Thomas & Friends (Seasons 12-16)

Thomas & Friends (formerly Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends and also referred to as Thomas the Tank Engine) is a British children's television series. It had its first broadcast on the ITV network in 1984. It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher Awdry.

It started airing in the United States through Shining Time Station on January 1989. But during Seasons 12-16, however, Thomas & Friends experienced a massive decline in quality.

Why These Seasons Suck

 * 1) The main problem with these seasons is Sharon Miller's involvement as head writer. She joined the writing team in Season 9, but became head writer for these seasons, thus she did not do a good job with the series. As a result, these seasons often don't stay true to the original source material and lack the charm of the first seven seasons and to a lesser extent, the eighth season and even the ninth, tenth and eleventh seasons.
 * 2) The characters are even more flanderized than they were S8-11, to the point of becoming intolerable and unrecognizable to their original personalities.
 * 3) * Thomas himself has gone from a cheeky and fussy, yet optimistic and playful protagonist into a troublesome, irresponsible and unreliable engine who almost never listens to Sir Topham Hatt and frequently causes confusion and delay. Worst of all, when he supposedly learns his lesson at the end of an episode, he completely forgets everything he's learned in the next episode.
 * 4) * Henry has gone from a kind and friendly gentle giant into a coward who constantly worries too much about every little thing and is too stupid to do anything right. This persona continues into Seasons 17-19, though with much better execution than it is here.
 * 5) * Edward and Toby have gone from old and wise engines into paranoid wimps who are too scared to do anything.
 * 6) * Emily has gotten flanderized twice. She started out as a kind and helpful engine in her debut in Season 7, but became a bossy, naggy and selfish engine during Seasons 8-10. She temporarily reverted back to her original personality in Season 11 before getting flanderized again in these seasons, where she's become an unintelligent Mary Sue. Her Seasons 8-10 persona returns in "Pingy Pongy Pick Up", however.
 * 7) * Skarloey and Rheneas have gone from old and wise engines into reckless hyperactive children who like to race and fight over taking special trains during Seasons 9-12. However, while Skarloey acted like a wimp in Seasons 9-11, he acts like a child in Season 12, as seen in "Push Me, Pull You". Thankfully after Season 12, both have returned to more mature personas.
 * 8) * Percy has gotten dumbed down considerably in Day of the Diesels and Seasons 15 and 16 without a reason or rhyme.
 * 9) * In general, most of the characters have gone from having multiple traits to just one and have lost whatever intelligence they previously had, such as Sir Topham Hat/The Fat Controller, who has been reduced from a strict, but kind hearted ruler to a pointless comic relief who messes up (e.g. crashing his car three times after carelessly driving on liquid bubble puddles instead of going around them in "Slippery Sodor"). Him being a comic relief character was done much better after this era, but here it seems like they treat him as a joke.
 * 10) * Other characters worsened as the series progressed.
 * 11) ** Diesel became more and more of a rude character to the steamies.
 * 12) ** Gordon and Spencer (The Worst Offenders), became more and more arrogant and acted even more like showoffs. Speaking of Gordon, he too was flanderized into becoming the Thomas & Friends version of Brian Griffin from Family Guy.
 * 13) These seasons are filled to the brim with bad episodes, such as:
 * 14) * "Up, Up, and Away"
 * 15) * "Sodor Surprise Day"
 * 16) * "Wonky Whistle" (the worst episode of the entire original series)
 * 17) * "Pingy, Pongy, Pick Up"
 * 18) * "Bust My Buffers!"
 * 19) * "Ol' Wheezy Wobbles"
 * 20) * "Express Coming Through"
 * 21) * "Henry Gets it Wrong"
 * 22) * "Percy and the Monster of Brendam"
 * 23) * "James to the Rescue"
 * 24) * "Happy Hiro"
 * 25) * "Saved You!"
 * 26) * "Let it Snow"
 * 27) * "Fiery Flynn"
 * 28) * "Race to the Rescue"
 * 29) * "Big Belle"
 * 30) * "O the Indignity"
 * 31) * "Henry's Magic Box"
 * 32) * "Thomas and the Snowman Party"
 * 33) * "Buzzy Bees"
 * 34) * "Thomas' Tall Friend"
 * 35) * "Slippery Sodor"
 * 36) The writing downgraded from clever and realistic, to being nonsensical and illogical, which totally broke the promise of the show appealing to all ages, because HiT Entertainment wanted the show to only appeal to very young audiences.
