It might be the nostalgia talking, but I still think seasons 6 & 7 are extremely underrated. The magic is slowly slipping away, but Thomas' core vibes are still very much present. It does kind of disappoint me that some people have really looked down their noses at these seasons, even going so far to say that they're flat out bad, but I would absolutely take these over what came after any day.
Series 6 was always my favourite series of the show growing up because I was born a year before it had aired on television and I had bought it on DVD in 2006, with Series 3 and Series 4 being a close second to it. As I’ve gotten older however, I’ve kept thinking about how fantastic it would have been if it was the final series of the show with the episode lineup including the best episodes from Series 7 replacing the episodes that didn’t stick the landing. It certainly would have been a nice balance for Michael Angelis' range in his voice as a narrator and it would have hit a sweet spot between easy going stories and hilarious chases and runaways.
I've read in David Axford's SiF interview for the decreased eye-sockets in the engines' faces was because when the models were shipped to Canada for filming of MRR, they had to do simple touch ups like repaints (hence the matte-finish) and put in new eye mechanisms to accommodate North American standards.
I didn't realize until I watched this that Bill's broken buffers were never actually shown getting broken as there was no way they could have been broken when he backed into the ditch.
Seasons 6 and 7 were basically like the twilight years for classic Thomas. Following after the box office failure of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the Magic and charm of the show slowly started to fade away. And some of the forthcoming HiT era trends such as some engines acting out of character, simpler sets or Skarloey being a wimp were there as the show slowly entered into a new era. So overall, they’re both good seasons. But it’s just a transitional era for the show. The production history behind two of those seasons were interesting. Also, wasn’t Postman Pat owned by HiT Entertainment years earlier? It was under HiT from 1991 til 2002.
I like Season 6 for the potential they had to rise back up from the movies failure, but I also always knew Season 7 was trying to tell us something, you just wouldn’t know what until Season 8 came out.
When I was little and got Steamies Vs Diesels, I thought what happened to its theme, what’s wrong with the music, what happened to the other characters of the classic era. I was disappointed when they rebranded the series. Infact I was not a big fan of the new stories and new directions they gave us just to targeted to only children even though it’s supposed to be for general audiences. Hence why I’ve been making my own rewrites to the Hit era stories, in someday to do my own fan made revival series in the future, and fix what Hit Entertainment has done to my childhood memories.
18:18 Oh, HiT never owned the rights to Postman Pat, but they did have the international distribution rights to the first two seasons and specials between the 1990s and 2002, before Ivor Wood sold his company Woodland Animations that included Postman Pat, and three other shows Gran, Bertha and Charlie Chalk, to Entertainment Rights in 2001. Hit also owned the international distribution rights to these shows in the 1990s: Series 1 and 2 in Brum, Bananaman and the 1983-1990 series of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
I consider both these classic seasons but season 6 in my eyes will all ways be the superior of the two, it had better narration, better paced episodes and the character of Thomas himself was Handled better. Also something I don’t see talked about enough is how much the sound design in season 7 sucks compared to the first six seasons.
0:43 to add to your point of Britt Alcroft Properties, she also owned the rights of Mumfie Clearwater Features also owned 50% of the rights for Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends before straining away from Thomas to work on Tugs (their other creation) before this happened as you pointed out at 1:50
I'll be honest, season 6 and 7 are my favorites. I noticed some inconsistencies when I was a kid but never questioned it. I watched season 5 and 6 and honestly didn't notice much difference. Season 7 though... With the Hit Era music anyways... Felt noticably different. Everyone says 5 was the scariest one but I feel season 6 had quite a few spooky scenes too. The shots of the night scenes in Jack Frost, the Smelters in the Scaredy Engines, the building sinking in Percy and the Haunted Mine, and that GOD FORSAKEN OWL in the Boo Boo Choo Choo music video.
