Troublesome Trucks is the sixteenth episode of Season 2 of Sodor: The Modern Years.
Plot
Donald is being pushed by the trucks into the harbour yards, and almost falls into the ocean. Luckily he is able to stop. Duck enquirers what happened, and Donald says they started to push him hard just before entering the harbour. Then, the trucks start to tease and make fun of Duck, calling him names and making quacking sounds. Duck is very surprised, as the trucks usually behave well, due to Oliver's incident with S.C.Ruffey.
Near Tidmouth Hault, the trucks on Oliver's train break the brake connection, and Duck witnesses it all from the station platform. Duck then thought back to when Diesel manipulated the trucks against him, and began to form an idea.
Later in the sheds, Duck tells Oliver and the Scottish twins that he has seen this type of behaviour from the trucks before, back in 1957. They all agree that they should question Diesel whether he knows anything and if he can help them out.
The next day, Duck arrives at Knapford Yards to find Percy and Diesel talking about Donald's near miss. He converses with Diesel about the situation at hand and asks if he knows anything. Diesel says he hasn't put them up to anything this time, but he does say he has a gift when it comes to manipulation, such as 1957 and the events of Old Tricks. Duck and Diesel agree they should work together to find out who is causing this behaviour in the trucks and why.
Characters
- Percy
- Duck
- Donald and Douglas
- Oliver
- Diesel
- Troublesome Trucks
- Thomas (does not speak)
- Henry (does not speak)
- Gordon (does not speak)
- James (does not speak)
- Bear (does not speak)
- Edward (cameo)
- Toby (cameo)
- Eric (cameo)
- Alice (cameo)
- Peter (cameo)
- Lily (cameo)
- Patrick (cameo)
- Iris (cameo)
- Isabel and Dulcie (cameo)
- Alice and Mirabel (cameo)
- Ben (mentioned)
- S.C.Ruffey (mentioned)
- Emily Helen Hatt (mentioned; not named)
Voice Cast
- WildNorWester as the Narrator, Diesel and the Troublesome Trucks
- Tines Sensahthe as Percy
- Geebmachine as Duck
- Evsta101 as Donald and Douglas
- Jinty1798 as Oliver
Trivia
- Evsta101 joins the voice cast, taking over the roles of Donald and Douglas.
- This is the first episode where Geebmachine voices Duck.
- This episode marks the second time the theme music has changed.
- Footage from Old Tricks, Galloping Sausage and Bad Apple were recreated with the RWS models.
- A modified flashback of TobyAndMavisForever's story, 'Forgiveness', was used when Diesel passed his apologies over to Duck. Upon release of the episode, she had reworked the story to fit the flashback better.
- In T&MF's original version, Diesel goes to apologise to Duck after he completed his jobs for the day; all four Little Western engines were present instead of just Duck and Donald; and it was Duck who was surprised by Diesel's apology.
- Before this, 'The Devious Way' and 'Endgame' were being finalized, they were supposed to be between 'Last Straw' and 'Unwanted'. Also, this and 'The Devious Way' were meant to be part of the second batch of episodes, while 'Endgame' was in the third batch.
- Because of these changes, WNW had to make a change to the beginning of the story. In the first draft, an unnamed tugboat would have seen Donald careening toward the ocean and pulled a barge underneath to catch him (though he doesn't fall in). The tug boat was revealed in one of the other episodes to be Ten Cents, and that he was assisting harbours all over the island.
- References to Percy Takes the Plunge and Toad Stands By are made.
Goofs
- Duck says to Diesel that 'Donald nearly ended up in a barge this morning', but he should have said 'Donald nearly ended up off the quay yesterday'.
- The events of Galloping Sausage and Old Tricks were said to have happened in 1966. However, the real year this happened was 1981. Likewise, the main events of Bad Apple was said to have happened in 1958, when it was meant to be the year before that.
- The Montage of Duck's run up the Little Western puts the Callan Sheds in front of the Montage rather then at the back.
Gallery
