As the engine who was the most prominent character of the first season post-Magic Railroad, Season 6 saw even more Percy love than ever before, and I'd go as far to say the Percy-centric episodes that year were pretty good...for the most part. We got another Percy and Harold rivalry story (A Bad Day for Harold the Helicopter), two more Percy and James rivalry stories (Jack Frost and Middle Engine), a Percy and Thomas rivalry story (Thomas, Percy and the Squeak), and the ever so wonderful "Scaredy Engines" which is both a Percy and Thomas, Duck and Percy story which is something that we hadn't seen since Season 3's "All at Sea". It's these types of slower character-driven stories that I find myself appreciating much more as I get older in age. However, like for most of the characters sadly, Season 6 is where many started to notice a downgrade in the green caterpillar with red stripes. Nothing too major just yet as they would do far worse in the following seasons and eras to come, but Percy started acting kind of...dumb. He's had little dumb moments in the past before, but I think that Season 6 is where they really started amping this up. It should be worth noting that this is the first season written by a team of writers instead of Britt Allcroft and David Mitton being the creative voice behind everything. A totally new team now tasked with having to churn out twenty-six new stories every year, so the writing took a natural hit. But for this week's review in keeping with the spirit of the spooky season full of tricks and treats, let's take a look at one of these first instances of how Percy's character journey started spiraling out of control as there's no place like gnome with "Percy And The Haunted Mine"!
PERCY AND THE HAUNTED MINE: While collecting some trucks, Percy is spooked by an abandoned mine that sinks into the ground. Then he thinks that some naughty gnomes are causing trouble.
---
Okay...hear me out. As much as I have a bit of a guilty pleasure for this episode, it's an awful mess when you really analyze it. It's a pretty stupid story, but I think it knows it's stupid to where it also tries to have fun with it somewhat. The word that I would use to describe "Percy and the Haunted Mine" is the same word that I would use to describe Season 1's "Thomas Goes Fishing"; that being kooky. However, I don't think this episode is anywhere near as strong as that episode. But with that being said, this episode does at least have some redeeming qualities. Visually, it recaptures some of the magic of the creepier episodes from Season 5 like "Rusty And The Boulder" and "Duncan Gets Spooked" with its gloomy and eerie visuals. The visuals of the building sinking into the ground are quite striking and the most memorable parts of this episode. However, as a whole, it just doesn't pull together. For one thing, the episode is filled with so many plot holes and it just gets worse as you go along. For starters, when the chimney first sinks into the ground, how the hell did Percy's crew not hear that?! They were only a few feet away, but yet they hear the second building sinking in. Yeah, okay, we'll pretend that makes sense.
Second, of all places for Percy to collect a freight train, why the abandoned mine in the first place? It couldn't be brought to maybe the yards or maybe a station or something? It just seems like a very odd place to leave a train literally in the middle of nowhere. The episode states that the mine is between stations, so why not have an engine deliver it directly to that station as opposed to leaving it halfway at an abandoned mine of all places? It's abandoned, nobody's using it, it's in the name. In addition to this, we see the first night that Percy is at the mine that the train isn't there. So, someone had to have brought the train to the mine in between that first night and the night Percy was supposed to pick it up. And if the ground next to the mine is that unstable, wouldn't the heavy freight train sink into the ground as well? This logic isn't even consistent with previous episodes of the show! In "Down the Mine", it's shown that the weight of Thomas alone is enough to cause a collapse. Lastly, with the episode's forced fixation on garden gnomes being scary, explain to me why garden gnomes make a station beautiful. I never understood why Percy was so frightened of these garden gnomes since they're so bright and colorful and happy looking despite the fact that gnomes in no way, shape or form are beautiful in any capacity, especially when they got thick asses like these ones do.
Of course, I must also bring up that this is one of those very few times where Alec Baldwin is very unenthusiastic with the story especially with the very bland sounding voices for Donald and Douglas which is a real shame since Sir Topham Hatt's is the only one that he puts effort into. I don't want to drag this out any more than I have to because there's really nothing else that I have to say about it. As I said, I do have a guilty pleasure for this episode. I would argue that the setting of the abandoned mine is a very interesting idea for an episode of Thomas, but the way that it's utilized in this episode just does not pull together. The garden gnomes just make it too ridiculous. And while it's a memorable episode with some great visuals, the weirdness of the story and the numerous plot holes make this one of the messiest episodes of Season 6 and that is why I have to rate "Percy and the Haunted Mine" a 2.5/5. And it's all downhill from here for Percy.
