Top 10 Worst CGI Era Episodes

September 09, 2023

 

The CGI era of Thomas & Friends was undeniably one of the biggest changes the show ever made - jumping from models to full animation was going to take some time to get used to. But thankfully, this era's now revered as a really great era - but it's no shocker that it took some time getting there. For every good episode of CGI Thomas (we'll get to that list in a few months), there were a ton of bad ones. But which ones were truly the worst of the worst? Which ones do I look at and say that without a doubt, they get everything wrong? My one statement here is that I won't go into too much detail over the episodes I've already talked about, but I will leave the links to them at the end. That, and all this is purely my own opinion. If you have a different list, that's perfectly okay! Opinions are subjective and no one's going to agree on one thing. Let's begin.

NUMBER 10: A Shed for Edward

It needs no repeating; the series didn't handle the departure of Edward and Henry well. But between those two episodes, I'd have to call A Shed for Edward the worse of the two, considering not only is the episode entirely formulaic and predictable, but the way they wrote off Edward is terrible, even if it wasn't as bad as how they wrote off Henry. I recommend this as an example of how not to write off a beloved character.

NUMBER 9: Race to the Rescue

Expect to see the Miller era a lot on this list, but what makes this episode debatably worse than its Season 15 counterpart is the ending. When Flynn actually gets to the fire, he spends the entire time there moping about his wheels, then proceeds to go all the way back to another end of the island to go on the road...all while the shed is in a blazing inferno. That accompanied by a tired formula makes for a pretty lame episode.

NUMBER 8: Henry's Magic Box


When it comes to flanderisation, Henry got the worst of it in the whole CGI era, and this showcases it at its worst. Not only does it amp up his cowardice, but it also adds on a layer of stupidity that makes the episode flat out frustrating. There are plenty of good holiday episodes, but I doubt this was on anyone's wish list.

NUMBER 7: World of Tomorrow

Ah, World of Tomorrow, my old foe. What can I say that I haven't said already? It's unimaginative, it's boring, it's highly unrealistic, and above all, it's been done to death in other shows. Moving on.

NUMBER 6: Percy's New Friends


Finally, an episode I didn't previously review. Not only does it use the same three-strike formula that the other episodes of the Miller era used, but it also has the added addition of a really stupid Percy. The whole plot revolves around Percy befriending animals because all his engine friends are busy. Okay, good idea on paper. How does he do it? Being as loud as possible. Granted, it would've worked if he only did that once and realised his mistake, but he does this, you guessed it, three times and doesn't learn his lesson after - wait til ya get a load of this - he tells Thomas that he startles easily. No, really? Granted, this isn't the worst usage of Percy (trust me, we'll get to that in a bit) but for a small engine befriending small animals, this episode was a big stinker.

NUMBER 5: Thomas Makes a Mistake

This may be the dumbest gripe with the episode, but what's with the title? "Thomas Makes a Mistake" applies to pretty much every episode in the show. Why not call it something like "Fabric Folly"? That's a little catchy. Anyway, nitpicking over. I've went over what's wrong with this before in another Top 10, but to sum up, it's repetitive, it's unfocused, Thomas is unbelievably stupid in this one, and overall, it's an absolute slog to get through.

NUMBER 4: Spencer the Grand

Not only does it have that same "three strikes" formula that I'm sick to death of, but it also has the disadvantage of looking really, really ugly. The whole episode has a really distracting fog filter over it, but unlike episodes like Flatbeds of Fear, Percy and the Monster of Brendam and even the Misty Island episodes, they at least tone the filter down so that the viewer can actually see the episode. Here, the filter's amped up to 11, making the entire episode not only bland and forgettable, but also a complete eyesore.

NUMBER 3: Panicky Percy

Give Percy's New Friends credit, they didn't backtrack on five years' worth of character development. And yeah, that's the biggest problem with the episode: this is Percy at his absolute worst. He becomes insanely paranoid over the idea of an avalanche because...conflict, even panicking that Thomas is gonna plunge to his doom when he didn't show up to the station, not realising he might have been a little busy somewhere else. He's ludicrously dumbed down to the point where he almost feels like an entirely different character. Bottom line, if you want a good Percy fix, steer far away from this episode.

NUMBER 2: Up, Up and Away!


This here's another episode where really dumb decisions were made because they needed a conflict, but the thing that makes it worse is that the decisions made only beg the question "why?". I've been kind in not factoring realism into why these episodes are bad, because there's only so many times someone can say something's unrealistic, but there's no avoiding it with this one. The episode goes out of its way to contradict realism and critical thinking for the sake of the conflict. For example, why does it take two engines to carry a balloon? The plot demands it. Why can't Mr. Bubbles just blow up the balloons at the show? The plot demands it. But the biggest question I had, and this may be a minor thing, but hear me out - how powerful are Mr. Bubbles' lungs if he's able to blow up all those balloons? It doesn't seem feasible, but again, the plot demands it. To sum up, this is an episode that just plain makes no sense.

Alright, we've nearly ran through the whole list, but I think it's time we look at some

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

  • Counting on Nia - This episode is what bumped BWBA into the "baby show" category for me.
  • The Early Bird - Can anyone else remember what happened in this one? Yeah, me either.
  • Splish, Splash, Splosh! - Making this list made me realise how much the Miller era episodes start to blend together.
  • Chucklesome Trucks - Even as a Rebecca apologist, I can't defend this one on account of the fact that practically nothing happens.
  • The Water Wheel - The rare episode that feels like it was written for any other show than Thomas.
  • Henry's Health and Safety - While the episode is pretty cookie cutter and bland, I still stand by that Henry did nothing wrong in this episode.
  • Any Misty Island episode - I wanted to be fair and not fill the list too much of them, but they're all basically the same, so I compiled them all into one.

NUMBER 1: Wonky Whistle

There was no contest. Despite how terribly a ton of Miller era episodes handled their storylines, there was undoubtedly no episode that was written worse than Wonky Whistle. This is an episode that basically compiles almost every problem I had with the previous episodes into one: the stupidity of Percy's New Friends and Race to the Rescue, the character assassination of Panicky Percy and Henry's Magic Box, the repetitiveness of A Shed for Edward and Thomas Makes a Mistake, and of course, the unrealistic nature of World of Tomorrow and Up, Up and Away! I think the character assassination part is what makes this a truly insufferable episode. I know in the Miller era, Thomas wasn't the brightest bulb, as shown by when he flat out nearly kills some workmen in the opening, but he was never deaf. How could he not have heard the whistle? Was there really not one moment where he noticed that ear-grating noise and thought "wait a minute, that's not how a whistle's meant to sound."? That compiled with all the reasons above is why I consider this not only the worst episode of the CGI era, but also one of the worst episodes of the entire show.

And that's the list! I know I've spent my time talking about the worst episodes, but that begs the question, what about the best? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

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