This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the Danish VHS, the Romanian DVD, the Buzz Book, the board book, the Pictureback book, the Egmont book, the 1987 magazine story, the 1998 magazine story or the All Engines Go short. |
Thomas and the Trucks, retitled Trouble for Thomas in North American releases, is the sixth episode of the first series. It is based on the story of the same name from the Railway Series book Thomas the Tank Engine.
Plot
Thomas is fed up with his job of shunting coaches and complains relentlessly to the other engines every night, saying that he wishes to see the world for a change, despite the others taking little notice. One night, Edward comes to the shed and feels sorry for Thomas. Edward offers to let Thomas take his goods train, while he shunts coaches for him. Thomas happily agrees.
The next morning, both engines' drivers agree to switch jobs and Thomas sets off happily for the yard. Troublesome Trucks talk a lot, hardly attend to what they are doing and often play tricks on engines who are not used to them. Edward is well aware of this and has warned Thomas to be careful, but he is too excited to listen. Thomas prepares the goods train and once coupled up, he starts to pull, but the trucks are not ready. Despite their cries to and wait, Thomas just ignores them as he puffs out of the station rather stubbornly.
Thomas starts going faster passing through Henry's Tunnel and the junction along the journey, but the increased speed makes the trucks very cross. Thomas eventually slows down while climbing Gordon's Hill, but as his driver tries to apply the brakes at the top, the trucks begin to push him. Thomas loses control of the trucks as they rush down the hill and towards Maron. He passes the station and swerves into a siding at the goods yard and shuts his eyes until finally he stops in front of the buffers, narrowly preventing an accident.
The Fat Controller comes up, having seen everything, and questions Thomas on why he is there and why he came in so fast, to which Thomas explains that he took Edward's trucks, who pushed him. The Fat Controller advises Thomas that he has a lot to learn about trucks and that after shunting in the yard for a few weeks, he will know much more about them and will then be a Really Useful Engine.
Characters
- Thomas
- Edward
- Troublesome Trucks
- Sir Topham Hatt
- Troublesome Vans (faceless)
- Charlie Sand (not named)
- Henry (does not speak)
- Gordon (does not speak)
- James (cameo)
- Sidney Hever (cameo)
- Stephen Hatt (cameo)
Locations
- Tidmouth Sheds
- Knapford
- Henry's Tunnel
- The Goat's Field
- Elsbridge
- Gordon's Hill
- Maron
- The Viaduct (deleted scene)
- Hackenbeck Tunnel (deleted scene)
Trivia
- At the beginning of the A Big Day for Thomas release of this episode, Mr. Conductor's whistle from Shining Time Station can be heard.
- On PBS Kids Sprout airings of the episode and on Thomas & Friends Classic Volume 1, the music at the end is played twice.
- Stock footage from the previous episode and a deleted scene of Edward and Gordon are used. In the restored version, a mirrored deleted scene from said former previous episode is used. Deleted and alternate pre-filmed footage from the next episode is used.
- In a deleted scene, Thomas' train has a tanker, one van, three open trucks and a brake van.
- This is the first episode of a few things:
- The first appearances of Thomas' wincing face and aghast faces and Edward's angry face.
- The first time Thomas and Edward interact.
- The first time Thomas gets in an accident.
- The first time Gordon's Hill is referred by name in the television series.
- This is also the second episode with a few things regarding the Korean dub:
- The second episode released by DVD Acadamy in South Korea.
- The second episode to have three dubs in South Korea.
- The second episode to have voice over English dub in South Korea.
- In the original Polish dub, Ringo Starr's dub can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.
- In the Korean DVD Acadamy dub, George Carlin' dub can be heard in the background as a dubbing track was not used.
- In the original Swedish dub, the episode title was not translated in Swedish.
- To make the trucks' faces, the crew used two white oval paper cut-outs, two black circle paper cut-outs, small strips of black tape, a brown crayon for the eyelids, and even glue as well. They also used another strip of black tape for the mouth as well. This is evidenced in the first shot of one of the trucks.
- In the restored version, Thomas' eye movements are different in the scene where he says he wants to see the world.
- This episode was shown as a double bill with Thomas' Train from 27 February 1989 before the airing of the second series on 6 March 1989. This was also Jerry Foulkes' last contribution to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends before his departure on 22 December 1989.
