Within the TTTE community, there had been a great deal of controversy of the switch from Models to CGI beginning in the years 2008/2009, but ironically CGI era between seasons 13 to 16 have not been horribly criticized for the CGI (in fact, it is pretty good for a kids show thanks to Nitrogen Studios) but rather more for the writing.
Now the series notably went to a formulaic to inaccurate-for-railway-standards approach beginning at Season 8, but these episodes are more tolerable compared to the CGI era of Season 13 to 16 (not counting the specials), and whoa boy, on 03/23/2011, a nasty surprise came in the form of the episode "Wonky Whistle", an episode that must have been made to be so bad to make most of the other CGI episodes of the period would look good by comparison.
First to mention is the fact that the episode has a few notable tropes of other episodes of the period: Good CGI wasted on a poor episode, lack of a break van for a train, Thomas (or another character) being a moron, horrible alliteration and rhyming, repetitive pieces of dialog which tries to jam into someone's brain ("Hurry to the country show, tell your friends and don't be slow"), The fat controller without any sense of logic or brains, lack of proper safety standards, idiotic trains known as "Special specials" and the notorious 3-strike formula (three flops, then you are simply told off, then you do it right in the end).
If that is bad enough, there is more than meets the eye/text:
The crowning moment of infamy came at around 1:56 as Thomas puffs out of the steam works while the workmen are working on him, thus shaking/pushing them off in the process without any patience to have them fix his broken (or 'Wonky' as they call it whistle), thus disregarding safety and patience in the process which is a bad lesson to younger viewers and could have injured/killed them in the process (but then again, why are the Workmen working on Thomas WHILE he is still at steam, isn't that hazardous?), plus if Thomas has a bad whistle then he should have been stopped as it would have disregarded the rules of railway safety, but alas the Driver or any other did not stop him and thus the episode carries on, plus a broken whistle would leak steam and whistle constantly in a weak fashion rather than just be blown with a 'wonky' sound, thus an inaccurate standpoint in that regard of how physics/trains work.
Then Thomas puffs in with one single van, now ignoring the obvious fact that there is no brake van on the train, a multitude of different animals were placed into the van at once (Including a couple of ducks, a dog and a cow), which is absolute illogical due to not a proper storage method and the fact that this combination of animals is not a good idea to put in all at once (not to mention that using the road instead of the rail is a more logical method) plus Thomas pulls off without the door being closed, thus another disregard to safety and could have injured the guy holding the door as he pulled off, what a low.
This is where the 3-strike formula comes in, and the formula is this case abysmal, first Thomas finds a group of people to a character to advertise "The Country show", stop at that particular location without any permission to stop (and thus could result in a crash with an oncoming train) and say the words "Hurry to the country show, tell your friends and don't be slow" as though as is he is the only source of advertisement for a seemingly profitable event , blows his 'wonky' whistle and a particular animal runs off from the unlocked van (why not all animals logically at once if the noise is that frightening, I don't know), then moves off while the group/character tries to warn Thomas of the animal, but Thomas does not hear due to constantly blowing his wonky whistle and seeing the waving hands not as a warning but the fact that people are waving at him, what a blue stupid idiot!,(heck, even a Cow ran across a station, thus nearly hurting someone in the process, plus Thomas could have seen it!).
Then Thomas arrives "The Country show", complete with a lack of people (as I said before, as though as if he was the only source of advertisement) and finally knowing that all the animals carried in his 1 single van went missing and realizing his mistake (after idiotically blowing his whistle and scaring some sheep away in the process), then proceeds to get his whistle fixed properly (with the workmen still working on an engine with a hot boiler), gathers all the animals back within a single day without any problem, advertises properly (which somehow gets an crowd to the county show as though as if he is the only one advertising the event) and The Fat Controller says "you are a really useful engine" without punishing Thomas for the dangerous and idiotic acts committed throughout the episode (thus another poor lesson to a younger audience), the REV Awdry rolled in his grave, HIT Entertainment proved that they have no quality control standards, and The End.
