With the atrocious Seasons 14 and 15 and the okay Season 16 taking up the zeitgeist whenever someone brings up the Nitrogen era, I've noticed that no one ever brings up Season 13. Sure, some of the really bad episodes like Splish Splash Splosh or Time for a Story are subject to some discussion, but other than that, Season 13 just gets lost in the shuffle. But I'm gonna ask the big question: should it be discussed? That's why we have this episode here - is there enough to get people talking? Let's begin.

It's Sir Topham Hatt's birthday, so Thomas has to collect him and take him to a party...what? It's a Sharon Miller episode, there's always a party. But there's just one issue: Sir Topham Hatt has a mustache now!

Now, upon reading that premise, you're probably asking yourself "that's it?". I said in my review of Philip's Number that a story's only as strong as its concept, and this is a plot that feels like someone doodled a mustache on Sir Topham Hatt and decided to write an episode around it. That, and the episode does fall victim to the standard Sharon Miller era formula, so it quickly becomes stale and repetitive. But the episode does come back around at the end with the twist: that it's Sir Topham Hatt's brother, Sir Lowham Hatt...I'll give credit, that's a really funny name. 

Plus, it helps that Sir Lowham is an interesting character. On paper, he does seem like just another Charlie, but he becomes a nice inverse of Topham as the episode goes on, and I like that they gave him his own personality instead of just having him be Sir Topham Hatt...with a mustache. I kinda wish the series did more with him. Like, imagine an episode where the two swap jobs, or one where Topham has to leave Lowham in charge. There's surprisingly a lot of untapped potential with Lowham.

Overall, Double Trouble was...okay. It's not great, or even good, but the fun twist with an entertaining new character elevates it towards being watchable...enough. I guess I recommend it if you're curious, but don't go in expecting anything mind boggling, which is why I'm gonna give this episode a 3/5. Expect to see Lowham in a future fanstory, however.

Final Rating: 3/5

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...alright, fine. I know I've been ripping this season to shreds a lot this year, but there is just so much to rip to shreds. The writing's atrocious, the dialogue's horrendous, almost none of the stories work and it's undoubtedly Thomas' worst season. I understand there may have been some behind the scenes things that could've caused it, but no matter the reason, it's still horrible. But there is one episode that's really fascinating: Happy Hiro. Why? Well, let's begin.

Hiro is feeling homesick, so in an effort to cheer him up, Thomas takes him to Misty Island, but his ideas on what he thinks will make Hiro happy clash with what actually makes him happy.

You may be wondering something unusual with that story...it's actually a good idea. Thomas and Hiro have a natural bond that was set up really well in Hero of the Rails, and it's nice to see it expanded on. Hell, it actually has a somewhat decent moral about listening to your friends. There's even a moment that builds on a throwaway line about Japan having Jobi logs. They didn't need to include that, but I'm glad they did.

Now, you may be wondering, where does it fall apart? The episode all comes crashing down with, you guessed it, the writing. Not only does it follow the same three-strikes formula, and not only is the constant rhyming annoying, and not only is Thomas an inconsiderate numbskull in this, but this episode surprisingly has a lot of filler. It takes a while for Thomas and Hiro to actually get to Misty Island, because before all that, we need to have a scene where Charlie tells a joke. There's even a moment where Percy shows up, he says hi to Thomas, and then just dips. He doesn't appear for the rest of the episode. Why was he there? 

This episode is super frustrating because the nugget of an idea is there. If it were handled by the right team, this could've been something pretty good. But alas, the terrible writing had to bog it down. Is it the worst of Season 15? No. Dare I say, it's up there with the season's best...or, I guess, least bad episodes. But there's no reason to check it out, because...funny enough, everything that was done here was done better in Toby and Bash. That episode had a similar story, but the conflict was a lot tighter and more emotional. This one has its moments, but I can't bring myself to rate it any higher than a 2/5. Also, did you know that on the Thomas wiki, the quote used to sum the episode up is "Please, Thomas! I would like this to stop!"? Couldn't have said it better myself.

Final Rating: 2/5

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Back in my Race to the Rescue review, I went on record saying that when I was a kid, I was hyped to see Flynn and Belle, and I was really excited for their episodes. Then I actually watched them and...man, they sucked. Even with Race to the Rescue, that one was so bad I have it listed as one of the worst CGI episodes of all time. But you know my thoughts on that one. How about Fiery Flynn? Can it make up for the sins of the Miller? Let's get into it.

Diesel accuses Flynn of being lazy, which he sets out to prove wrong when he learns that a blue engine is on fire. But in typical Sharon Miller fashion, he doesn't wait to hear who he is and goes around blindly spraying water on blue engines.

