#ttte bolder

[pxmun]

Being immortal is a heavy burden. One only a few can handle, others lose themselves to the grief of losing mortal loved ones.

Wendell once had a very special friend named Dinah. The girl had run away from home after learning her parents had arranged for her to be wed. Young Dinah didn't want to be betrothed, she didn't want to grow up, so she ran away to the island of Sodor.

She met Wendell, a silly narrow- gauge engine that loved to explore and admire the world around him. The other engines thought that Wendell was too silly and was always causing trouble due to his curiosity, but Dinah loved the engine's inquisitiveness and soon her and Wendell became best friends.

They'd spend their days exploring all around Sodor. From its castles to its caverns, to the tips of mountains and through the valleys, there was always something new to discover.

Dinah never went back home; she stayed on Sodor believing she would never have to grow up. However, she would meet a young entrepreneur who was looking to try and forge his own railway. The two fell in love and the young man soon became a part of Dinah and Wendell's family. With their help the NWR was formed.

Dinah became the mother of two boys, one would later be known as Sir Topham Hatt the first, while the other would earn the name Mr. Conductor do to his studies in Sodor's magic. Wendell's own magic would become more powerful and soon the other engines that used to see him as silly, now saw the engine as a powerful and helpful engine.

Dinah became so beloved by Sodor that its inhabitants would create a song in her honor. Wendell was very happy; he was happy to have his friend Dinah and he was happy to be a really useful engine.

