Fish (Series 8)

"Oops! Sorry!" "Never mind, me hearty! The smell reminds me of the sea!"

- Thomas and Salty

Fish is the nineteenth episode of the eighth season.

Plot
The Fat Controller sends Thomas to help Arthur at the Fishing Village as the fishermen have caught a huge catch of fish. When Thomas arrives, he sees a very long line of trucks waiting for him. Arthur tells him that, due to the rough track-work on the route to Brendam, he must take five trucks at a time and go slowly and carefully. So Arthur buffers up and takes five trucks, but Thomas prefers to get the smelly job over and done with and buffers up to all of the trucks in front of him.

However, the trucks take full advantage of the rough track-work and make fish fly into Thomas' face. When climbing up Gordon's Hill, the trucks are very heavy and on the way down, they pull Thomas, making him go way too fast. Unfortunately, Salty is at the bottom of the hill waiting for a signal. The trucks crash into Salty, sending fish everywhere. Thomas apologises to Salty, but Salty does not mind; the smell of fish reminds him of the sea.

Soon Harvey arrives to clear up the mess and the Fat Controller scolds Thomas for neglecting Arthur's advice. Once the mess is cleared up, Thomas takes five trucks and finds it easier. After the first batch of five fish trucks, Thomas collects another five, and then the final three, arriving at Brendam just in time. The Fat Controller praises Thomas for a good job well done, especially as he knows that Thomas does not like fish.

Thomas goes to the washhdown where Arthur and Salty are being cleaned and they all agree that being cleaned is the best part of the day.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Arthur
 * Salty
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Gordon (does not speak)
 * Harvey (does not speak)
 * Henry (cameo)
 * Cranky (cameo)

Locations

 * The Fishing Village
 * Gordon's Hill
 * Brendam Docks
 * Knapford
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * McColl Farm

Trivia

 * Slow motion is used when some of the fish first splatter onto Thomas.
 * When the front truck sees Salty in the distance, he is wearing Bulstrode's shocked face mask, but just before it crashes into Salty, he is wearing Toad's eyes-closed face mask.
 * When the fish fly into Thomas, he is in his large scale form.
 * Going by production order, this is the third episode of the eighth season.
 * In Finland this episode is titled "Fish Transport". In Hungary, it is titled "Thomas and Fish".

Goofs

 * A wire is visible under Thomas when is he pushing trucks at the fishing village.
 * When Thomas races through the countryside, his trucks gain faces.
 * Michael Brandon refers to the freight cars as "troublesome trucks" in one scene.
 * When the trucks crashed, only two fish flew onto Salty, but in the next scene there are more than two fish on him.
 * The fish are transported in an extremely unhygienic way. They should have been in vans.
 * Brakevans should have been added to Thomas and Arthur's trains. Thomas' accident would probably not have happened if his train had one.
 * In some close-ups of Thomas, he does not appear to be pushing any trucks.
 * Arthur has Murdoch's whistle sound.
 * Arthur is not coupled to his train.
 * Sir Topham Hatt tells Thomas he has to be "more safe", but "safer" is the proper term.
 * Thomas is already messy before the fish fly onto him.
 * Due to Toad's and Bulstrode's faces being used on the same truck, it's face changes size and the nose changes. When they return to the docks, it's face has disappeared completely.
 * Thomas is not seen being coupled to his first train.