Many items from the collection of the late Britt Allcroft went under the hammer on the 9th of September and are now safe in the hands of fans and collectors alike who aim to preserve this legacy for many years to come. This auction has also brought some previously-unseen material into the light, from behind-the-scenes photographs and memorabilia to episode scripts – including several episodes from the second series that never saw the light of day.
We will be going through these cancelled episodes in this blog article…
The Missing Coach
The cancellation of this episode has been an infamous fact within the Thomas circle since the late 2000’s when production stills first began circulating online. The Missing Coach would have marked Donald and Douglas’ debut, in which the identical twins swap tenders to play a trick on The Fat Controller after Douglas accidentally misplaces Thomas’ special coach… but The Fat Controller is too clever for them.
The episode made it to the filming stage of production before being knocked on the head as Britt Allcroft felt the plot “lacked action” and was too confusing for young audiences to understand. Many production stills have surfaced over the years – a shot of Douglas was notably used on his Take Along collector’s card. Some of the footage that was filmed even ended up being used in the episodes, Saved from Scrap and Break Van.
Drip Tank
This is an episode we didn’t even know was planned for TV until just yesterday! Thomas and Percy are still in the midst of their fallout from Thomas, Percy and the Coal. Percy asks Toby what a “drip” means after hearing a boy call his friend one on the platform, to which Thomas intrudes and calls Percy a drip. (FYI, a ‘drip’ is an old slang used to call someone ‘boring, tiresome or annoying’ according to a quick Google search)
The tables turn when Percy has to come to the rescue after Thomas’ side rod breaks and punches a hole in his water tank – the two friends finally make up their quarrel and all’s well that ends well.
Drip Tank comes from the book, ‘More About Thomas the Tank Engine’, which was commissioned by Britt Allcroft so they would have more stories centred around Thomas to adapt for the TV series. There was an agreement at the time that all material adapted for television had to appear in print first – ‘More About Thomas the Tank Engine’ hit the shelves just days before Season 2 premiered. A script annotation reveals a clue as to why this episode was cancelled… “Too much Percy”. Percy already had plenty of starring roles in Season 2, so Drip Tank was swapped out for the much more Thomas-heavy Better Late Than Never.
Percy’s Promise
Before ultimately being held back until the third series, Percy’s Promise was originally part of Season 2’s line-up. Percy braves a storm to get Thomas’ passengers home safely, with a little help from Harold the Helicopter…
Percy’s Promise ended up being the only story from Percy’s RWS book that wasn’t adapted for Season 2. In this episode, Percy would be partially submerged in water as he wades through a flooded track – it’s likely that the production crew didn’t feel as confident using the models around water until after their time working on TUGS between the production of S2 and 3. Other practical effects were also considered for the water, according to pre-production documents, but didn’t feel convincing enough.
Gordon Goes Foreign
Adapted from the story of the same name in the RWS book, ‘The Fat Controller’s Engines’, Gordon gets into an argument with Duck and a visiting ‘foreign’ engine over the name of the big station in London. After many failed attempts to get there and prove it for himself, Gordon finally gets his chance when he is asked to take the express to London… only to be disappointed when he learns the truth about the station’s name.
According to pre-production documents, The Foreign Engine would have been represented by Henry’s model with added smoke deflectors and a different face. While the episode ultimately never came to be, The Foreign Engine did make his way into the Wooden Railway and Take N Play toy ranges under the name of ‘Big City Engine’.
Double Header
This story comes from the same book as Gordon Goes Foreign and takes place following the events of said story – unlike Gordon Goes Foreign, however, this one did eventually make its way into Season 3 as ‘Time for Trouble’. The Fat Controller gives Gordon a rest after his trip to London and puts James in charge of the express. When Toby runs out of water, James reluctantly has to shunt him to the next station – he becomes crosser than ever when a group of children jokingly think Toby had to help him because the express was too heavy!
Why this episode was axed is unclear, though I can only assume it was to make room for another story about Thomas himself.
You may also be interested in my previous blog about other pieces of cancelled Thomas media…
Images are courtesy of TTTE Wikia and are owned by HiT Entertainment/Mattel.
