ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Diesel's Ghostly Christmas

Happy holidays, folks! With Christmas just one week away, it’s time to look at a very special sort of Christmas episode.

Coming to us from Season 19, Diesel’s Ghostly Christmas is a pretty unique episode in this regard…well, at least before they became a commonality in the series. This episode marks the first time the show did a full double-length episode. Nowadays, these kinds of episodes are not as rare with the 22 minute specials, but back then, this was really cool to see. Alright, so we got that out of the way, but what about the episode itself? Is it a festive treat for the viewers or is the extra length nothing more than a weak novelty? Let’s begin.

This episode takes place on Christmas Eve, as Diesel is acting more harsh than usual and refusing to help, so Thomas decided to teach him a lesson. How? By having Salty, Paxton and Emily act like ghosts and teach him of the error of his ways.

If you haven’t guessed, this episode is a retelling of the classic Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol. Though I do like the idea and tip my hat to Becky Overton for pulling through, this winds up being a double edged sword. On one hand, the episode becomes a pretty standard retelling of the story with not a lot done to make it stand out from others, even down to incorporating some of the classic lines from the story, making the episode generic and even a bit formulaic. On the other, I do have to applaud its execution. One thing to note with that is that the characters put in place of the folks in the Charles Dickens classic is pretty clever. Perhaps the best fit is putting Sir Topham Hatt in place of Tiny Tim, which leads to some pretty decent jokes. In fact, the best joke in the episode is when Paxton breaks the fourth wall. That, I’ll admit, was really funny.

One more thing to note is that despite being just another retelling of A Christmas Carol, that doesn’t subtract from the quality of the episode. The way the engines are disguised as ghosts are pretty clever, with Thomas almost looking just like the Ghost of Christmas Past, and there is some good development on Diesel's part, as he finally learns the error of his ways...before going back to it in Season 20.

Overall, Diesel’s Ghostly Christmas is a fun retelling of a classic tale. Sure, the story is pretty much the story told with the engines and not much is there to let it stand out, but it makes up for it with some great execution that keeps it away from being as bad as stuff like The Christmas Tree. I recommend you check it out if you can, and with that, it earns a 4/5. And God bless us, everyone…

Final Score: 4/5