TTOS Episode 8 Production Log (1/3/25)

Episode 8 has been one hell of a doozy when it comes to writing. The script was started as far back as November 2021, and has undergone six different names during its production, those names being;

• WHAT A QUAINT ENGINE

• THE QUARRY LINE

• SEARCH FOR THE TRAM

• LOST TO TIME

• COPS AND COWCATCHERS

And, lastly, the one we're sticking with (hopefully),

• TRAMWAY TROUBLES

Tramway Troubles is an episode with an A plot/B plot dynamic, the A plot following Thomas dealing with a cop on the branch line, and the B plot following Sir Topham Hatt, trying to locate an old tram engine.

The cop Thomas encounters is very stubborn, which leads to very hectic events, especially once Thomas calls on The Narrator for help.

Meanwhile, Sir Topham Hatt has very little information to go off of, just the town name "Balla-" on the bottom corner of a torn photograph, portraying both the tram engine and their coach.

If you've ever looked at a map of Sodor long enough, you'll know there's... quite a few places that start with "Balla"

This episode is definitely a lot more chaotic, and honestly, feels like a perfect way to start up the series again. It doesn't accurately reflect how the rest of the series will pan out. It does however, delve much deeper into the shenanigans that can occur if The Narrator is left unchecked. But it is still entirely canon, despite how... bizarre things get.

The script was finished on January 1st of 2025, and a read through was done about 1 hour before I had to leave for work. The episode is roughly 40 minutes long (give or take), with a massive cast. Honestly, I think almost everyone is in this episode, even if most of it takes place away from the mainline. The script itself is 56 pages, with about 13 more pages that we used as notes while writing.

There were a lot of struggles when writing this, namely balancing the delicacy of potential political takeaways from this episode? An episode about a cop clearly being in the wrong, especially nowadays, is... going to polarize your viewers. I think we handled contrasting sides in an... okay way? Definitely not perfect by any means, but the main takeaway is there; that being... Corrupt cops suck.

Meanwhile, with the Topham plot, we had to visit a lot of places on Sodor that have never been seen before. A lot of bizarre characters appear during this time, some there's a few fun surprises for everyone.

The picture posted above is from Scene 5, where Thomas vents about the police officer to both Percy and Henry. We took the picture to test the new lighting, and honestly, we're pretty happy with it!

With the script fully written, we just have a few touch ups before we send the script off to our voice actors and begin filming! Hopefully we'll have a bit more to show next week, at the very least a completed scene (Possibly even the one pictured above..!) Thank you everyone for reading! As always, take care, and have a nice life!

- Andria