Sadly though, all good things must come to an end. Dinah got older, and older, and older; she lived long enough to see her great grandchildren. One night she decided to rest in the shed with Wendell. The two recounted memories of days before and laughed at some mishaps they had. The two would eventually fall asleep, both smiling as they did. The next morning Wendell would wake up, eager for whatever waited for him and his friend that day. He saw Dinah still sleeping soundly on his front foot plate. The engine greeted his friend, but there was no response, he tried again, nothing. Concerned, Wendell did the one thing he knew for sure would wake Dinah up. Wendell blew his whistle, its haunting poop poop waking up the inhabitants of the Hatt house. Ethan and his eldest grandchild rushed out to see what the commotion was all about.  To Ethan’s utter horror, he saw his wife lying motionless on the front footplate of Wendell, the engine in complete hysterics. Ethan had his grandchild run back into the house and call the doctor while the elderly man tried to console the magic engine. Dinah had departed during the night, when the doctor arrived there was nothing, she could do for the Hatt family. A funeral was held, and Wendell stood there in front of the lovely carved casket, begging whatever deity laid beyond the veil to let this all just be one big joke. He hoped that at any moment his friend would pop out of the casket and startle the crowd by shouting “Boo”. Wendell wouldn’t be crossed at her at all if she pulled a prank like that, he would just be happy that Dinah was alright. Sadly, though that didn’t happen.  The casket was lowered, Ethan stood against Wendell as the grounds keepers began filling the hole. Ethan didn’t like to do this, but he had to have Wendell stand there and watch until the grave was filled. Just for the engine to realize that their family member wasn’t coming back. It was one of the hardest things Ethan had to do, but Ethan cared about Wendell, he knew how much the engine meant to his wife and family.  During the years after Dinah’s passing, the Hatt family did their best to help Wendell. Ethan though was the magic engine’s biggest support and tried his best to get Wendell out of the depression he had fallen into. With Lady’s help the older engine was able to find the strength to return to the railway, though he was completely silent. Wendell hardly talked to anyone and if he did it was only about things related to the railway or answering Sir Topham Hatt, who by then was just starting out as head of the railway. It wasn’t until Ethan’s passing that Wendell became out of hand. At first it was just a few mean looks, then Wendell began lashing out at passengers for just the smallest criticism. Then the engine was taking parts from the scrap yard. It wasn’t until the farmer informed the Fat Controller that his sick animals were going missing during the time Wendell was scheduled to stop at the nearby station that Sir Topham Hatt knew he had to do something.  Together with his younger brother George or better known as Mr. Conductor at that time. The two had come to the sad realization that Wendell was becoming too dangerous for the railway, neither wanted to scrap their engine family member and instead decided to seal Wendell away. It was cruel but the two had lied to Wendell telling the magic engine that they had seen their mother up in a cave at Whispering Waterfall. The two led the engine up to the falls. In the shadow of the cave Wendell saw the form of his friend. The engine wept with joy as he rushed in to greet his friend. Wendell’s steam mustache wrapped around his friend and pulled her in for a big hug, but during the hug Wendell felt that something was off. He checked on Dinah and made a horrifying discovery; the figure in his grasps wasn’t his beloved friend, instead it was a scarecrow made to look like Dinah. He had been tricked. By the time Wendell made the realization, it was too late. Sir Topham Hatt and Mr. Conductor slammed the doors shut behind Wendell. The engine tried to smash through the closed doors, but they were too strong. Wendell tried using his magic to escape, with a huff and a puff the Wendell conjured up a torrent of steam in an attempt to rot and rust the door. However, it didn’t work, Mr. Conductor had carved runes along the waterfall to prevent Wendell from using his powers to escape.  Wendell shouted out in anger, demanding that the brothers release him. Dinah’s sons held back their tears as they walked away from the falls. To ensure that no one from the outside accidentally released Wendell, Mr. Conductor found a large boulder and carved a special rune into it. Sir Topham Hatt then ordered the giant rock to guard the shed from any trespassers until he or Mr. Conductor returned. The brothers hoped that they would be able to return soon with the help Wendell needed. Unfortunately, it never came, leaving Wendell to be stuck in the hidden shed. None of the other engines knew he was there, not even the narrow- gauge engines who passed by the falls on a daily basis. Time had made the Hatt family forget about their entombed family member. But things were going to start to change for the older magic engine. One day Wendell was having tea with Dinah, the scarecrow, the engine had some exciting news to share with his “friend”. “I did it my dear Dinah! I finally did it! I finally stabilized the spell for my big project”! Wendell grinned. The Dinah scarecrow said nothing, it just smiled like it always had. Wendell used his steam mustache to gently lift up the scarecrow and began twirling it around in a feeble attempt at dancing. “No longer will people have to fear the cold grasps of death, with this spell we’ll have that mean ole Grim Reaper running with his tail between his boney legs”! Wendell said triumphantly. Then Wendell remembered the rune. “Drats! That silly rune is still in place! How are we supposed to get out of here and help Sodor”? Wendell puffed crossly. The Dinah scarecrow said nothing, but to Wendell, he believed his “friend” was conversing with him. “Hmm, slide a few S.O.S notes under the door? My dear Dinah that is brilliant! Even though we can’t get through the door ourselves, surely there has to be someone out there smart enough to let us out.” Wendell said. He conjured up a pen and a few pieces of paper. Right as he was about to start writing, Wendell looked over at the Dinah scarecrow. “Right, right, we should warn them about old Boulder. Hopefully he won’t be too big of an obstacle for our rescuers.” Wendell said. After he was done writing, Wendell slid the distress letters under the door, hoping that Dinah and he wouldn’t have to wait too long to be let out. Little did Wendell know; Boomer was already making progress to release the magic engine.

[defencebeetle]

So, a while ago I ran across a fan made movie poster for a "The Adventure Begins" style TTTE special based on the Narrow Gauge engines.

And then, yesterday, my brain randomly decided to summon it back into remembrance and refuse to put it down till I wrote up a concept for how this could work.

Warning, it's long.

(and not well written, I might come back to fix it later)

Concept:

A "The Adventure Begins" style TTTE special centering on the Narrow Gauge engines, particularly Sir Handel and Peter Sam. The movie will use the "Duke the Lost Engine" as bookends for the film, while filling in the middle section with various Railway Series (and 2 famous/infamous TTTE original) stories.

The way I've written this out, it can be viewed as a sort of coming-of-age film for Stuart and Falcon.

Characters:

Stuart/Peter Sam

Falcon/Sir Handel

Duke

Skarloey

Rheneas

Duncan

Rusty

Thin Controller/Mr. Percival

Duke of Sodor

Cameos:

Nancy

Stanley/Smudger

Ms. Jenny

_____________________

Prologue:

Brief introduction as Stuart and Falcon learn they have been bought by the MSR.

Act I:

Introduction of Peter Sam and Sir Handel to Skarloey and Rheneas.

