ThomasNATION: Camille Ucan & Rose Johnson

The history of railroading has come a long way, hasn't it...as Stephen explained to the Steam Team when he first arrived at the Sodor Steamworks to be restored, most railways didn't have any engines and the trains were pulled by horses. Soon, steam engines were soon the latest thing and people were worried about them since they didn't always work right or at all...but being brand new and experimental, they soon proved they were stronger and faster than horses with Stephen's lightning fast speed charging the way for the future of rail travel opening up the world as speed grew faster and the engines grew stronger. Every inventor in the world has found their own place that they can call home and it looks Thomas is going to help his friend Ruth The Inventor find a place of her own on Sodor, let's go go go on a big adventure as we build something really useful with 'Thomas And The Inventor's Workshop'!

THOMAS AND THE INVENTOR'S WORKSHOP: Thomas helps Ruth the inventor to find a place to live

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PROS:

While the concept of helping someone look for a place to call home is nothing new for the television series considering how we had a similar story like this back in Season 15's 'Toby And Bash' on top of having the overused and tired moral of 'just because it's old doesn't mean it's not useful' that has been repeated numerous times throughout the series, what saves the story to this episode from being a complete letdown is the execution and the cast of characters: not only do we get to see the likes of the team from Arlesburgh Harbor while Thomas plays the role of real estate agent that you'd see on shows like 'House Hunters' where I am so happy to see that Skiff is still voiced by Jamie Campbell Bower three years after his last appearance in Season 20's "Skiff and the Mermaid" along with having a cameo appearance of Rex to let the fans know that the miniature engines are still very much a part of the television series as well as getting a nice nod to both the Railway Series with the famed 'Gate To Adventure' on Thomas' branch line from the Four Little Engines book as well as the return of what could be the famous windmill on Thomas' branch line from the opening credits to the classic series being turned into Ruth's Workshop by the end of the episode with a little and literal 'spark' of imagination through the help of her friend Thomas in the form of a reference to the famed 'Back To The Future' franchise...and of course, the fantasy sequence of Thomas taking to the skies with a sail powered propeller was honestly cute and funny at the same time!

CONS:

While I think that Ruth is a very interesting character not only having an eccentric yet creative personality emulating that of Doc Brown from the 'Back To The Future' film franchise and I am happy to welcome Dominique Moore to the voice cast of 'Thomas & Friends' as the voice of Ruth beginning with this season, the problem I have with her has nothing to do with her character at all but rather the release date of her first appearance...by that, I mean that this episode and 'James The Super Engine' got leaked online a couple months before Season 24 is scheduled to make its official debut here in the United States before the broadcasting across the pond in the U.K. and Australia and especially before Ruth's official debut in the 'Marvelous Machinery' double length two-parter thus it feels weird to see that Thomas already knows who Ruth is and wanting to help her find a place to live on Sodor before we see her officially welcomed into the series with the storyline of the Technology Fair featuring our token newbie Kenji whom I am really looking forward to seeing in action which explains why we see the giant ferris wheel at Ulfstead Castle in the opening. Not much of a negative regarding this episode, but more along the lines of a nitpick considering the order that these episodes are being released lately...

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Overall despite having a recycled story-line and message along with having a new character appear for the first time before her official introduction into the series mostly due to broadcasting conflicts within the television series in recent years, 'Thomas And The Inventor's Workshop' was still a pretty great adventure of invention and realizing at the end of the day that there truly is no place like home and thus earns a rating of a 4 out of 5.

Final Score: 4/5

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Ever since she first joined Thomas The Tank Engine on his international adventure to become the first railway engine to go all the way around the world much to his dismay due to following Ace The Rally Car, Nia has proven herself to be a very clever engine in times of trouble: from making a funnel out of leaves to catch rainwater to fill Thomas' tanks after running out on their delivery of coffee to San Francisco from Brazil to helping sort out the muddle of trucks at Brendam Docks for the engines and the cranes to finding a relatable way of getting a new elephant to trust her in taking her to the animal park, there seems to be no problem that Nia can't solve...and with stormy weather on the horizon for Sir Robert Norramby's annual Christmas fair, it's gonna take a ray of hope to shine through in celebrating the most wonderful time of the year. Let's go go go on a big adventure as we light the way for some festive Christmas cheer with 'Nia's Bright Idea'!

NIA'S BRIGHT IDEA: Nia uses what she learns about lighthouses to suggest covering a big wheel in Christmas lights so that Harold can see where he's going in a storm.