aside from the obvious step down of writing quality, the thing that made me group these seasons in with the HITT era when I was young was the lighting. To get the flatter sets with far less tonal variation, saturation, and glossiness to work, they would've had to use Series 3,4, or 5 lighting with a high saturation and high contrast film, but they didnt. The lighting was flat, and everything was far more grey and bland, and that really broke the realism and wonder of the visuals. My favourite is Series 2 by the way, as the cool lighting (an indicator of the Clearwater Features era) with the contrast of the right looking natural world and the dirty and gritty industrial world is almost right. That, with a bit more saturation (like with Series 3), contrast (like Series 1), a mix of the Series 2, 3 and 4 natural areas look, and with the brightness and coolness of some areas (Knapford station especially) in Series 1 would make something thats absolutely perfect!
@@joshuaW5621 better than the god awful lighting in Series 6, yes, but it still didn’t have the punch, contrast, and vibrancy to make the matte look and the lesser tonal variety work.
They are indeed classic seasons for a number of reasons: 1. People like David Mitton and Mike O’Donnell and Junior Campbell are still involved. 2. The episodes are still 4 minutes and 30 seconds long. 3. There are still a good number of episodes where Thomas doesn’t appear at all. 4. Drivers and firemen are still featured regularly. 5. There is no Steam Team. 6. Several great episodes. 7. Pretty much all of the characters (unless there are a few you count as being out of character) still act like themselves. I think people tend to overlook these seasons just because they were released after Thomas and the Magic Railroad and because the US dubs for both seasons are very lackluster (and if one dislikes them just for the US dub alone then there’s something wrong with them since they should know that another English dub exists and if they don’t like the American dub then they should just simply watch the far superior British dub).
I think that's pretty much spot on! They're slightly different in terms of the writing team, but other than that they're a continuation of what came before!
Season 3 of Thomas is where the decline started. People blame Seasons 6 and 7 but no I blame Season 3. Heck, many of the stuff started in Season 3 only got worse and ramped up a lot during the HIT Era and have been mainstays ever since.
I always thought most of the problems started in season 5. Shocking, I know, but let’s be real, a lot of stuff people criticise season 6 for starting as a sign of Thomas’s decline actually goes back much further, including the openings where the narrator discusses the character and the jobs they do, the morals being said out loud and especially Percy misinterpreting or mispronouncing stuff.
These are both very interesting points! S3 would also mark the departure of adhering to the RWS which perhaps was part of the 'dumbing down' of the stories, for lack of a better phrase.
The only difference for me is the models are now bigger following the awful movie. The charm is still there, the music is there, the love and heart and warmth is still there, the lovely British narration is still there. Series 1-7 are very much the classic show. Anything after is the new dumbed down era that never ever picked up
Despite the strangeness, I consider Seasons 6 and 7 a part of the classic era because of David Mitton's modeling work.
Me too, along with the 4:30 minute runtime, the classic theme song and the Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campell music.
@@percyfan06 Oh yeah. That too. I forgot to mention that
And Britt Allcroft was still involved, contrary to what people who don’t read the wiki think.
@@joshuaW5621 Yes thank you. And before you say it, I already know Britt said TATMR is canon, which really isn't!
@@dylanlyles9453 don’t worry, I still don’t consider TATMR canon either.
It might be the nostalgia talking, but I still think seasons 6 & 7 are extremely underrated. The magic is slowly slipping away, but Thomas' core vibes are still very much present.
It does kind of disappoint me that some people have really looked down their noses at these seasons, even going so far to say that they're flat out bad, but I would absolutely take these over what came after any day.
It’s nostalgic for me. Grew up with these seasons.
Series 6 was always my favourite series of the show growing up because I was born a year before it had aired on television and I had bought it on DVD in 2006, with Series 3 and Series 4 being a close second to it. As I’ve gotten older however, I’ve kept thinking about how fantastic it would have been if it was the final series of the show with the episode lineup including the best episodes from Series 7 replacing the episodes that didn’t stick the landing. It certainly would have been a nice balance for Michael Angelis' range in his voice as a narrator and it would have hit a sweet spot between easy going stories and hilarious chases and runaways.
