Middle Engine (Thomas & Friends)

"Middle Engine" is the 14th episode of Season 6 of Thomas & Friends. It aired on October 3, 2002 in the UK and on February 25, 2003 in the US.

Plot
'Arry and Bert play a trick on Percy by shunting coal trucks in front of him. But when he's accidentally bumped onto the coal tipper by Henry and is punished by The Fat Controller to shunt trucks in the yard, James takes over.

Why It Caused Confusion and Delay

 * 1) This episode is basically a 4 minute torture episode for both Percy and James as both engines had went through 'Arry and Bert's antics. (See the next reason).
 * 2) Like how they are in the show, Arry and Bert are unlikable for the way they act like complete jerks towards Percy, but they are even more unlikable when you get to the second half with James.
 * 3) *The change to 'Arry and Bert is also BAD, in the older Thomas & Friends episodes and even some future episodes, they were evil and sinister diesels who take other engines (broken or non-broken) to the Scrap-Yard to be scrap, but here, they are now generic bullies, which is lame and not very original in a series about locomotives.
 * 4) **Granted, Middle Engine could take place before the episodes were 'Arry and Bert got their job at the Scrap-Yard, but that still an odd change.
 * 5) James' side plot is far from any better. As said in WICCAD #1, he goes through the same treatment as Percy and has done very little to deserve this. Yes, James did tease Percy in the first half of the episode, and he was being a bit argent thinking that he can outsmart 'Arry and Bert, but that doesn't work when you realize the same thing happening to him is used the wrong way.
 * 6) The infamous scene where Percy accidentally gets pushed into the lift by Henry, which causes the horrified Percy to get lifted up, tip over to have all of his coal dump, and brought back down again to then get yelled at by the dock manager. This scene in particular is very painful to watch, especially considered that this happens to Percy, one of the most fun loving characters in the show.
 * 7) Speaking of Henry himself, he acts like the Karama Houdini in this episode as he pushes Percy in which he is lifted up and brought back down with his coal dumped out, and he is used for the non-speaking role of the episode because the episode does so.
 * 8) *To be fair, Henry didn't mean to do it as he was unaware that Percy was behind him, so its technically an accident, but even then Henry should have apologized. (Minus his background appearance at Tidmouth Sheds.)
 * 9) *Has anyone forgotten that Henry feels utterly useless in terms of the episode? He only appears in this ONE scene, and is never seen again after that.
 * 10) Neither 'Arry and Bert get punished nor have they received their comeuppances or consequences at all making them Karma Houndinis.
 * 11) The Fat Controller unfairly punishes Percy for going onto the tipper's loading ramp rather than punishing Henry for his carelessness and/or 'Arry & Bert for their actions, which comes off as unacceptable because Percy did absolutely nothing wrong. He was just doing his job until Henry accidentally backed up and messed everything up instead of taking the punishment for him.
 * 12) *On that topic, the Fat Controller never apologized to Percy at the end, which made him extremely unlikable and out of character.
 * 13) This episode sends out 2 bad morals.
 * 14) *One moral states that you can get away for something you do and you will not be blamed, as shown with Henry.
 * 15) *The other moral shows how or why you think it's okay for bullies to pick on you and that you won't get punished for that either, as shown with 'Arry and Bert, which is seriously messed up.
 * 16) It doesn't help that Alec Baldwin does such a bad job narrating this episode, as he sounds blander and more uninterested like always when it comes to the US dub of Season 6.
 * 17) The production of the episode looks off looking and terrible, from being rushed to being given a bad story to the final product looking half baked and half unfinished, and not to mention that it was written by Brian Trueman, and how could Brian mess that up? This was also another one of David Mitton's worst stories from the classic era.
 * 18) * If you watch the 16:9 version of the episode which involves the first shot of 'Arry and Bert, you can see James on the side of both 'Arry and Bert. This is not a good thing because the two shots with 'Arry and Bert are from where James talks with 'Arry and Bert near the end of the begging of the episode, which is clearly one of the worst errors in Thomas history.
 * 19) *In Alec Baldwin's narration, you can easily notice the fact that whenever Baldwin mentions the word "coal", the editor used the same clip because Alec Baldwin didn't say "coal" in other lines that have to do with coal cars, not only is it lazy, but that's an example of bad editing.
 * 20) *In general, the plot itself feels very unfinished and feels something more out of another show than an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.
 * 21) Atrocious Ending: As James is coupled onto his train thinking that he outsmarted 'Arry and Bert, they play the same trick again, but this time it's James. Percy comes to help, he is coupled to the trucks on the back of him and hauls the train and James with him. When he and James arrive, Percy jokingly tells the dock manager that James is learning to be a middle engine, which results in poor James to now feel angry and embarrassed.
 * 22) Just like other Season 6 episodes, the lighting is very bland and dull to look at.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) James and Percy are the only likable characters in this episode.
 * 2) The shots are very impressive, especially the ones in the beginning.
 * 3) Unlike "Middle Engine", 'Arry and Bert do get some well deserved comeuppance in later episodes (most of the time).
 * 4) Wonderful narration from Michael Angelis.
 * 5) The model work and sets are still good, as well as the music by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell.
 * 6) If you watch the 4:3 version instead of the original 16:9 version, you won't have to worry about the accidentally used shots of 'Arry and Bert where you can see James in the middle of each engine.
 * 7) The Foreman's Bronx voice in the US dub sounds better than the other voices given by Baldwin in Season 6. (In fact it's as good as his voices for Salty, Elizabeth, Byron and the Fat Controller)
 * 8) "HELP! I'm not a truck!"
 * 9) Even though it's at Percy's expense, James making fun of him when he sees Percy trapped in the middle is pretty funny.

Reception
"Middle Engine" was given complete backlash and was hugely panned from the Thomas fanbase with many (Thomas1Edward2Henry3 himself included) calling "Middle Engine" the worst episode of Season 6, as well as the Classic Series era. This episode is also hated by fans because of the fact that the whole episode is a clear torture episode for both James and Percy respectively. It received a 5.2/10 on IMDb.

Video
It was put as number 1 on T1E2H3's video: qPhdHd5JwJI?t=922