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PROS:

I had originally thought that ABC Australia would be holding back on both this episode and 'Cleo's First Snow' for December as part of their festive lineup being that they're winter themed like they did with Season 22's 'Kangaroo Christmas' back in 2018 although I think with Season 24 airing around June and July that it would be a while since December was nearly five months away at the time of this episode's release, so you can imagine I was a bit surprised at this decision...but anyway with the episode itself, I think it was good that Nia was learning new things about Sodor ever since she first arrived on the railway from joining Thomas on his big world adventure like about the lighthouse at Arlesburgh Harbor which was awesome to see for the first time in a wintry setting especially with the nicely added touch of Captain Joe's snowman and how the lighthouse is used to help guide ships into the harbor safely at night or in a storm with its bright light being used as a beacon for ships to see where they're going yet I have seen some people within the community wish that Nia went through some conflict into helping Harold such as maybe having her go through with an idea that wasn't so clever in the end until she came up with a clever one which is using the Earl Of Sodor's giant wheel as a light beacon especially since the episode recapped Season 20's 'Blown Away' as an example of the moral that the episode was giving but Skiff had actually went through conflict which is him feeling belittled by Duck and Oliver unintentionally of course for being small thus many feel that Nia needs to go through some conflict since 'Nia And The Unfriendly Elephant' from earlier this season was a good example of that because she's a good character in many people's opinions with her cleverness but they feel that more is needed to make her well rounded.

While I can see why some people in the community would make that complaint especially since Rebecca seems to be the more developed newbie among our main cast versus Nia ever since their debuts into the series. I, for one, ask that they take a moment to chill out (ba dum tsh) and remember that not every character introduced into the series is gonna be as fully developed as, say, Judge Frollo from Disney's 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' since it's better to judge enjoy the adventure being presented instead of obsessing over the little things since I personally really enjoyed this episode because we haven't seen a Christmas special in the series of this intense tone since the days of the Brenaissance (as certain fans call it) with episodes such as Season 18's 'Last Train For Christmas' or Season 21's 'Terence Breaks The Ice' and to finally have another festive episode after we hardly had any during the previous season is always welcome especially when not only teaching the viewers the importance of lighthouses in stormy weather but also in helping to further develop one of the Island Of Sodor's newest and most popular arrivals on the railway, even if the fandom doesn't exactly approve of her character.

CONS:

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Nia may not be the most interesting of characters in the series with how little development she has received so far but that doesn't mean that her episodes don't shine brightly when they do...while it's easy to see that there may have been some lost opportunity with 'Nia's Bright Idea' in putting her through some sort of conflict like some fans hoped she would be, the intense tone of the story overall along with the wonderfully wintry visuals and cast off characters more than made up the viewing experience for me and that is why I'm giving this episode a rating of a 4.5 out of 5. Happy holidays!

Final Rating: 4.5/5

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I’ve made it no secret that I like the character that is Ace. While he makes for a terrible villain, he’s still a charming character with a fun personality, a fantastic vocal performance from Peter Andre, and to be fair, one of the best songs of Big World! Big Adventures! He was arguably the best character in the movie, so you can imagine that when it was announced that he would get his own episode, I was pretty jazzed. But is Ace’s own solo adventure as free and easy as he lets on? Let’s begin.

Ace's Brave Jump | Thomas the Tank Engine Wikia | Fandom

While in Australia, Thomas runs into Ace who’s preparing to pull off a major stunt for a show. But there’s just one problem: Ace is afraid of wild animals, so Thomas has to help him overcome his fear.

What I have to admire is how the episode cleverly gives depth to Ace, putting his fear of animals in full focus. This was only briefly touched upon in Big World! Big Adventures!, but it was only for a second and was played mostly for laughs. And I’ll be honest, his fear of animals is kind of justified: he comes from Australia, a land of poisonous spiders, snakes, scorpions, and a whole other set of agressive creatures, so you can see where he’s coming at. I’ll also admit that I do kinda love how he freaks out at a tiny frog on his roof, that was really funny.

However, there is one major problem I have with it to the point where it almost ruins the episode: Thomas’ interactions with Ace. As you recall, Thomas ended his journey with Ace on pretty bad terms after Ace forced him to abandon Nia. Here, it’s almost as if all of that never happened, Thomas is just all buddy-buddy with him. That moment is never even adressed, which is a shame because I feel like the episode should’ve been about Ace trying to redeem himself while Thomas is still mad at him. But nope, Thomas just decides it’s just water under the bridge for no reason, and I just gotta ask “why?” so at the end of the day, it was a major missed opportunity.

But other than that, the episode is a mixed bag. It supplies some decent humor and some good development on Ace, but at the same time it manages to get wrong what should've been so easy to get right. I’d only really recommend this to fans of Ace, but other than that, it’s not really worth it so it earns a 2.5/5. Even as someone who really liked Ace, this episode was a major letdown.

Final Score: 2.5/5

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