This is the worst kind of three strikes formula episode...a dumb one. So, we established that Flynn is spraying water on blue engines randomly. But he never checks to see if they're...you know...actually on fire. It takes effort to write something this dumb. Even the plot at the start of Diesel accusing Flynn of doing nothing, that never goes anywhere. Diesel doesn't even learn his lesson, which begs the question "why is it even here?". In fact, this episode cares so little about consistency that even the voices are wrong. Here, Rupert Degas voiced both Dart and Den. What happened there? They already had Keith Wickham in the recording booth. Did Degas read the wrong line and they just decided to roll with it? The only credit I'll give this writing is that they did a decent job setting up that Thomas would be the blue engine by having him talk to Hiro at the start of the episode.

...speaking of which, let's get into the meat of this. This is why the episode is so despised in the fandom. Thomas' firebox was on fire. His firebox...was on fire. This episode went through writing. Recording. Producing. Animating. Post-production. And several testing processes. And nobody questioned that line?! Because as I and many others have pointed out, a firebox is supposed to be on fire. That's what it does, it's not called a peanut butter-box. I know blowback is a real thing that can happen when a pipe bursts in an engine's boiler, but they never clarify that. In fact, Thomas seems totally fine when his firebox is put out. Like, yeah, his firebox was on fire. Also, the sky is blue, my tongue is in my mouth, and the commentary track for Cars 2 is very delusional.

But the question remains: is this episode worse than Race to the Rescue? In my eyes, no. This episode's conflict is arguably worse, but they actually give a reason as to why Flynn can't put out the fire when he realises his mistake. But Fiery Flynn is still a terrible, terrible episode. Dare I say it, it got a little worse on rewatch. Do I even need to explain why? Because if you've seen this episode, you get it. Its writing is atrocious, the characters stupid and the formula overused. Just do yourself a favor and skip this one and Race to the Rescue, you will get literally nothing by watching it except a migraine, and as such, I'm giving this a 1/5. "Fiery Flynn fudges it" indeed.

Final Rating: 1/5

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Anyone who has ever traveled along the Skarloey Railway and met Rusty knows that he is trusty, tame and friendly for being so little. He (or she? Where did we land on that? I dunno, that's a different bag of worms) is a dedicated worker, often maintaining the line, while understanding and respecting the importance of his duties. He also has a rather distinctive two-tone horn which annoyed the other engines at first, but we never speak of that episode. Rusty is quick to remind others with regards to proper conduct, particularly Duncan, who was initially very suspicious of the little diesel. But despite their arguments, they both seem to make amends in the end because of how kind and tolerant Rusty is...that is until "Trusty Rusty" in Season 7, but that's a story for another day. Rusty has a good working relationship with both Skarloey and Peter Sam in particular. Caring, calm, and quick-thinking, Rusty is modestly a credit to the Skarloey Railway.  And when it comes to today's story, it looks like this little diesel has become quite the talk of the railway...albeit maybe not for the best reasons, but let's see what happened on that day while listening to some "Tuneful Toots"!

TUNEFUL TOOTS: Rusty often gets judged about his horn, and when he takes the Brass Band on a tour of the hills, he proves how special it can be.

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Let me tell ya, if you thought that Duncan's newfound friendship with Rusty from Season 4 getting tossed out the window was bad back in Season 7, then try having the entire fleet of engines on the railway turn against Rusty simply for the special sound of his two-tone horn which carried over into the CGI Era when the narrow gauge engines made their return.  Granted, I think it sounds more realistic in the CGI Era than it does in the Model Era which to me sounds like they just lowered the pitch for the second note.  But still, it feels weird that everyone would act this way towards Rusty especially those who are already friends with him like Skarloey and Rheneas or even Duncan.  But yet, we have shockingly Peter Sam of all characters as the one to make the rude remark to Thomas about how Rusty thinks his horn is special while the other engines don't. I mean...yeah, because all your whistles sound so much better, right? Really loving the friendship here, guys, good job!

However, it's not the sound of the horn that makes me really not like this episode.  It's the fact that it is blasted so much over the seven-minute span of the episode that it ends up becoming one of the many sounds that is sure to get under your skin.  In fact, I even did a tally count (or in this case, a "Talyllyn" Count) of every single time that Rusty sounds his horn over the course of the episode, and this little diesel sounds his horn a total of 52 times.  Yeah, you heard me right. 52.  If you and your friends in the fandom made a drinking game where you take shots every time Rusty sounds his horn, you would inebriated, or even dead within the first few minutes (just a disclaimer, I don't encourage this sort of behavior at all whatsoever, but if you're into doing this stuff, then more power to you, yet I ask you all to please drink responsibly if you decide to make this into a game).

But yeah, "Tuneful Toots" is anything but a game in this case as it is one of the defining examples of how far the narrow gauge engines had fallen in terms of their portrayals during the HIT Era as it makes Rusty who used to be a fan favorite among many into one of the biggest annoyances on Sodor.  It's no wonder why all your friends turned on you, you made yourself an "annoying orange"!  And this was only a couple season before the real "annoying orange", Billy, came to Sodor.  But anyway, it's time to end this symphony of suffering as I'm giving "Tuneful Toots" a rating of a 1.5/5.

Final Rating: 2.5/5

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