Sir Handel begins his bastardization arc, actively shaping himself into what he fancies is a combination of Skarloey and Gordon, but really only taking on their worst traits. Meanwhile, Peter Sam is just plain busy, while occasionally getting into minor scrapes.

Possible stories here:

Sir Handel

Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady

Trucks!

Special Funnel

Old Faithful

Act II:

(Imply the passage of time)

The SKR is doing better and with all its engines back is looking forward to considerable expansion. They plan to open more branches to their tourism lines. These plans are put on hold however, when nearby mines (once part of the MSR) are found to still be quite rich in [mineral].

Duncan and Rusty are brought on (Duncan for extra roadwork, Rusty for rail restoration and maintenance).

Restoration of the mines begins. An interplay of "Rusty and the Boulder" and "Duncan gets Spooked" plays out.

Rusty is worried about safety in some of the mining areas (he knows what he's talking about, he's done similar work before).

A soft re-opening of the mines is set as a celebration for when the Duke of Sodor will visit in [X] months.

Peter Sam and Sir Handel are delighted to be back to part of the MSR (I assume they never visited this part of the line, they didn't run this far out, and the mines were closed several years before the MSR as a whole).

Some incidents happen, Duncan showboats. Peter Sam and Sir Handel decide to pay him out.

They get a ghost story off Skarloey (it doesn't have to be the exact same one as in "Duncan gets Spooked", but if it can fit all the better), modify it as if they knew the engine and it happened on the MSR.

They play the prank on Duncan, while he's at the mine alone, he swears other stuff happens (bolder face scare, falling rocks, cracking ground) that simultaneously acts as set dressing and foreshadowing.

The prank plays out as usual.

Construction continues, the Duke's arrival draws near.

The boulder incident occurs, shutting down the mine project.

Sir Handel has a character moment and is one of the engines to buoy up Mr. Percival in the aftermath, suggesting that they go back to building the loop line. All the engines gather together, and are determined to make the most of the situation.

ACT III:

What they have salvaged from the mines helps balance out some debts. Other assets from the project are ripped back to use on the completion of the tourism line.

Everyone pitches in. (Everyone pitches into big project trope/mandate fulfilled).

They run a few promotional trains and then have the celebration with the Duke opening the line. Everyone's happy. Everyone should be happy, but Peter Sam is not. Being back on a part of the MSR, failing to restore it, and thinking about loss has brought back his worries for Duke.

Peter Sam makes the awkward interruption of the speech, asking if he's the real Duke and why he hasn't asked about his engine. The Duke is obviously confused.

Queue the Bittersweet Act 4.

ACT IV:

The movie takes a sad turn. Eventually, rail enthusiasts, including the clergyman band together and launch the expedition to find Duke.

In the RWS, the Arlesdale Railway is used to get back to the old MSR. In the version, I propose that Peter Sam and Sir Handel get to take the expedition back through the mine pathway and further into the hills.

Queue an expedition montage. Sir Handel and Peter Sam get back to the old line, cutting to some flashbacks of back when they ran on the rails and the rails were new.

Bonus: if we can slip the Bulldog story (even a reference) into the story before, have a flashback of the incident--just for a second--as Sir Handel goes through the same tunnel.

I originally didn't want any diegetic musical numbers in this. But as I though of this scene, I thought of a little ditty for them to sing during the travel montage, hitting the final note as they pulled into the main yard where the sheds used to be.

They make it back to the yard, and can't seem to locate the shed (everything is overgrown after all). The search party splits up and begins searching.

This scene has similar feeling to those sad fake-out deaths shoehorned into the end of all sorts of movies (which I am sick and tired of but I think those emotions work here).

Triumph over bad guy = Pulling into the old MSR yard.

Oh no, main character has passed out, I think they're dead, moment of silence. = Realizing that the shed is nowhere to be seen.

Eyes crack open. Main Character lets out a wheezy "...farfanaludingus...?" Everyone celebrates the miraculous recovery. = The Fat Clergyman falls into the shed and we hear Duke's voice. "Excuse me... Are you a vandal?".

They bring Duke back to the SKR.

The movie cuts out as they pull back to the return journey.

Maybe some mid or post-credit sequences of Dukes repairs and such, or interactions with the SKR fleet.