 * 37) Most of the episodes are extremely repetitive and formulaic. Examples of this are either the three strikes formula, where a character makes a mistake three times before admitting his/her mistake and setting things right or a character getting some "special special". In some episodes, these formulas are used together. S9-11 had similar issues, but to a lesser extent than these seasons.
 * 38) * In fact, there's even three-strike crashes, which is basically three crashes along with the three strikes. They tend to be very rushed and don't feel like the S1-11 crashes at all.
 * 39) Some of the episodes have either have bad morals or teach kids nothing at all:
 * 40) * The definition of an episode with a bad moral: "Push Me, Pull You"'s moral is that it's okay to refuse help from your friends. "Sodor Surprise Day" is another example of this as it shows you that playing with fireworks is okay, which it isn't because it is really dangerous to play with fireworks.
 * 41) * The definition of an episode that teaches kids nothing: "Wonky Whistle" clearly has no moral at all. It may not be a bad thing for a Thomas episode to have no moral, but it would be really grating if kids don't learn anything from an episode or two.
 * 42) Some episodes have really clumsy dialogue, such as: "But I'm wet through!" and most infamously, "his firebox was on fire." (funnily enough, those lines also come from the same episode)
 * 43) Most episodes can be really nonsensical. "The Early Bird" is a prime example, because engines are supposed to make noise, even early in the morning and at night. Let alone the fact these seasons understand mostly nothing about railway logic. How are the engines not supposed to use a whistle, let alone Thomas' whistle.
 * 44) The map views of Sodor are very basic, with the tracks very loosely following the routes of Awdry's map. The map lacks adjoining England as well as the Isle of Man, and in "Misty Island Rescue", Thomas and Spencer have to take a ferry to the mainland, despite the railway having a bridge connection linking Vicarstown on Sodor to the real life city of Barrow-in-Furness on the British mainland. Also, the ferry trip seems to take much longer than it should have considering Sodor's close proximity.
 * 45) "Misty Island Rescue" and "Day of the Diesels" were not well received for a number of reasons. Need we explain?
 * 46) Characters like Bill, Ben, Donald, Douglas, Harvey, Oliver, Toad, Duck, Duncan (despite being mentioned in "Don't Bother Victor"; it should also be noted that he was originally going to return in "Blue Mountain Mystery", but was later dropped due to his basis undergoing an overhaul at the time of production), etc. are nowhere to be found in Seasons 13-16. Their absence in Season 13 is understandable, given the change to full CGI and the work needed to remodel them accordingly, but the later seasons should have focused on reintroducing well established characters rather than inventing new ones with less developed personalities.
 * 47) Continuity errors and plot holes.
 * 48) * Gordon is introduced to Whiff in "Emily and the Garbage", which he and the other big engines laugh at and tease Emily for making friends with a rubbish engine. But in "O the Indignity", however, he hardly remembers Whiff at all.
 * 49) * Henry is said to have or need special coal, despite having been rebuilt in the first season.
 * 50) Like in some earlier seasons, cargo such as fish, produce, books, and even birthday presents are carried in open wagons, as opposed to the enclosed vans that would be appropriate for the given load. This is very unsanitary, and makes the engines prone to losing as well as spoiling the goods if they were to crash. Apparently the writers felt making the cargo visible to the viewer was more important than protecting them from the elements.
 * 51) Loads and trains that make no sense, such as having two engines transporting a single wagon carrying a large balloon that could easily be carried in a person's pocket.
 * 52) The drivers and firemen, who had often been a voice of reason for the engines, are rarely even seen in the engine cabs in Seasons 8-11, and the engines often go places that a driver would not allow. The engine crews are seen more regularly from Season 12 onward, but do little more than make the engines move. They never speak, or even react to the engines' surroundings.
 * 53) The constant narration, rhyming, and alliteration are extremely annoying to the point they never shut up. They are only added into the three strikes formula so they can make the episode progress its story more, which is a bad sign because it makes the episode look really predictable and repetitive. One example is: "I make good decisions, that's what i was told. I will not be fearful, I'll be brave and bold!"
 * 54) * On the subject of narration wise, the narration tends to narrate on things either the audience doesn't need to know, or that the audience would know by now, such as the narrator constantly stating the obvious.
