he’d rather just try to figure his problem out on his own, and not cause a fuss. The flow is quite natural here, which is not so constant through the rest of the episode. 

He tries to squeeze under the branch, then attempts to reverse, then finally concludes the best way out is to keep going. Unfortunately, his efforts, while they may have not caused anyone else trouble, have left Harvey’s crane arm damaged, with several branches and leaves jammed in his gears. Undaunted, Harvey makes his way to his final destination, not wanting to make a big deal about it.

The scene transitions into Harvey at Brendam Docks, lifting crates for Cranky the Crane. Thomas, who passes by Harvey briefly, comments on the awful noise coming from Harvey’s crane arm. Although he has tried to avoid making a fuss up until this point, Harvey realizes the true gravity of his situation when he finds he cannot move his crane arm at all. 

Fearful of causing a scene, he quickly uses a game of “I Spy” to distract Cranky and Salty from his dilemma, while he attempts to find a way out of the docks- this in itself proves to be a difficult task, seeing as his crane, which is stuck pointing sideways, prevents him from entering the Brendam Docks warehouse and effectively, his exit. Harvey quickly reverses, nearly avoiding some dock workers standing on the tracks, and departs Brendam Docks, as Salty and Cranky continue to search for “something that begins with the letter ‘O’”.

Harvey, clearly humiliated with his condition, decides the best way to solve his problem is to simply hide himself away, where no one can see him or make a fuss. He comes across a tunnel, and attempts to puff inside so he can hide. Unfortunately, he finds that his crane arm, still stuck in the awkward- sideways position, is prohibiting him from going inside. Harvey then comes to the conclusion that if he pushes his arm against the tunnel entrance hard enough, he can unjam it himself, without causing trouble for anyone else. 

Evidently, his plan fails, and Harvey ends up lying on his side. He laments not asking for help earlier when suddenly, Salty roars through the tunnel, narrowly avoiding a crash with the overturned Harvey. Humor plays a huge role in this episode, especially in moments like this where Salty, rather than wondering why Harvey is lying sideways on the tracks in front of him; rather, he exclaims “Ocean! Was it the ocean, Harvey?” in response to Harvey’s game of I Spy. This was a subtle comic relief, yet Salty wouldn't have travelled out of the docks for this, but I'll overlook that, I guess.

The scene transitions again, and the audience sees Thomas carting Harvey away on a flatbed. Harvey is ashamed by his behavior of the day, and explains to Thomas that he doesn’t like anyone worrying about him, and is in constant fear of the engines saying “teasy things,” a quote that echoes Season 17’s “Gone Fishing,” as well as serving as a nice callback to Harvey’s introduction way back in Season 6, where he was shunned by the rest of the engines for being different. Thomas laughs and tells Harvey that sometimes, it’s worth making a big fuss in order to get the help one might need. Harvey is repaired at the Steamworks, and is delighted to find that his crane arm moves smoother than ever before, resulting in a comical scene in which Harvey’s crane spins so fast that he launches a crate of fish halfway across the docks. At this point, we see that Harvey has learned his lesson, as he is not afraid to ask the dock workers for help untangling his hook. 

Overall, this episode really helps to further develop Harvey and take his main character trait, his uniqueness, and expand it by showing the audience the consequences of Harvey’s inability to ask for help and tendency to avoid asking for help. His behavior is bourn out of fear of the other engines teasing him- Lee Pressman, the writer credited with writing this episode, does an excellent job of tying all of Harvey’s stories- from his origin episode all the way back in Season 6 all the way through Season 17- as I stated before, there are so many references to both of these stories and it really makes Harvey stand out. 

This episode was extremely strong and as Harvey is definitely one of my favorite characters, I really enjoyed seeing him get another starring role as well as some solid character development. I really didn’t feel that there were any weak points throughout the episode at all. The lack of realism with Harvey’s crane at the end was a bit strange on the first watch, but the fact that it exists for humor allows me to reasonable forgive it. Plus, it was pretty funny. 

The music from Chris Renshaw was lovely as usual, I find myself enjoying the themes he gives each character as well as the little ditties and songs that play before and after the scene. For this episode especially the music that plays when Harvey is introduced is very fitting to his personality. I must make a special mention for Keith Wickham who played all of his characters extremely well; I never would’ve known otherwise that he voices both Harvey and Salty- they sound so distinct and he matches the voices to their characters extremely well.

Overall, this episode is highly enjoyable and gives Harvey personality that makes me love him even more as a character overall, and I hope to see him in a lead role again in the future. 

Rating: 5/5

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"Stuck in Gear" is probably Davey Moore's worst episode since "Rocky Rescue." Great animation, terrible story.

— Isaiah Williams (@IsaiahLilBear) September 21, 2017