ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Sidney Sings

When I was asked to pick my next review, my mind instantly came to one of my favourite episodes of the CGI Era, Tit for Tat. Unfortunately that had been taken and I was suggested Sidney Sings and to be honest, I was quite happy with that. I don’t think I’ve seen this since it aired in 2016, I remember not loving it back then but not hating it either, so I hope to see if I can make my mind up this time! 

Sidney Sings is the first episode of Season 20, and it stars Sidney in his first main role in the show. The episode starts with Sidney arriving up at Ulfstead Castle, with the wrong load, as Sidney does. This short but sweet scene gives us a small description of Sidney and a great interaction with the Earl. I also really like Sidney’s theme that plays throughout this episode. But I’ll get to that later. We then get a flashback to Season 17’s The Missing Christmas Decorations with what happened to Sidney and his friendship with Percy. This leads us into Percy being helped up from an accident. It’s nice to see some damage to Percy, Something that the eras before and after rarely showed. Sidney offers to help but Thomas points out that Sidney has forgotten he has his own train, And Sidney leaves - albeit the wrong way!

Fast forward to a few days later and Sidney is at Knapford where Sir Topham Hatt gives him the special job of collecting wheels, a nice little parallel to The Missing Christmas Decorations. Not sure why Percy would need new wheels, Sidney agrees but is worried he’ll forget. It’s nice to see Sidney actually realise his flaws and talk to someone about them, rather than being oblivious or keeping his worries to himself. If we get another Sidney episode, it’ll be good to have this as the moral. Thomas gives the suggestion of a song to help him remember and with the help of Annie and Clarabel they come up with the little song that he sings throughout the rest of the episode. We then see a more confident Sidney heading down the line and excitedly talking to Gordon about his special, who boasts how many more specials he’s had. I originally had written a comment here about changing this scene up to feel a bit more relevant to Sidney but I forgot that this actually comes in use later on, so let's circle back in a bit.

Sidney has now forgotten his song and reaches the conclusion he needs a boiler from Whiff’s Waste Dump. He then goes over and interacts with Whiff, a character I really wish we could see more of in the TV series, showing off his slightly nerdy side by talking about elephants, which unsurprisingly gives Sidney his next idea. But at the Animal Park, no sooner has he arrived he realises he’s wrong and returns back to Knapford to tell Sir Topham Hatt he’s let him down. Like I said before, it’s nice to see Sidney own up to his faults. At the Station he doesn’t find Sir Topham Hatt but instead finds a group of angry passengers whose train is late. I do wish they could have made it Gordon as a bit of karma for his boasting earlier, but nothing is lost honestly so I don’t mind.

With Sidney on his way to the docks, Sir Topham Hatt is angrily waiting for him to collect the wheels but when Sidney arrives the passengers are so happy with him that he’s almost shocked. He then disappointedly tells Sidney he forgot the wheels, but Sidney takes it that it's another special, and I love that. Ironically I have mentioned Sidney owning up to his faults but at the same time, he’s done what he thought was his special and is so happy to get another. At the Steamworks, Sidney delivers Percy’s new wheels and the two friends have a good laugh.

And that's Sidney Sings. I’ll get to the conclusion and score in a moment as I wanted to bring up a couple of points first. Sidney’s theme is great and I like how they based it around his song but I did find it got a bit repetitive as the episode went on. Renshaw made some great themes around this time - Diesel, Donald and Douglas, Daisy etc and I’d argue Sidney’s is up there too. 

Sidney as a character is really fun. They were definitely trying to make him like Paxton, a loveable fool with the intent of having him bounce off other characters. It’s just a shame we never saw more of it, bar Season 22's The Mystery of the Puzzling Parts and some odd scenes here and there, and it’s very enjoyable to see.

In conclusion, I did enjoy this episode more than I expected. It's nowhere near the best Season 20 episode, sure, but in a series with episodes such as Tit for Tat, Henry Gets the Express and Mucking About, it’s hard to beat them. And this episode does have its flaws and its filler, so it's a 3/5 from me. It’s nowhere near the worst either, though after changing my mind on this, I may give a couple more of them a go. 

Final Score: 3/5