 * 55) These Seasons also get a bad reputation for introducing characters like Charlie, and the Logging Locos, Much like Sparky in Season 9 of The Fairly OddParents, the characters were hated so much, thankfully the characters were removed in Season 17.
 * 56) The Logging Locos are extremely unlikable, obnoxious and annoying characters. They first appear in Season 14, following "Misty Island Rescue", then are constantly shoehorned in Seasons 15 and 16. They also never got much redemption, not that they really had any real personalities to begin with. Bash and Dash simply continue each other's lines from start to finish, and Ferdinand says "That's right!" all the time, which gets annoying within seconds.
 * 57) Some of the episodes are rehashes of episodes either from previous seasons or from these seasons:
 * 58) * "Express Coming Through" is a rehash of "A Big Day for Thomas"/"Thomas' Train" and "Seeing the Sights", except Thomas already learned his lesson about stranding his passengers and not being impatient in both episodes, and that episode follows none of the same charm as "A Big Day for Thomas"/"Thomas Train".
 * 59) * "Up, Up, and Away" is the standard gauge version of "Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon", except even worse.
 * 60) * "Time for a Story" is almost like a downgraded version of "Thomas and the Storyteller", except with a different plot.
 * 61) * "Hiro Helps Out" is a rehash of "Duck Takes Charge", except more boring than said episode and Hiro feels poorly written.
 * 62) * "Henry's Magic Box" almost feels like a rehash of "Henry's Lucky Trucks", except with a mostly different story, it relies on Henry looking for a so-called "magic box" and the box was never seen again before the very first strike.
 * 63) While the narrators for the US and UK dubs mostly do a good job, they have some flaws.
 * 64) * Michael Angelis' narration for the UK dub starts to get more dull, grating and redundant after Season 12.
 * 65) * Michael Brandon's narration for the US dub can be annoying and cringe inducing at times on Season 12.
 * 66) Seasons 13-16 (and Season 12 to a degree) often put too much focus on Thomas. While he is supposed to be the titular character, earlier seasons focused on other engines as well. In fact, there are even a handful of episodes in the classic era where Thomas is absent. However, he practically appears in every episode in Seasons 13-16, whether he has a major or minor role. (And he has no speaking roles in some of Season 16's episodes) Seasons 8-11 had a similar problem, though to a lesser extent than said seasons.
 * 67) Some of the recurring characters were left to the shaft or never seen again after these seasons:
 * 68) * Hank, Flora, Colin, and Billy have never appeared again after their debut episodes.
 * 69) * Paxton, Sidney, and Norman hardly got any attention until "Blue Mountain Mystery" (Paxton's case), Season 17, and Season 20 (Sidney's case). After that, Norman has been left as a minor character.
 * 70) * Molly has not been seen since Season 11.
 * 71) * Neville only appeared once in Season 9, and one episode each in Seasons 11 and 12.
 * 72) The last two seasons were released in the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia, just before "Day of the Diesels" and "Blue Mountain Mystery" came out, spoiling who the characters are. Mainly because Channel 5's block Milkshake had to rush HiT Entertainment with airing the episodes before the two specials were actually released.
 * 73) Some episodes are really boring and have unnecessary filler:
 * 74) * "Thomas' Tall Friend" is just Thomas trying to get a giraffe to sit down under his cage car so he can go under the tunnel.
 * 75) * "Henry's Magic Box" suffers through filler as it's Henry looking for a "missing box" even though he would be smart enough to know the box full of Christmas trees doesn't matter anymore.
 * 76) * "Jitters and Japes" really is slow-paced and boring the whole way through.
 * 77) "The Christmas Tree Express" isn't an episode to end off the sixteenth season in the UK broadcasting. Thankfully, when Season 16 was released for a complete series DVD release in 2015, "Happy Birthday, Sir" gets to be the last episode of Season 16, mainly because it was the last episode produced by Nitrogen Studios before shifting future episodes to Arc Productions at the time.
 * 78) The visuals in Season 12 have not aged well when it comes to mixing animation and live-action for the engines and humans. Some of the CGI faces are passable like Percy's face, while others range from looking off-model like Thomas' face, to some looking downright lifeless like Edward's face.
 * 79) * An example of Thomas' Season 12 CGI face is this. Not only does it look really creepy, but it also looks really cringe-worthy.