In Conclusion, this is an episode that is so bad, so absurd, so dangerous and so insulting-to-intelligence that you have to see it to believe it, now you may not have a good feeling after having watched it, but it has to be witnessed in order to understand why allot of TTTE fans (including myself) see it as the worst episode of the entire series.
Now the series notably went to a formulaic to inaccurate-for-railway-standards approach beginning at Season 8, but these episodes are more tolerable compared to the CGI era of Season 13 to 16 (not counting the specials), and whoa boy, on 03/23/2011, a nasty surprise came in the form of the episode "Wonky Whistle", an episode that must have been made to be so bad to make most of the other CGI episodes of the period would look good by comparison.
First to mention is the fact that the episode has a few notable tropes of other episodes of the period: Good CGI wasted on a poor episode, lack of a break van for a train, Thomas (or another character) being a moron, horrible alliteration and rhyming, repetitive pieces of dialog which tries to jam into someone's brain ("Hurry to the country show, tell your friends and don't be slow"), The fat controller without any sense of logic or brains, lack of proper safety standards, idiotic trains known as "Special specials" and the notorious 3-strike formula (three flops, then you are simply told off, then you do it right in the end).
If that is bad enough, there is more than meets the eye/text:
The crowning moment of infamy came at around 1:56 as Thomas puffs out of the steam works while the workmen are working on him, thus shaking/pushing them off in the process without any patience to have them fix his broken (or 'Wonky' as they call it whistle), thus disregarding safety and patience in the process which is a bad lesson to younger viewers and could have injured/killed them in the process (but then again, why are the Workmen working on Thomas WHILE he is still at steam, isn't that hazardous?), plus if Thomas has a bad whistle then he should have been stopped as it would have disregarded the rules of railway safety, but alas the Driver or any other did not stop him and thus the episode carries on, plus a broken whistle would leak steam and whistle constantly in a weak fashion rather than just be blown with a 'wonky' sound, thus an inaccurate standpoint in that regard of how physics/trains work.
Then Thomas puffs in with one single van, now ignoring the obvious fact that there is no brake van on the train, a multitude of different animals were placed into the van at once (Including a couple of ducks, a dog and a cow), which is absolute illogical due to not a proper storage method and the fact that this combination of animals is not a good idea to put in all at once (not to mention that using the road instead of the rail is a more logical method) plus Thomas pulls off without the door being closed, thus another disregard to safety and could have injured the guy holding the door as he pulled off, what a low.
This is where the 3-strike formula comes in, and the formula is this case abysmal, first Thomas finds a group of people to a character to advertise "The Country show", stop at that particular location without any permission to stop (and thus could result in a crash with an oncoming train) and say the words "Hurry to the country show, tell your friends and don't be slow" as though as is he is the only source of advertisement for a seemingly profitable event , blows his 'wonky' whistle and a particular animal runs off from the unlocked van (why not all animals logically at once if the noise is that frightening, I don't know), then moves off while the group/character tries to warn Thomas of the animal, but Thomas does not hear due to constantly blowing his wonky whistle and seeing the waving hands not as a warning but the fact that people are waving at him, what a blue stupid idiot!,(heck, even a Cow ran across a station, thus nearly hurting someone in the process, plus Thomas could have seen it!).
Then Thomas arrives "The Country show", complete with a lack of people (as I said before, as though as if he was the only source of advertisement) and finally knowing that all the animals carried in his 1 single van went missing and realizing his mistake (after idiotically blowing his whistle and scaring some sheep away in the process), then proceeds to get his whistle fixed properly (with the workmen still working on an engine with a hot boiler), gathers all the animals back within a single day without any problem, advertises properly (which somehow gets an crowd to the county show as though as if he is the only one advertising the event) and The Fat Controller says "you are a really useful engine" without punishing Thomas for the dangerous and idiotic acts committed throughout the episode (thus another poor lesson to a younger audience), the REV Awdry rolled in his grave, HIT Entertainment proved that they have no quality control standards, and The End.
In Conclusion, this is an episode that is so bad, so absurd, so dangerous and so insulting-to-intelligence that you have to see it to believe it, now you may not have a good feeling after having watched it, but it has to be witnessed in order to understand why allot of TTTE fans (including myself) see it as the worst episode of the entire series.
