Respect for Gordon

“Gordon's a mess, Gordon's a mess! He's the largest and jammiest!”

― Thomas

Respect for Gordon is the seventh episode of the ninth season.

Plot

Gordon is suffering from a spot of bother; his firebox is rattling whenever he cools down at night, which has resulted in teasing from Thomas and Percy. Gordon tells them that tank engines have very bad manners, though he feels quite embarrassed about his problem.

The next morning, Gordon finds Percy still teasing him. When he arrives at Knapford, the teasing continues, this time by Emily and Diesel. Gordon has had enough; he decides to make demands in order to stop the teasing. So he pulls up ahead of James at the water column, tells Percy not to hang around at platform one as it is his platform, and finally he tells Thomas, James, and Emily to give a polite "toot toot" of their whistles the next time they see him - all because he is the fastest and best.

However, when Gordon sees Emily passing him, he does not get the polite "toot toot" that he expects - only to miss a red signal and crash into a train of jam tankers ahead of him. Whilst waiting to be rescued, Gordon gets teased again by Percy, Thomas, and James. Soon Edward arrives with the breakdown gang and he takes Gordon to the Works to be mended.

Meanwhile, Emily and Henry take turns in pulling the express and they quickly realise that Gordon must be quite strong to do it regularly. Even Percy misses Gordon as the rattle helps him to get to sleep. A few days later, Gordon is mended with all the jam cleaned out of his boiler and his firebox no longer rattling. That night, Gordon apologises to his friends for his rattling firebox and for his "toot toot" demands because he did not deserve it. However, Thomas and the other engines now know that Gordon deserves a polite "toot toot" as he works very hard indeed as the express engine.

And, since that day, all of the Fat Controller's Engines greet their friends with a polite toot of their whistles for being really useful.

Characters

Thomas
Henry
Gordon
James
Percy
Emily
Diesel
Edward (does not speak)
Annie and Clarabel (cameo)
Sir Topham Hatt (mentioned)

Locations

Trivia

In the US, this episode aired before Thomas and the Toy Shop, meaning the audience would not know about the toy shop yet.
Gordon's crash is similar to James' from Dirty Objects.
In Germany this episode is titled "Gordon Wants to be Admired". The Japanese title is "Gordon is Awesome!". The Finnish title is "Pay Tribute to Gordon".
The plot point of Gordon wanting the others to whistle at him is similar to the magazine story Thomas and the Whistle.
Going by production order, this is the second episode of the ninth season.

Goofs

How did Emily get to Knapford before Gordon when she was last seen asleep at Tidmouth Sheds?
Gordon wanted all the engines to give him a friendly "Toot Toot", but all the engines already do that when they see each other.
The narrator says that Gordon thought he was the strongest steam engine on Sodor, but Murdoch is the strongest.
The narrator says the workmen need to clean the jelly out of Gordon's engine and that it was hard to remove from his engine, but Gordon is an engine.
Edward pushes Gordon to the Works, but in some shots Gordon's bogey wheels appear to be broken.
How did Thomas, Emily, and Percy all have time to get in front of Gordon and turn around?
Why was there a train of tankers in the middle of the main line?
Wouldn't Gordon's crew and passengers have been injured when he crashed into the tankers?
Henry has pulled the express many times before and, according to The Flying Kipper, has not had any trouble with it.
Henry and Emily said that is a hard work to pull the Express, even though Henry pulled the Express in previous episodes and Emily in As Good as Gordon, and they don't appear to complain about it.
When Percy arrives where Gordon had crashed, you can see that there was not an engine pulling the goods train.
The signalman should've at least changed Gordon to another line since there's no one pulling the goods train.
When Gordon cuts James' line to the water tower, his whistle is low-pitched.
When Gordon crashes, the Express Coaches should've been at least derailed.
When Edward pushes Gordon to the workshop, it appears that the track where Gordon and the goods train were is clean, even though the jam fell nearby it.
The amount of jam covering Gordon's face changes between the scene of Percy teasing him and the scene of him at the workshop.
After Gordon cuts James' line to the water tower, in the shot of James, his censor bar is bent.
Percy was angry before Gordon told him to go away from platform 1.