Season 17: The Turning Point?
September 03, 2022
Comparing seasons 16 and 17 back to back is like comparing night and day with how different the two are both in style and in quality. But what of the quality of Season 17? What made it work better than what came before it? After long consideration, I think I've narrowed it down to five different factors.
The first is the return of four major beloved characters: Duck, Bill and Ben and Harvey. One of the coolest aspects of this season was how it brought back these characters and, oddly enough, how sparingly they were used. That sounds like a weird compliment, but what I thought was one of the weirdest elements of Season 16 was how they really pushed the return of the narrow gauge engines, giving them two whole episodes and even prominent roles in Blue Mountain Mystery. And while their returns are more than welcome, the extent they were pushed to was kind of bizarre. Here, they only get one episode each focused on them, and the rest of their appearances are just brief cameos. The only exception to this is Bill and Ben, where they play prominent roles in two other episodes, but the focus was still on the main character of those episodes, like Percy and Harvey. I also really have to commend how they keep their personalities consistent with how they were in the model series. One of the big problems with the narrow gauge episodes in Season 16 was how their personalities were absolutely botched, with how they turned Peter Sam into an overzealous and whiny twerp (even though they were fine in Blue Mountain Mystery). Here, however, Duck is still a responsible chap, Bill and Ben are still mischievous tricksters and Harvey is still a helpful but sensitive fellow.
But it's not just the returning characters the writers had a lot of fun with. There's also the new characters, which is the second factor in why this was a major turning point. A lot of the new characters were carried over from King of the Railway, each of them getting an individual episode to shine. Stephen had several of these, such as The Afternoon Tea Express and The Phantom Express, Caitlin had Calm Down, Caitlin!, Connor had Bill or Ben? and Millie had The Switch. And then you have Porter, the token newbie of Season 17, and the only real gripe I have with him is just his purpose. He only really serves as an extra engine for Salty to interact with, but he's still a decent enough character with a great design. If I had to name my favorite of these episodes, it would hands down be The Switch. Millie and Luke have a great dynamic and play off of each other really naturally, plus the episode is really enjoyable in its own way. As for the others, they're all pretty good...mostly, I never was a fan of The Afternoon Tea Express. Bill or Ben? had an enjoyable concept, Calm Down, Caitlin! was really funny, The Phantom Express was a nice spooky episode and Away from the Sea gave Salty some much needed depth.
Okay, this is the last factor about the characters, I promise. The third factor was how the writers utilised not just new or returning characters, but also a ton of the more obscure characters instead of just Thomas and the Steam Team. Hell, there are even episodes where they don’t even appear. While this idea was played around with in Season 20 and, to an extent, Season 23, this season had a lot of episodes dedicated to the side characters or even some of the background characters, including but not limited to Charlie, Winston, Stafford, Luke, Scruff, Flynn and Belle, Kevin and perhaps the coolest of the bunch, Diesel 10. The Missing Christmas Decorations was the first and currently only appearance in an episode, and he's used to his fullest potential. If I had to name the only real dud among these episodes, it would honestly be Steamie Stafford. That episode was pretty annoying and boring, plus its concept of Stafford wanting to be a steam engine felt straight out of Season 14.
The fourth factor in why this season was a turning point was the overall quality of episodes. Like I said before, the stories in the Miller era were all lazy, unoriginal, and above all, formulaic. Practically every single Miller era episode followed the exact same formula, and not only did it get old really quick, very few of the episodes tried anything different to make it stand out, making them all just blend together into a tepid pulp. Here, the formula's pretty much gone, and the stories are a lot more straight-forward. The only real complaint I have is that the railway realism aspect is a pretty mixed bag. I know that sounds weird for a series about talking trains, but it's weird how sometimes they tap into it like with Henry's Hero and Gordon Runs Dry, and sometimes they don't, like with Steamie Stafford or Wayward Winston. I'll also say that the humor also shot up here. The Miller era wasn't without its funny moments at times, but this was the season where a lot of the writers started bringing their A-game with the comedy, especially in The Lost Puff.
And the last factor in why this was a turning point for the series was the morals. A lot of the morals in the Miller era were awful, teaching the viewers things like "be selfish and you'll get what you want" or "if you think someone who's different is evil, they probably are". Sure, there were episodes with good morals like Pingy Pongy Pickup or Edward the Hero, but they were still overshadowed by the terrible lessons. Here, the episodes preach morals that are a lot more useful, such as more of the same morals like "be yourself", "tell the truth" or "work together", but then you have other episodes that preach more unique lessons such as "it's always okay to ask for help", "don't give up and fight through the pain" and "being clean isn't as important as being helpful". Not only are these incredible morals, but they also help make the episodes resonate with the viewer.
I'll be honest, the one thing that the Miller era actually has above Season 17 is the songs. Back there, the sing-alongs had a great variety of unique and catchy songs like Roll Along, Thomas and Percy, Working Together or the new Sir Topham Hatt song. Here, the song's aren't terrible, but the only one I'd legit call memorable is just It's Gonna Be a Great Day. The rest of the songs from Season 17 and King of the Railway are pretty forgettable and bland thanks to Eggplant LF stepping in. Heck, one of the songs in King of the Railway is just Working Together again!
So overall, was Season 17 the CGI series' turning point? Absolutely. Gone are the terrible morals and formula of the Miller era, and in came an era of more realistic, entertaining and above all, promising episodes, and the team only got better as the era went on.
ThomasNATION will soon be posting a retrospective called "Season 18: Getting the Hang of Things"
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