Games - Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

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	Games - Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends

Thomas & Friends (formerly Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends) is a British children's television series which was first broadcast in 1984.

The series was based on The Railway Series
, a series of books created by the Reverend W.V. Awdry. They deal with the adventures of a group of anthropomorphised trains and road vehicles who live on the fictional Island of Sodor. The books were based on stories Awdry told to entertain his son Christopher during his recovery from the measles. Many of the stories are based on events from Awdry's personal experience. During the 1980s the television rights were sold to Britt Allcroft and she began producing the series. The show has been narrated by, amongst others, Ringo Starr, George Carlin and Alec Baldwin.

Series history

For the first two seasons, the series was closely based on stories from the Railway Series. The first season took stories from the first eight books, along with one especially written by Rev. W. Awdry, 'Thomas's Christmas Party'.

The second season took stories from Book 9 ('Edward the Blue Engine') to Book 30 ('More About Thomas the Tank Engine'). This last book was unusual, in that it was written specifically by Christopher Awdry in order to be adapted for the series, as a contractual obligation of the series at that time was that it could not create original stories that had not previously appeared in print. The series also adapted a story from a Thomas Annual, 'Thomas and Trevor', and an especially written stand-alone story, 'Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree'. Many fans consider this to be the "golden age" of Thomas.

The third season was a combination of episodes derived from the Railway Series, from stories in the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends magazine and wholly original work. There were two primary reasons for diverging from the original books. The first was that many of the books not yet adapted featured large numbers of new characters, and so would be expensive to produce. The second was that the producers wanted more stories centring on Thomas, the nominal main character. This caused controversy, with Rev. W. Awdry complaining that the new stories were unrealistic and not true to the spirit of the books (see Henry the Green Engine for more details on this).

Prior to the fourth season, a number of accusations of sexism were levelled against the series. Among these was a complaint that the series was short of female characters. To counter this, the producers promised that new female characters would appear in the next series. This series was almost entirely based on the Railway Series. The narrow gauge engines were introduced, greatly increasing the number of stories that could be produced. Only one original story was used, namely 'Rusty to the Rescue', but this took certain elements of plot and dialogue from the book 'Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine'.

The fifth season was a radical departure, as it was entirely original. Some fans consider the series from here on to be an entirely separate continuity from the Railway Series. This season saw the introduction of new characters and more action-packed storylines.

Following this season, the film 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' was released. It featured only a small number of characters from the television series and was rather more fantasy based. Despite high production values and the popularity of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, the movie was criticised for being confusing, badly written, poorly directed, poorly acted and not true to the spirit of either the Railway Series or the television adaptation. It was well received by young children at whom it was aimed, but nevertheless flopped at the box office. No reference to the film has ever been made in the television series.

Following this disaster, Britt Allcroft left the company. New episodes, that had hitherto been written by her and director David Mitton, were from then on scripted by hired-in writers.

The sixth and seventh seasons continued the policy of action-packed storylines and new characters. The sixth season was notable for its attempt to create a spin-off series. In this sixth season, two episodes were produced centring around a group of new characters known as 'The Pack'. These were construction machines, and it has been speculated that this was an attempt to cash in on the success of Bob the Builder. The spin-off never materialised, and as the models of the Pack were incompatible with the other characters in the series (having been built to a larger scale), they were never seen again.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends ]

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