 * 80) * Several instances of the CGI faces being off-center, undersized, or not angled properly with the engines, something which Duck especially suffered from in his appearances.
 * 81) * Another issue of the animation is inconsistency. The original model faces are still used for some scenes as well as for background characters, and the CGI humans are poorly superimposed on the live action sets. There are even some instances where the actual live-action figures for the humans can still be seen.
 * 82) Although the animation in Seasons 13-16 is decent, it's really strange why the angles are the same in some scenes of episodes. But it has shown some signs of looking clunky in some areas, which is rare:
 * 83) * In "Spencer the Grand", the fog animation looks way too thick for the viewer to see the episode, let alone trying to see become frustrating.
 * 84) Emily's episodes really suffer from poor executions and bad writing mainly due to how they dumbed her down for the same reason as Thomas and Henry.
 * 85) There are a lot of episodes with really interesting concepts, but fall flat due to poor and miserable executions.
 * 86) * "Pingy, Pongy, Pick Up" has a great concept of Emily taking laundry out for Sodor's Football Team, but suffered through poor executions.
 * 87) * "The Man in the Hills" has a great concept of adding in The Long Man of Wilmington, but suffers through poor execution because it has no understanding what The Long Man of Wilmington is.
 * 88) * "Kevin the Steamie" has Kevin looking after the Steamworks, but is poorly executed due to bad writing. But one good thing to come out of is Kevin learning his lesson, and that was it.
 * 89) * "Happy Hiro" has a great idea of Thomas trying to cheer up Hiro, but only for the episode to fall flat as, again, it had to be an episode to rely on Misty Island.
 * 90) Some episodes have proven to be bad from the start.
 * 91) * "Henry Gets it Wrong" has a plot where Henry tries to block the railway line with trucks so he can save the Wishing Tree.
 * 92) * "Sodor Surprise Day" went wrong in so many areas that most of the episode's logic is completely nonsensical.
 * 93) * "Let it Snow" makes no sense at all because singing the "Misty Island Snow Song" and doing work does not even make the snow fall down, snow can fall anyway, even when Thomas is doing work or not.
 * 94) * "Don't Go Back" has a plot about Thomas and Diesel racing backwards at a dangerous environment (a quarry), which writes both Thomas and Diesel as the ones who are a bunch of idiots screwing around for no apparent reason.
 * 95) * "Push Me, Pull You" has a plot about Skarloey refusing to share Rheneas' train, proving itself that it wants to throw in a bad message to kids.
 * 96) Charlie, who was just introduced in Season 13, has some of the corniest jokes from any character. "Ho Ho Snowman" and "Play Time" showcase this. At least he became more than an engine who tells jokes since Season 17 in "Not Now, Charlie".
 * 97) Some poorly executed character chemistry in episodes like in "Big Belle". Belle comes off as too obsessed with Toby, whilst Toby acts like a grouchy old hermit who doesn't like doing anything remotely fun. Granted, both do have bells for one thing they have in common, but that doesn't make up for how badly presented it is.
 * 98) Sir Topham Hatt's railway is depicted as a "railroad" in some episodes of the US version, which sounds inaccurate because the North Western Railway is called a "railway" and not a "railroad", of course both terms mean the exact same thing, but one can't ignore geographical logic that easy.
 * 99) * The worst offending case is in Season 15's episodes in the case of the US version of said season whenever the term "railroad" is in the script of the US dub of an episode of Season 15. It makes the US dub makes most of its characters act as if they are from the United States.
 * 100) Duck, Stepney, Oliver, and a few other classic characters who had been largely absent from Seasons 8-11 reappeared in Season 12, however, their returns were poorly handled:
 * 101) * They only made a handful of appearances at most. Some, such as Donald, Douglas, and Stepney had only appeared in one episode in the season.
 * 102) * They are placed randomly in areas that they wouldn't typically have any business in, with no explanation why. For example:
 * 103) ** Ben is seen taking a load of logs in "Gordon Takes a Shortcut", and is not anywhere near Brendam Docks or the clay pits where he works with Bill. Speaking of Bill, he is nowhere to be seen, which is odd because the two are seldom seen apart from each other. Bill is completely absent from the season, and after this episode, neither he nor Ben would be seen again until Season 17.
