ThomasNATION Reviews - Capture the Flag

January 07, 2023

I think we can all agree that the biggest thing that took a nosedive during the Hit Era of 'Thomas & Friends' was the writing: the episodes became intentionally dumber and drawn out, characters became much more childlike and the writing got lazier of which the 'three strikes, you're out' formula came into prominence in this era. But speaking of characters becoming more childlike, everyone in the fandom has their own personal take on which engines on the Island Of Sodor whether standard gauge or narrow gauge that they believe got the worst treatment of this as a result of the writing and one example that comes to mind for some people is Rusty the Little Diesel of the Skarloey Railway in the tenth season episode 'Which Way Now' where he rushed workmen putting up signs for vacationers taking their hikes so that he could take Sir Topham Hatt and his family on their holiday around the mountains only for them to end up at the farm as a result.  While it may have a good moral about learning not to rush through your work and have patience, the main problem with that episode is Rusty himself: I could see a character like Duncan pulling some chicanery like this but Rusty to my knowledge is usually careful with his maintenance work and yet he ends up putting up signs and delivering his passengers to all the wrong places.  This isn't Rusty, this is just Duncan wearing Rusty's skin and it totally ruined his character for me and many longtime fans. But why am I talking about 'Which Way Now' when I should be talking about-oh, you know where I'm going with this.

While it is true that the storyline for 'Capture the Flag' shares some similarities to Season 10's 'Which Way Now', I'm actually gonna make the bold statement that I actually enjoyed this episode much more than the one from the original series. Now, you could make the argument that since Thomas has pulled the mail train with Percy hundreds of times in the original series, he should've known better than to rush Percy through his mail deliveries for the parade. But again, I repeat that you have to remember to look at this reboot as its own standalone series and canon instead of a continuation of what came before and go into it completely blind - trust me, it has spared me and many longtime fans of Thomas from several headaches trying to figure out what is the proper headcanon for the franchise. Also when you think about it even after the Classic Series ended and even though Thomas had cooled down and matured from his always on-the-go personality back in Season 1, there were actually times that Thomas still had trouble learning patience like in Season 8's 'Thomas Gets It Right' when he wanted to rush through his delivery of eggs for Farmer McColl thus what we get here with 'Capture the Flag' isn't too far off from what we remember about Thomas as a character. Although in regards to Nia and her part in the Train Day Parade, I have to ask what in Awdry's name a 'Piston Pop' is - I mean if you popped a piston in the original series, you had to go to the Steamworks or the Dieselworks for repairs and now they can just pop their pistons in and out whenever they feel like it with no damage at all? What's the deal with that?
'Capture The Flag' could've just been a 'Which Way Now' wannabe, they could've very easily just found Nia's old flag and everything would've been all sunshine and rainbows again by the end of the episode. But they didn't and I'm so happy that they went in a different and more creative route because 'the show must go on' as Nia said a few episodes back.  While it is true that the similaries to the tenth season episode from the original series are noticeable, I actually believe Thomas being one to rush through his work more than I do with Rusty and the moral of having patience is one that I feel like both kids and especially adults really need to listen to and take to heart considering how being impatient in today's society had led people to do criminally insane behavior like what happened a couple years back with the fandom uploading the work-print version of 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' on the year of the film's twentieth anniversary before the celebratory Blu-Ray which had said footage was released thus I'm gonna give 'Capture The Flag' a rating of a 3.5 out of 5.

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