Season 22: Trusty Trunky

And back to mediocrity we go..!

This episode was the point that made me truly realise where the problem with these world-based episodes truly lie. It’s not just that they’d have to try and make different customs and cultures work within this world (which, to be fair, this did fairly well), but they have to make Thomas an interesting character since he’s going to be the character we spend time with the most. And here... he’s not. He’s inquisitive, but... that’s it.

Here’s the thing that the writers don’t seem to get: protagonists don’t have to be morally pure to be a) protagonists and b) interesting. Characters sometimes have to be in the wrong to get their comeuppance and properly learn their lesson. All Thomas learns here is... focus on the task at hand and things can be done differently. But wouldn’t he have learned that rescues can be handled differently in Rocky Rescue, as bad as that episode was?

This episode would’ve been so much better had Thomas been a cheeky, arrogant sod. And I’m not saying that because I’m nostalgia blind, I’m saying that because the episode’s lesson would’ve had much more of an impact if that had been the case. Instead, it feels like they’re condemning their own storytelling device, when most people know that these fantasy sequences aren’t going anywhere.

Because of that, the episode is boring. It’s an absolute slog to sit through because no one plays off of anyone. The only characters who seem to have any sort of chemistry is Rajiv and Jehan, and they only share a couple of seconds together. Ashima is still as boring as a slice of bread with no character to speak of, and as fun as Rajiv seems to be, he still feels like an Indian version of James.

Also, as cute as the scene with the cow was, it begs the question: how many trains in India are severely delayed by sleeping cows? Why didn’t Ashima just try and find a crossover rather than just stare at it? It doesn’t add too much to the story, so it’s not a huge deal.

The themes were... fine. As much as I criticised the writers for seemingly condemning their own storytelling device, it was nice that they showed the impact of daydreaming when doing something really important. And the main theme of “different ways of doing things” was relatively well handled.

Final Thoughts

I haven’t seen a 7 minute episode drag so much since season 10. It had its entertaining moments (the fantasy sequence was wonderfully bizarre and the elephant rescue was rather funny), but the characters were just so dull and uninteresting that it’s really easy to zone out.

Rating: Average (4/10)