Sodor Then And Now is a web animation series featuring the history of the island of Sodor and its inhabitants. Created by GTSH Productions, the video series aims to showcase the friendships between the engines and the ups and downs of the railway.
As of this writing, season one is complete. However, Gee is planning on remastering the first four episodes of the season before getting season two out. The first episode’s remaster was uploaded on April 23 2022 while the second uploaded on August 5th, 2023. On Halloween of this year, Gee uploaded a teaser for the second season which can be viewed here.
The entire first season along with the shorts can be viewed here. Note that there may be some spoilers though they will be marked of course.
Tropes associated with Sodor Then And Now include:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Gordon is far ruder to the other engines with him having it out for Thomas in particular. This also plays into the prank he pulls on Thomas with the coaches as while in canon Gordon did it due to the little blue engine’s cheekiness, here he does it out of spite. He does get better though.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Henry and James. A bit downplayed for the former since he’s already a nice engine but in canon, Henry could get somewhat conceited at times but here, he doesn’t act childish or vain at all. James meanwhile is far kinder than his canon counterpart as he rarely boasts about himself and rarely insults anyone with most of his incidents being to overconfidence rather than vanity.
- In heavy contrast to how he was in canon, Sir Handel is a quiet but very kind engine who just wants to do his work.
- Armor-Piercing Question: In “Boomer’s Reign", Edward gives Gordon one in regards to if given the chance, whether he’d go above and beyond to save his brothers from scrap like Donald is trying to do. Gordon realizes he’d do the same thing if in Donald’s wheels.
- Big Bad: Season one has Patrick Boomer as the leader of his shadow organization that aims to destroy Sodor.
- Big Good: Sir Bertram Hatt. Until his death by Patrick Boomer.
- Bittersweet Ending: Season one ends like this. On the sweet side, all of the engines have appeared to survive Boomer’s attack on Sodor with Charles promising to rebuild Sodor but on the bitter side, Sodor has had massive damages thanks to the attack, numerous engines have been heavily injured in the ordeal with Duck’s fate unclear and Sir Bertram Hatt is dead. Plus it seems Patrick’s son Peter has escaped.
- Darker and Edgier: A interesting case as while there is a more dramatic tone overall, the first seven episodes were pretty tame for the most part. Then the eighth episode, "The Work Begins", has a much heavier tone as we follow Diesel during his time on Sodor with the goal to spilt the engines apart and it only gets darker from there.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The short "Spiral Into Madness" reveals that Patrick Boomer of all people used to have a wife he loved and her death was a factor in why Patrick is the way he is now.
- Faux Affably Evil: At first glance, Patrick Boomer and Diesel Ten seem polite enough but as soon as you annoy them in any form, they’ll quickly drop the facade and trheaten you with harm as Henry and Diesel can attest to for the former and the latter respectively.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Patrick Boomer used to be a normal man who had a wife and a son. Then his wife dies and his ego and jealousy go to his head and he decides to destroy Sodor while roping his son into it.
- Implied Death Threat: The final words of Diesel 10 to Diesel during their meeting in episode eight suggests that this is what D10 will do to Diesel if he fails.
- It's All About Me: This is one of the reasons why Patrick Boomer is so petty since he believes he should’ve gotten the glory that in his eyes, the NWR stole from him. Furthermore...
- Never My Fault: Another reason Patrick Boomer is ultimately so petty is that as noted by Henry, all of Boomer’s own misfortunes were his own doing from illegally building Henry to blaming the railway for getting the glory he believes he should’ve gotten.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The big engines get this. Henry is the nice one as he’s friendly, outgoing and hardworking and is the first to apologize for the strike in "Little Engines". James is the Inbetween as while his overconfident side gets him into trouble, he’s still kind and polite to the others. Gordon is the mean as he’s vain, boastful and even spiteful. Granted he does get better though he can still rather rude at points.
- Sequel Hook: The final shot of Season one is the escape of Peter Boomer via plane possbily setting him up as the villain of season two.
- That Man Is Dead: In "Boomer’s Reign", Diesel says the quiet and hardworking him doesn’t exist however Edward says that he does and after helping the Fat Controller find out where Henry has been captured, it seems he’s right.
- True Companions: Though thick and thin, the engines are shown to be this. It’s a big factor in why Diesel’s plan in episode eight fails as James, already suspicious of Diesel due to his previous lies, calls him out on attempting to blame Henry for crashing into the coaches.
- Uncertain Doom: As of this writing, it’s unclear if Duck, Dodge and Spatter survived after crashing into a burning shed.
- Villain Protagonist: Episode eight has us follow Diesel in his attempts to spilt the engines apart.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Diesel is last seen helping the engines stop Diesel 10 from escaping. After that, that’s the last time we see him.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In "Boomer’s Reign", Edward gives Gordon one after the big blue engine makes a rude comment regarding Donald and Douglas smuggling themselves over to Sodor.
