U.S. Title: Diesel's Devious Deed
Air date: November 5th, 1986
Adapted from: Duck and the Diesel Engine, "Dirty Work"
The troublesome trucks continue singing at a sulking Diesel, refusing to let him forget the whole "trying to shunt derelicts" fiasco. Duck is horrified of the trucks' behavior and strongly orders them to stop. He then apologizes to Diesel for their rudeness. However, Diesel isn't interested in Duck's apology and blames him for making the trucks laugh at him. Henry, Gordon and James tell him that Duck would never do such a thing it, and even though the engines will have their disagreements, they would never tell any jokes about them to the trucks; it would be "Disgraceful, Disgusting and Despicable". Diesel isn't convinced, and his hatred of Duck grows to the point that he wants him to be sent away. Inspired by the engines' words about the trucks, Diesel decides to pay Duck out by telling lies about him to the trucks.
The next day, he tells the trucks that he was quite amused of their teasing towards him, and then tells them a joke about Gordon and claims that he heard it from Duck. He then warns them not to tell Gordon he said it. The trucks laugh uncontrollably and plan on paying Duck out for getting them to behave. As Gordon, Henry and James pass by, the trucks laugh rudely at them, calling them names in which they claim Duck had made them.
At the sheds, Gordon, Henry and James are outraged of what the trucks told them. They have an indignation meeting and agree to pay Duck out.
Later Duck is tired after a hard day's work no thanks to the trucks. He wants to rest in the shed, but the three engines block his way and furiously blow steam at him. They tell him that after hearing what the trucks said, they no longer respect him and respect Diesel at this point. Duck denies this and there's a huge argument.
The Fat Controller comes to stop the engines' arguments and he's told of the engines' accusations of Duck. The Fat Controller gives Duck a chance to explain, but Duck claims that he only wished he thought of those jokes himself.
Diesel comes forward and when the Fat Controller asks him what he knows, Diesel feigns shock at Duck's actions, but claims ignorance otherwise. The Fat Controller then tells Duck to go work with Edward at Wellsworth while he gets to the bottom of this. Believing that the Fat Controller has turned against him too, Duck sadly does so while Diesel smirks triumphantly.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- While the trucks' singing infuriated him, Diesel admits that it was a good joke. Of course, he was playing up to them in part of his plan to send Duck away.
- Also, The Fat Controller tried not to laugh at the names he assumes Duck had called the engines.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Gordon, James, and Henry introduce the Share Phrase "Disgraceful! Disgusting! Despicable!"
- All There in the Manual: Christopher Awdry wrote several stories for the Thomas Annuals, detailing how Diesel came up with the nicknames for Gordon, James and Henry, and how he got them on his side.
- Alliterative Title: This episode's US title is Diesel's Devious Deed.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Diesel manages to lie about Duck to basically everyone in the episode in order to smear Duck's name, cause everyone to turn against him and get rid of him, with the situation even reaching the Fat Controller. Duck is thus sent away to Wellsworth to work with Edward while Diesel smirks triumphantly over the success of his plan.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Duck says this to the trucks who were still singing rudely to Diesel.
- Break the Haughty: This happens to Duck, who was previously boastful about his Great Western heritage, when Diesel told lies about him to the big engines and The Fat Controller. He was sent to Edward's station with a sad look on his face. Though, to be fair on the Westerner, he did at least try to stand up for Diesel and apologize, but that didn't go down very well.
- Call-Back: Gordon, Henry, and James bar Duck from Tidmouth Sheds just how he and Percy had done to them in "Duck Takes Charge":Big Engines: Yes! He did it to us, we'll do it to him and see how he likes it.
- Compressed Adaptation: In the book's narration, Diesel had spread lies about Gordon, Henry and James in different sidings, but in this narration, he had spread the lies about Gordon in only one siding while Henry and James would eventually heard the insults as well.
- Consummate Liar: Diesel. This was done as part of his plan to send Duck packing.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The trucks easily believed in Diesel's lies and were eager to tell the engines the jokes in which they claim Duck made in order to get back at Duck for bumping him.
- Downer Ending: Duck is sent to Edward's station as "punishment" while Diesel becomes delighted that his plan was a success.
- Easily Condemned: Diesel rather easily convinces James, Gordon and Henry that Duck is a bully spreading bad names about them to the trucks. Arguably played deliberately given the trio's trademark arrogance and earlier insisting that Duck would never spread names about Diesel.
- Everyone Has Standards: Henry states that while many engines have their differences, they would never tell them about it to the trucks.
- Foreshadowing: Unlike how the big engines seemed to buy up Diesel's lies and are angry at Duck, Sir Topham Hatt doesn't seem to be angry at Duck at all. In fact, he's trying to hold in his laughter when he tells Duck to go to Edward's station. This is because he doesn't believe Diesel at all, and is setting things up to pay Diesel out. Come the next episode, and...
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Gordon, Henry, and James turn against Duck when they accuse him of calling them bad names, due to Diesel spreading those lies to the Troublesome Trucks. Duck's boasting about doing things the Great Western Way didn't exactly do him any favors.
- Hypocrite: Diesel is angry with Duck for making the trucks laugh at him, yet he has no problem with making a laughing stock out of Gordon, Henry and James.
- Henry as well because he insisted Duck would never joke about the big engines in front of the trucks but nevertheless was one of the first engines to believe Diesel's lies.
- Irony: In "Duck Takes Charge", Duck and Percy had obstructed the three big engines from going to the sheds. Now the three engines are doing the same to Duck.... except the turntable isn't exactly blocked until Duck gets on it.
- Jerkass Has a Point: It doesn't justify them barring Duck from the sheds but Gordon, Henry and James are right to be annoyed at Duck's preaching about the, "great western way vs the wrong way".
- Jerkass: The troublesome trucks were keen to get back at Duck just because he bumped them and Diesel was mad because he thought Duck had humiliated him on purpose - which was wrong.
- Karma Houdini: Diesel's plan to send Duck packing by lying about him pays off handsomely with Duck being sent away to Wellsworth and Diesel happily smirking over his successful plan and facing absolutely no recompense for his devious actions, especially with no one finding out about his plan. However, Sir Topham Hatt seems to be biding his time...
- Malicious Slander: What Diesel pulls off.
- Manipulative Bastard: Diesel, who managed to lie to everyone about Duck.
- Only Sane Man: Sir Topham Hatt.
- Out-Gambitted: Unknown to Diesel, Sir Topham Hatt is aware he's lying to the other engines, and is "sending off" Duck to fool him.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Duck being sent to Edward's station.
- Rejected Apology: Despite Duck telling off the trucks for their singing, Diesel blames him for making him do that in the first place and this led to him telling lies about him.
- Reverse Psychology: As part of Diesel's plan on getting back at Duck, he tells fibs to the trucks about Gordon and that he heard them from Duck, and then tells the trucks not to tell Gordon. They, of course, tell Gordon to his face!
- Shamed by a Mob: Duck is met with hostile showers of steam blown by Gordon, James, and Henry.
- Single Tear: Duck lets one out on his left eye after The Fat Controller sends him to Edward's station, seemingly convinced that he made all of those nasty names.
- Smug Snake: Diesel's plan to turn the big engines against Duck only works because of everyone else's sudden gullibility rather than his own intelligence.
- Team Rocket Wins: Diesel manages to sully Duck's name, sending him away from the yard. One episode later however...
- Villain with Good Publicity: Diesel manages to get Gordon, Henry, and James on his side when he spreads lies about them to the Troublesome Trucks and pins the blame on Duck. He had made a good impression on them in the previous episode by complimenting them when he first visited Tidmouth Sheds.