 * 104) ** Stepney is seen casually running past Rosie in "Rosie's Funfair Special/Rosie's Carnival Special", though he is not officially a Sodor engine, only occasionally visiting the railway.
 * 105) * They are not formally reintroduced, the narration just assumes everyone knows who they are, with no regard to those not familiar with the first 7 seasons.
 * 106) * Their roles are very minor, mostly telling the main character where to go or that the main character messed up, which could be fulfilled by practically anyone. This comes off as very insulting and disrespectful because these characters have very distinct personalities that give them so much potential.
 * 107) Christmas being called "Winter Holidays" in almost every Christmas themed episode. This was thankfully fixed in the UK dub, but was left intact in the US until Season 17.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Passable animation through much of Seasons 13-16 that is way better than the inconsistent CGI/model hybrid in Season 12, despite using the same angles in some shots and errors.
 * 2) Some developments and/or improvements have been made for the show during these seasons.
 * 3) * Season 12 is the very first time the characters are given moving faces and lip syncing, which allows them to be more expressive.
 * 4) * Season 13 is the very first time the characters are given actual voice acting (excluding Thomas and the Magic Railroad and the Japanese dub) and it is pretty good in both the US and UK dubs respectively. Some fans wish this was done before or after Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
 * 5) The theme song and "Engine Roll Call" are still great, memorable and catchy. The CGI renditions in Seasons 13-16 are also nicely done, as they stay true to the live-action versions. In fact, these CGI renditions are still used during Seasons 17 and 18.
 * 6) * The CGI was provided by Nitrogen Studios, and its founders, Greg Tiernan and Nicole Stinn, are big fans of Thomas and the Railway Series, and it shows. Pity the writing couldn't have the same amount of dedication.
 * 7) As stated earlier, Misty Island and the Logging Locos were thankfully written out since Season 17. Ferdinand appeared as an Easter egg in "Signals Crossed", while "The Way She Does It" mentioned it one time in Season 20, it was only indirectly mentioned in "Big World! Big Adventures!" as a joke.
 * 8) As brief and pointless as their appearances may have been, it was nonetheless great to see older characters like Duck, Oliver, Toad, Ben, Harvey, and a couple others return in Season 12.
 * 9) Some characters finally got some redemption in the same era such as the Skarloey engines, Thomas (starting with "Blue Mountain Mystery" and "Happy Birthday, Sir!"), Percy (since "Percy and the Calliope"), and a few others.
 * 10) Some genuinely good lines, like "Express coming through!", which continues after Season 16.
 * 11) After these seasons, Miller continued on the series as a voice director in Season 17 and "King of the Railway" after Andrew Brenner took over as head writer, which she does a great job at voice directing.
 * 12) Thankfully, not all episodes follow the stupid three strikes formula or constant rhyming. "Bust My Buffers!" (while bad), is a story of its own, and "Happy Birthday Sir" comes up with out of the box moments with Winston. But this is rare since most episodes tend to have that.
 * 13) The PBS airings of Seasons 8-12 begin by showing a book entitled Thomas the Tank Engine by the Rev. W. Awdry, that opens to Awdry's letter that was the foreword of the Railway Series book #2 (Thomas's original debut). This is a nice homage to the original books, but at the same time a bit of a disservice to them given the quality of the show itself.
 * 14) Some character chemistry has been made well such as Thomas and Hank in "Heave Ho Thomas", Thomas and Butch in "Stuck on You", Thomas and Winston in "Happy Birthday, Sir", Diesel and Percy in "Percy and the Calliope" and Emily and Mavis in "A Blooming Mess".
 * 15) There are episodes with good morals:
 * 16) * Be yourself ("Edward the Hero", "Being Percy", and "Whiff's Wish"),
 * 17) * You don't always get what you want ("Pingy, Pongy, Pick Up").
 * 18) * Work together (numerous episodes).
 * 19) * Safety first! ("Henry's Health and Safety").
 * 20) * The value of friendship ("Best Friends").
 * 21) * The best present you can give a friend is simply being with him/her ("The Biggest Present of All").