I have a natural soft spot for these 2 seasons knowing I was born during the airings and production process of these two seasons.
Even though both seasons look a little similar, the color jump in season 7 compared to season 6 is quite jarring
But better.
And it's also a fact. The classic era is S1-S7. The New era is S8-S12. The CGI era is S13-S24.
I've read in David Axford's SiF interview for the decreased eye-sockets in the engines' faces was because when the models were shipped to Canada for filming of MRR, they had to do simple touch ups like repaints (hence the matte-finish) and put in new eye mechanisms to accommodate North American standards.
Was the North American eye mechanism still used for both Seasons 6 and 7, and the HiT era?
@@thecaledoniansleeper2648 I think so.
Season 6 & 7 have their faults, but the most of the episodes, music, narration and crashes are just as good as the first 5 seasons!
(In my opinion!)
I didn't realize until I watched this that Bill's broken buffers were never actually shown getting broken as there was no way they could have been broken when he backed into the ditch.
Unfortunately, I call Season 7 the season where the US got screwed over when it came to the music.
Ok People just to recap so we don't have any Flame Wars.
Classic Series:
Golden Age:
Seasons 1-5
Gullane Era:
Seasons 6 & 7.
Good Day everybody.
"Scary Jack Frost!" said Baldwin calmly.
Seasons 6 and 7 were basically like the twilight years for classic Thomas. Following after the box office failure of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the Magic and charm of the show slowly started to fade away. And some of the forthcoming HiT era trends such as some engines acting out of character, simpler sets or Skarloey being a wimp were there as the show slowly entered into a new era.
So overall, they’re both good seasons. But it’s just a transitional era for the show. The production history behind two of those seasons were interesting.
Also, wasn’t Postman Pat owned by HiT Entertainment years earlier? It was under HiT from 1991 til 2002.
Despite the strangeness‚ I consider Seasons 6 and 7 a part of classic era because of David Mitton's modeling work.
I have fond memories of Growing up with Thomas Series 6, It also came out the year I was born 2002 :D
I like Season 6 for the potential they had to rise back up from the movies failure, but I also always knew Season 7 was trying to tell us something, you just wouldn’t know what until Season 8 came out.
When I was little and got Steamies Vs Diesels, I thought what happened to its theme, what’s wrong with the music, what happened to the other characters of the classic era. I was disappointed when they rebranded the series.
Infact I was not a big fan of the new stories and new directions they gave us just to targeted to only children even though it’s supposed to be for general audiences. Hence why I’ve been making my own rewrites to the Hit era stories, in someday to do my own fan made revival series in the future, and fix what Hit Entertainment has done to my childhood memories.
Even though some people call season 6 and 7 the Gullane era I still call them as classic seasons of the show.
More posting i see 😊
Series 6 and Series 7 was definitely deteriorating from The Classic Era to The Hit Era
18:18 Oh, HiT never owned the rights to Postman Pat, but they did have the international distribution rights to the first two seasons and specials between the 1990s and 2002, before Ivor Wood sold his company Woodland Animations that included Postman Pat, and three other shows Gran, Bertha and Charlie Chalk, to Entertainment Rights in 2001. Hit also owned the international distribution rights to these shows in the 1990s: Series 1 and 2 in Brum, Bananaman and the 1983-1990 series of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
I was always a little surprised that they never owned Postman Pat for some reason.
I consider both these classic seasons but season 6 in my eyes will all ways be the superior of the two, it had better narration, better paced episodes and the character of Thomas himself was Handled better. Also something I don’t see talked about enough is how much the sound design in season 7 sucks compared to the first six seasons.
I’ve said this before but season 7 is honestly my favourite season, even though it had its share of dud episodes like the old bridge.