- This episode marks the last for a few things:
- The last appearance of Maron Bridge, excluding a deleted scene in Dirty Objects.
- The last episode introduced by Windsor Davies in character as Terrahawk's Sergeant Major Zero. Two other Terrahawks characters, Captain Mary Falconer and Dr. Tiger Ninestein, introduced the next two episodes before the arrival of Bonnie Langford in November 1984.
- The JEI TV version of the Korean dub added subtitles to inform viewers what buffers are.
- The Latin American title of this episode is shared with that of the eighteenth episode of the eleventh series.
Goofs
- Throughout the episode, when Thomas is pulling the trucks, they change their position rapidly. The number of trucks also change, such as when Thomas leaves Knapford, he has three vans. However, when he goes through Henry's Tunnel, he has two vans for the rest of the episode. Also, as Thomas comes out of Henry's Tunnel, the tracks bounce and the front GWR van also changes into a utility van. The utility van usually seen with bogie wheels also appears with only four wheels in one scene.
- In several American releases, notably those on PBS Kids Sprout, Best of Thomas, Thomas & Friends Classic Volume 1, Roku Kids and the official Thomas & Friends YouTube channel, the episode's audio is out of sync. This is due to the audio being taken from a Shining Time Station airing, where the first few seconds of the opening on the episode, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle are cut and barred by Mr. Conductor's whistle, while the episode on home video releases (excluding Best of Thomas) show the episode in its full form.
- At the beginning of the episode, because of an alternate shot, Gordon is in the middle of the shed with Thomas and Henry to the left, and James and Edward to the right, but in the close-ups, Thomas is in the middle, Gordon and James are on one side, and Edward and Henry are on the other. This appears to be unused footage shots for the episode Edward and Gordon, as the engines are all in the same positions. Because of this alternate shot, Edward is smiling while the others are frowning. In fact, Edward is clearly shown frowning along with the others just before the narrator says, "The other engines didn't take much notice," even though he is said to feel sorry for Thomas.
- In the second close-up of a troublesome truck, Knapford cannot be seen behind it. The same thing also happens in the close-up of Thomas' whistle.
- When the narrator says that the guard blew his whistle, a whistle sound is heard, but the guard is only holding a green flag.
- For a brief second, when Thomas flies through Elsbridge, a crew member's hand can be seen in the top right corner of the screen, grabbing the footbridge to prevent the camera from hitting it,[1] and the left pair of tracks also come to an end.
- In the close-ups of Thomas pulling a truck, the rest of the train is missing.
- In some American home video releases, when Thomas puffs up Gordon's Hill, a voice says, "Look out for the train!" while the music and sound effects are briefly muted. In some other American home video releases, the voice can still be heard, but the music and sound effects are not muted.
- In the restored version, the scene of the trucks bumping Thomas becomes out of sync due to three missing cuts the original version has where the trucks stay still for too long. The original version removes almost a full second for this scene which explains the sudden desync of the audio in the restored version.
- The narrator refers to the siding as the goods yard when Thomas bumped into the buffers.
- In the close-up of Thomas hitting the buffers, his buffer housings are black as opposed to red and his brake pipe is different.
- When Thomas hits the buffers in the siding, there is a second track because the same truck close-up is used.
- When the narrator says, "When he opened his eyes..." Thomas' eyes are misaligned and his face is also slightly crooked.
In Other Languages
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Reference
#01 Thomas and Gordon | #10 James and the Express | #19 The Flying Kipper |
#02 Edward and Gordon | #11 Thomas and the Guard | #20 Whistles and Sneezes |
#03 The Sad Story of Henry | #12 Thomas Goes Fishing | #21 Toby and the Stout Gentleman |
#04 Edward, Gordon and Henry | #13 Thomas, Terence and the Snow | #22 Thomas in Trouble |
#05 Thomas' Train | #14 Thomas and Bertie | #23 Dirty Objects |
#06 Thomas and the Trucks | #15 Tenders and Turntables | #24 Off the Rails |
#07 Thomas and the Breakdown Train | #16 Trouble in the Shed | #25 Down the Mine |
#08 James and the Coaches | #17 Percy Runs Away | #26 Thomas' Christmas Party |
#09 Troublesome Trucks | #18 Coal | |