 * 22) There are some good/passable episodes, such as:
 * 23) * "Tickled Pink"
 * 24) * "Best Friends" (which ended the model era and Season 12 on a high note)
 * 25) * "Thomas and the Billboard" (which started this era on a high note)
 * 26) * "Henry's Health and Safety"
 * 27) * "Stuck on You"
 * 28) * "Percy and the Calliope"
 * 29) * "Don't Bother Victor"
 * 30) * "Happy Birthday Sir!" (which ended these seasons and the dark age on a high note in production order)
 * 31) * "Heave Ho Thomas"
 * 32) * "Victor Says Yes"
 * 33) * "James in the Dark"
 * 34) * "The Biggest Present of All"
 * 35) * "A Blooming Mess" (depending on your view)
 * 36) There are some funny moments and lines such as the narrator saying "All the hats were hatless" and "You're not Fiery Flynn, you're Fumbling Flynn! Hahahahaha!".
 * 37) While repetitive, there are a few good rhymes such as: "Health and safety is the way, to keep the tracks clear every day".
 * 38) Some of the characters are still likable, such as Sir Topham Hatt, James (except in "James to the Rescue" and "Diesel's Special Delivery"), Whiff, Percy (except in "Day of the Diesels" and Seasons 15-16), Mavis (except in "Bust My Buffers!"), Dowager Hatt (except in "Jitters and Japes"), Harold, Cranky, Hiro, Den, Dart, Paxton, Stafford, Cranky, Victor, Kevin and so on.
 * 39) Speaking of James, at least he's an only engine on the Steam Team that didn't really suffer from Flanderization.
 * 40) The term 'Winter Holidays' is no longer used in later episodes after a complaint from Hilary Fortman got HiT Entertainment's attention to change it back to Christmas, though this is in the case of the UK dub instead of the US dub.
 * 41) Very young audiences might enjoy these seasons, and some fans still like these seasons.
 * 42) Some fans still root for and enjoy Season 12, as it is the last season of the model era. Also, Season 16 is considered by some to be a slight improvement over Seasons 12-15, due to some better writing and character chemistry.
 * 43) Season 12 didn't put too much focus on Thomas, unlike S13-16.
 * 44) Seasons 17-21 are a huge improvement over these seasons.
 * 45) Without these seasons, we wouldn't have "Hero of the Rails" and "Blue Mountain Mystery", in which these two specials are greatly written compared to "Misty Island Rescue" and "Day of the Diesels".
 * 46) The "Down at the Station" learning segments are educational, as they teach kids about how railways work.
 * 47) The crashes are still epic and fun to watch, mostly in Seasons 13-16.
 * 48) At some point, these episodes where remastered in 16:9 widescreen and 1080p HD and those versions are more tolerable due to the increased quality.

Reception
While Seasons 1-7 (1984-2003 [UK]; 1989-2004 [US]) and Seasons 17-21 (2013-2017) were mostly well received and Seasons 8-11 (2004-2007) received mixed reception, Seasons 12-16 (2008-2012) and Seasons 22-24 (2018-2021) were critically panned by fans and critics and caused the series to undergo a massive seasonal rot for a variety of reasons (see Bad Qualities section). These seasons are also referred to as the "Sharon Miller Era" by many fans. It has gone down as some of the worst examples of Seasonal Rot and Flanderization.

Trivia

 * Pierce Brosnan was originally going to take over as narrator for the series in Season 12 after narrating "The Great Discovery", but Michael Brandon and Michael Angelis continued narrating the US and UK dubs respectively for unknown reasons.
 * Season 12 is the first season for the following things:
 * The first season to have Sharon Miller as head writer.
 * The first season to use CGI animation, though only for the characters faces, humans and animals.
 * Season 12 is the final season for the following things:
 * The final season to use a model set since the show switches to CGI animation exclusively in Seasons 13-24.
 * The final season to have a single narrator voice the characters as they are voiced by individual voice actors in Season 13 onwards.
 * Season 12 is the only season to use a model set, CGI animation, and a narrator to do the character voices of the engines, people, road vehicles, cranes, and rolling stock.
 * Season 13 is the first season for the following things:
 * The first season to use CGI animation exclusively.
 * The first season to have individual voice actors voice the characters.
 * Season 16 is the final season for the following things:
 * The final season animated by Nitrogen Studios.
 * The final season to have Sharon Miller as head writer since Andrew Brenner takes over in Seasons 17-23.
 * The final season to be narrated by Michael Brandon for the US dub and Michael Angelis for the UK dub.
 * The final season to have separate narrators for the US and UK dubs until Season 22 where Thomas the Tank Engine would be the narrator.