Edward Strikes Out (Thomas And Friends)

"What in the MOTHER OF GOD did they do to Edward!"

- James A. Williams

"Edward Strikes Out" is the seventeenth episode from the tenth series of Thomas and Friends, it first aired on October 10th, 2006 in the UK.

Plot
Badly influenced by Gordon, Edward is rude to a new crane named Rocky, but soon he realizes his mistake.

Why It's a New-Fangled Nonsense and Should Strike Out

 * 1) First and foremost, Edward is at his absolute worst and is extremely out of character in the episode as he calls Rocky a new-fangled nonsense.
 * 2) Speaking of being out of character, Edward is severely miscast in this episode as he is normally a kind and wise engine, and he has never been the character who would listen to anyone's lies just to make him look good or unjustifiably take a negative opinion on a new member of the railway by the appearance of. This episode more likely should have been the role for James since his personality is the exact opposite of Edward's, which would have made the episode a bit better.
 * 3) *Allegedly, James was originally going to have the role in the episode but a problem with the model at the last minute resulted in Edward taking over. If true, then this indicates that the episode was rushed.
 * 4) Gordon is also at his worst (though not as bad as Edward) in this episode. He comes off as too stupid to not know that he quoted saying that Rocky "never moves unless another engine pulls him". It's unlikely for Gordon to act out of character since he's one of those characters to never get wrong. Here, this episode gets him wrong. Not to mention, he is the primary cause of Edward's unlikable personality in this episode.
 * 5) How can Edward and Gordon act so stupid to not know that a breakdown crane never moves all by itself?
 * 6) During most of the episode, Edward acts pretty rude to Rocky, mostly due to him believing Gordon's comment on him.
 * 7) *On that subject, Edward would know not to listen to Gordon's arrogance, because he usually brushes his words off.
 * 8) Similarly to James' attitude in "Tale of the Brave", Edward somehow at first doesn't want to get Rocky to clean up the mess he caused even after various incidents happen during the episode. That's right! From what reason #3 already said; it's because he believed Gordon's lie.
 * 9) The infamous line: "I don’t need your help, new fangled nonsense!".
 * 10) What makes this even worse is that Edward's sudden change of character happened all because of a lie Gordon said about Rocky, and it's pretty obvious that Gordon is good at manipulating, which is stupid since (again) Edward usually brushes his arrogance off and doesn't take that much notice of it.
 * 11) Edward did not only say bad comments about Rocky at a faraway distance from him, but he also outright said them to his face.
 * 12) Although unintentionally, this episode gives out a bad moral about judging people before meeting them properly.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The rest of the episode has redeemed itself with Edward now needing Rocky to help get everything back on track, and the episode ends on a good note with Gordon and Edward now being welcoming to Rocky on the railway.
 * 2) Gordon's accident, as well as being justified for being the one that caused Edward to act rude to Rocky, also convinces Edward to get Rocky into helping him.
 * 3) Despite pure idiocy, you do expect something about how Gordon acts pompous, yet arrogant, and (obviously) gives a story (like this one) the right comeuppance for his actions.
 * 4) This episode introduced Rocky, in which by Rocky himself, he's a great addition to the recurring cast.
 * 5) Thomas, Percy, Harvey, and Rocky are likable characters in this episode.

Reception
"Edward Strikes Out" was panned by fans and critics alike with criticism going to Edward's overly unlikable character portrayal and received a 2.5 on IMDb.com. The episode is one of the second lowest rated episodes of Thomas & Friends.

Video
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