-this new era of the show for a new generation of fans could bring back something vital to Thomas & Friends since the model era. Not by bringing the models back, not by returning to the CGI era when it tried so hard to recapture the old magic of the show, but by remembering The Value of Silence

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-I can pick this special apart for the lack of understanding how engines work, the poor pacing or recyled predictable story, and I did when I first watched it. But that 2 whole seconds of quiet ambience was the best part of the whole special. Why? Because it ignited a fleeting spark of hope that-

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-characters were always talking, always singing and the music was in your face with hardly a moment to take in the surroundings. Maybe you can cherry pick a few moments of ambience, but you have to sit through a lot of noise just to find them. Which brings us back to Really Helpful Engines-

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-when the show transitioned into CGI, they leaned more into whatever wacky scenarios one can force a train into rather than having them behave like a train. Even when the show found it's footing again partway through this era, it didn't last. And before you knew it, BWBA and AEG took silence away-

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-scenes where the trains were just doing train stuff like rolling along with goods and passengers, where the music was either calm and laid back or omited, and neither the characters nor narrator said anything. Focus on chuffing sounds, rolling stock, industrial noise, the tranquil countrysides etc-

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