Personally season 6 is just more of what we loved from season 5 but what we also hated in season 5
Britt Allcroft also produced Magic Adventures of Mumfie the Elephant
0:43 to add to your point of Britt Alcroft Properties, she also owned the rights of Mumfie
Clearwater Features also owned 50% of the rights for Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends before straining away from Thomas to work on Tugs (their other creation) before this happened as you pointed out at 1:50
I'll be honest, season 6 and 7 are my favorites. I noticed some inconsistencies when I was a kid but never questioned it. I watched season 5 and 6 and honestly didn't notice much difference. Season 7 though... With the Hit Era music anyways... Felt noticably different.
Everyone says 5 was the scariest one but I feel season 6 had quite a few spooky scenes too. The shots of the night scenes in Jack Frost, the Smelters in the Scaredy Engines, the building sinking in Percy and the Haunted Mine, and that GOD FORSAKEN OWL in the Boo Boo Choo Choo music video.
I think ultimately they're very similar. They even had someone whose job it was to make sure the new stories adhered to the old style!
@@TheTrainModeller Well what the heck happened to that dude around season 8 lol
aside from the obvious step down of writing quality, the thing that made me group these seasons in with the HITT era when I was young was the lighting. To get the flatter sets with far less tonal variation, saturation, and glossiness to work, they would've had to use Series 3,4, or 5 lighting with a high saturation and high contrast film, but they didnt. The lighting was flat, and everything was far more grey and bland, and that really broke the realism and wonder of the visuals.
My favourite is Series 2 by the way, as the cool lighting (an indicator of the Clearwater Features era) with the contrast of the right looking natural world and the dirty and gritty industrial world is almost right. That, with a bit more saturation (like with Series 3), contrast (like Series 1), a mix of the Series 2, 3 and 4 natural areas look, and with the brightness and coolness of some areas (Knapford station especially) in Series 1 would make something thats absolutely perfect!
Season 7 did at least have better lighting.
@@joshuaW5621 better than the god awful lighting in Series 6, yes, but it still didn’t have the punch, contrast, and vibrancy to make the matte look and the lesser tonal variety work.
Lets go more videos
I consider them in between the classic and HIT era sorta
They are indeed classic seasons for a number of reasons:
1. People like David Mitton and Mike O’Donnell and Junior Campbell are still involved.
2. The episodes are still 4 minutes and 30 seconds long.
3. There are still a good number of episodes where Thomas doesn’t appear at all.
4. Drivers and firemen are still featured regularly.
5. There is no Steam Team.
6. Several great episodes.
7. Pretty much all of the characters (unless there are a few you count as being out of character) still act like themselves.
I think people tend to overlook these seasons just because they were released after Thomas and the Magic Railroad and because the US dubs for both seasons are very lackluster (and if one dislikes them just for the US dub alone then there’s something wrong with them since they should know that another English dub exists and if they don’t like the American dub then they should just simply watch the far superior British dub).
I think that's pretty much spot on! They're slightly different in terms of the writing team, but other than that they're a continuation of what came before!
Keep up the good work
Season 3 of Thomas is where the decline started. People blame Seasons 6 and 7 but no I blame Season 3.
Heck, many of the stuff started in Season 3 only got worse and ramped up a lot during the HIT Era and have been mainstays ever since.
I always thought most of the problems started in season 5. Shocking, I know, but let’s be real, a lot of stuff people criticise season 6 for starting as a sign of Thomas’s decline actually goes back much further, including the openings where the narrator discusses the character and the jobs they do, the morals being said out loud and especially Percy misinterpreting or mispronouncing stuff.
These are both very interesting points! S3 would also mark the departure of adhering to the RWS which perhaps was part of the 'dumbing down' of the stories, for lack of a better phrase.
That's so cool
The only difference for me is the models are now bigger following the awful movie. The charm is still there, the music is there, the love and heart and warmth is still there, the lovely British narration is still there.
Series 1-7 are very much the classic show.
Anything after is the new dumbed down era that never ever picked up
They aren’t lol
Series 6-7(2002-03)
Narrated by: Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon
1966-1975