Important Update

I wouldn’t usually post something that’s happened in my personal life on here. But since this will have an effect on the blog, and with series 22 airing in English in two weeks, I thought this was important enough to share here. Plus, since I don’t want to bog down the next review, it’s better to share this in a separate post.

Unfortunately, my laptop is dead. It has been the backbone of this blog, writing every single post since its inception in 2011. But one errant spilling of Fanta and... well, it’s true what they say: fluids and electronics really don’t mix. I’m honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did, especially with how slowly it was running in later years. But it’s still a disappointing loss, and I will be getting a replacement eventually.

What will this mean for the blog?

Well, I’m writing this on the iPad, so I should be able to keep up with episode reviews the day they air, like I’ve always done. In fact, they could be posted quicker than before. However, it will mean more posts consisting of walls of text like this.

That’s because laptops are pretty expensive for someone who (just about) has enough to get by as it is. And because iPads aren’t that great with Blogger, especially when it comes to pictures, it does mean that it’s unlikely they’ll be included for the foreseeable future. The heavily edited pictures I’ve uploaded in the past couple of years are off the table completely.

It might also mean that there won’t be a running tally of episode scores throughout a season. But I may have removed that section regardless of what happened to the laptop. They were mainly there for my benefit so I could keep track by the time overviews came around. But I can do that in a notepad or something.

TL;DR

The laptop is dead, future posts won’t have the visual polish that previous reviews had since I can’t afford a new one. But there will be posts in the future, starting with Number One Engine on September 3rd.

Important Updates

With series 20 out of the way, and the Journey Beyond Sodor review coming very soon now that I've seen the UK dub in the cinema, it's high time I updated my self imposed rules/policies of reviewing future episodes and specials (beginning with JBS, hence it's coming in a week or two rather than a whole two months from now).

Before, my policy was fairly simple: once an episode aired in the UK, a review would be released shortly after. For series 16-18, this worked fairly well. Sure, there were a couple of episodes (mainly festive ones) that had delayed posts, but it's something I could work with fairly well.

Then series 19 came along.

Whether it's due to Australian and Japanese TV networks airing them early, or Channel 5/Viacom airing the main bulk of the episodes they had in a scattershot way, previous reviewing policies have become unsustainable as the majority of the posts have come out months after the series ended because they were held off for so long in the UK.

So I've come up with a solution. While my main rule will still be to review episodes as they come out on UK TV (Channel 5, can't afford to watch digital airings now) or DVD, I've added a few caveats:

1. If a UK dub (with high quality audio and video) is uploaded to YouTube from anywhere in the world before a UK release, I will review the episode ASAP. If a low quality version is uploaded, so long as there is high quality footage somewhere, I'll still review it. The HQ footage is important as I don't want to compromise the way my reviews look with pixelated pictures or, worse, none at all.
2. For specials, if high quality footage exists before the UK dub receives a home release, I'll review it as soon as I've seen it in the cinema (since the US version has been released and uploaded already, in HD, this is why the Journey Beyond Sodor review can be uploaded sooner. It won't be a DVD review as well, as I've done with previous specials. But since I've stopped episodic DVD reviews already, this was bound to be the next step sooner than later anyway).
3. Once the above criteria have been met, episode reviews will be released no later than one week after airing/YouTube discovery. If they're first released on DVD, the reviews will be uploaded daily with the last one posted no later than two weeks after release. Special reviews will be posted no later than two weeks after the fact.
4. If these promises can't be kept for any reason, I will fully disclose all details on DeviantArt as soon as I can so as not to cause any worry or frustration.

Point 4 actually leads to my next update. I've posted something similar on DeviantArt, but it's only fair I say something here as well.

First off, from September 10th-16th, a friend and I are going to London on holiday. Therefore, there will be no new content during that time. If any new episodes air in that time, they will be reviewed when I get home and posted as soon as possible.

The second, however, is more important, and it's the thing I mentioned on DeviantArt. I will be going to hospital in October for scans and surgery on my legs. I've no idea when in October, how much surgery needs to be done or how long I'll be in hospital for. As soon as I know more details, I'll post them on DeviantArt, but at this point, it's easy to say there will be no content for the duration of my time in there. I'll try to post updates while I'm in there though, so if you have a DA, or a Twitter, account, follow me at ThomasandStanley on DA or CWTWheely on Twitter.