ThomasNATION Reviews - Ghost Train

Wait, didn’t we review this already? Ah, whatever.

If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas the Tank Engine what their thoughts were on the original television series as a whole, they would more often than not tell you that the word they would use to describe Season 2 is innovative. Season 2 was innovative in a lot of ways, some ways I hadn't even realized: it was innovative in how much they experimented with the camera movements and built the sets to accompany that, it was innovative in how it cleverly wove together twenty-six seemingly randomly selected episodes and made a cohesive plot narrative out of them all, it was innovative in how it leveraged a newer darker tone while keeping the light-hearted storybook feel that Thomas is known for and it was innovative in that it introduced so many new beloved staples for the series moving forward.  Season 2 is not just more of what we got in Season 1, Season 2 is a continuation of Season One showing real growth in all aspects from how it was filmed to tone to the characters and really that's what a good sequel should do. Season 2 complements the legend that Season 1 started and builds upon it, and if you were to ask any fan what this season's standout episode was, they would probably say that it rightfully goes to 'Ghost Train' since it uniquely has a tone that the others don't as it's the first spooky episode of the show taking place almost entirely at night while excessively using fog effects to set the mood combined with the score that could make your heart stop. I’ll leave a link to my review of the episode, but the point is it was an episode that always stood out to me and my sister as kids, it leaves quite an impact. There’s no other episodes like it in this season and that's why it's one of my favorites.

So as you can imagine, there is a lot and I mean a lot of pressure riding on the shoulders of today's All Engines Go episode because not only does it share the same title as the iconic episode from the original series, but it is also the first Halloween themed episode in the Thomas & Friends franchise ever since Season 9's 'Flour Power' which aired back in 2005 during the festivities for Thomas the Tank Engine's sixtieth anniversary celebration. Was this episode a return to form when it comes to dark and spooky episodes that we loved from our childhoods, the answer to that question is...not really, as this feels like an episode that was plucked straight out of the Hit Era.  

While the story itself is not that bad since it does have plenty of things to remember like how this is the Troublesome Trucks' first major leading role in an episode and Diesel thinking the ghost train has him when it's really just a tarp covering him is a nice callback to Emily's spook back in Season 8's "Halloween", it's just not scary in my opinion.