Series 20: Letters to Santa

And the final festive episode of series 20 has arrived. I'll be honest, this has been my favourite bunch of Christmas episodes of the lot. There's only one that I thought was weak, but even that was full of the heart that we've come to expect from the show these days. But will Letters to Santa continue the team's strong performance this series or will we see our first blip?

How long has it been since we've seen Percy and Harold interact with each other? About 14 years? That's what makes the whole episode feel rather special, unlike Thomas and Bertie episodes of which we've had so many, it's reached the point where I'm starting to think that that's the only thing they can think of doing with the bus.

I'll get it out of the way now: the Percy & Harold flashback was wonderfully done. The fact that the animators and director decided to base the race on Railway Series illustrations rather than the TV series episode was surprising, yet fantastic. Despite all the nonsense that fans have had to put up with this year, it's little things like this that show that the team do care about the house that the Awdrys built and want to respect it as much as they can.

The dynamic between Percy and Harold is great, too. It's similar to Thomas and Bertie's, as has always been the case if we're completely honest with ourselves, but there are more opportunities for different stories as Harold can go anywhere. Granted the only thing that's been done since series 2 is "they're competing for the mail run", but adding the snow, like they added the faulty signal in A Bad Day for Harold the Helicopter, made the conflict stronger between them.

However, this episode's biggest strength is the execution of the moral. Looking back, I was far too generous towards The Missing Christmas Decorations; the moral was shoved down the audience's throat and its emphasis on "giving presents" was really annoying. This story, however, flowed much better, had a subtler moral execution and it just felt more heartwarming.

Oh, and it was quite clever that they used Jeremy to get the presents to the North Pole. It would've been better had the animators used a model series image to depict him (like they did with Duck on the Great Western in The Thomas Way) rather than a promotional image for one of his toys, but I suppose they had to work with what they had at the time.

The only disappointment I had was that Percy is still taking mail along the main line. It worked fine for this story, no doubt. But I think that, in future, the mail delivery system should be split up with different engines on their respective lines: Percy on the Ffarquhar branch, James and Hiro (maybe Bear if they decide to introduce him?) on the main, Duck on the Little Western and Edward or BoCo on the Wellsworth branch. It would shake things up when the team create a mail run episode, and create more opportunities than just shoving Percy into every one.

One other thing that looked awkward was Percy's mouth animations when the camera was at an angle where the snowplough was covering the lower part of his face. Either make a smaller snowplough for him or put the camera in a better position that doesn't make it feel like his mouth was moved up in a scene or two. Like Thomas' body being raised inexplicably in Thomas the Babysitter, it's a huge distraction.

Fan Reaction

#S20XmasSanta Rather boring, but very sweet episode full of Xmas spirit. Not the best Xmas episode they've delivered, but certainly not bad.

— Alex 🇳🇴 (@SodorSteamworks) November 8, 2016

- does think of Harold as a good friend once more, like in ABDFHTH. Loved the flashbacks too. Very well done.

— Ethan SD (@davis_selby) November 8, 2016

#S20XmasSanta I never thought we'd see Percy and Harold's rivalry again but I'm glad we did. Both of them play off of each other very well.

— Isle (@islandofodor) November 8, 2016

Both Percy and Harold benefit as characters from their rivalry. Also, the story feels like an annual one. #S20XmasSanta

— Don (@DDandT6) November 9, 2016

Unlike some, I don't find this episode anything special, the only great bits were the flashback and Jeremy's return 6.5/10 #S20XmasSanta

— Michael S (@MichaelSth1995) November 8, 2016

Final Thoughts

Considering the whole holiday has been destroyed thanks to overexposure and commercialisation, it takes something special to get me into the Christmas spirit these days. This episode, however, did it. The heart in it was clear for all to see, the characters were fantastic and the moral was really well done, even if it's one that's been done before.

It'd be nice to see these two have another episode together, but only once in a while rather than one a year. I've said it before; having longer gaps between writing an episode that stars two characters that work well together makes it special when it happens again.

Episode Ratings

Sidney Sings: 8/10
Toby's New Friend: 7/10
Henry Gets the Express: 10/10
Diesel & the Ducklings: 8/10
Bradford the Brake Van: 9/10
The Christmas Coffeepot: 7/10
Over the Hill: 9/10
Love Me Tender: 10/10
The Railcar and the Coaches: 10/10
Letters to Santa: 9/10

Series Rating (so far)

87/100