Duck Takes Charge

Duck Takes Charge is the eighth episode of the second season and the thirty-fourth episode eof the series. In the US, this episode aired on the Shining Time Station episodes Just Wild about Harry's Workshop in 1989 and Stacy Says No in 1993. In this episode, Percy was having a hard time, so the Fat Controller buys a tank engine named Duck to do his work.

Plot
One day in the sheds, Percy was eager to tell a disinterested Gordon and James some news. Both quickly tire of Percy's usual manner and the tank engine tells them that as the work in the yard was getting too hard for him, the Fat Controller was planning to bring a new engine in to help. James was unimpressed, telling Percy that if he worked harder instead of chatting, the yard would be a happier place. Percy then leaves to do his work.

As he works, Percy notes to himself that, since he accidentally reversed at a signal, the larger engines now consider him to be a "silly little engine" and often order him about. Percy wants to teach them a lesson, but doesn't know how to do it. He then works very hard all day and by the afternoon he was worn out. After bringing the express coaches to the station, he sees the Fat Controller on the platform who notes that Percy looks very tired, which Percy confirms. The Fat Controller cheers Percy up by telling him the new engine is bigger than him and can probably manage the work alone. He then offers to send Percy to help Thomas and Toby on the branch line to help them build the new harbour which cheers Percy up straight away.

Soon the new engine arrives. The Fat Controller asks the engine his name and the engine introduces himself as Montague, but tells the Fat Controller he was often called "Duck" due to his supposed waddle. While he doesn't believe he has a waddle, he admits to liking Duck better than Montague. With that, the Fat Controller agrees that the new engine will be known as Duck. Percy arrives and the Fat Controller asks Percy to show Duck around.

Duck does his work quietly as he brings coaches to the station, leading Gordon, James, and Henry to decide to boss him about like they do to Percy. Gordon and Henry then start to leave the station on either side of Duck, quacking and blowing steam at him. Percy sees everything and was cross, but Duck just wants to wait until the larger engines get tired of their teasing. Duck then asks Percy if the larger engines boss him about and Percy confirms they do. Duck decides to take charge and put a stop to it and tells Percy what they will do.

That afternoon, the Fat Controller sits at his desk looking forward to having toast for tea. Suddenly he hears a horrible noise coming from the yard and, looking out his window, he sees Percy and Duck blocking the turntable and preventing an angry Gordon, James, and Henry from reaching the sheds. The Fat Controller grabs his hat and rushes to the yard.

At the sheds, Gordon, James, and Henry are furious and start whistling loudly when the Fat Controller arrives and commands silence before demanding an explanation from Duck and Percy. Duck politely explains that, as a Great Western engine he likes to do his work without any fuss but wants the other engines to know that he will only take orders from the Fat Controller. The three larger engines start whistling angrily and the Fat Controller orders them to be quiet again. The Fat Controller then scolds Duck and Percy for their actions and then tells off the larger engines for causing the disturbance and telling them that Duck was quite right that he is the one to give orders, not them. With that, the three engines quickly fall back into line.

Soon Percy was sent to Thomas' line, leaving Duck to do the work alone, something he manages easily.

Characters

 * Henry
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * Duck (debut)
 * Thomas (does not speak)
 * Toby (mentioned)

Locations

 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Knapford Yards
 * Knapford
 * Knapford Harbour (mentioned)

Errors

 * In the panning shot of Percy, Gordon, and James, the Breakdown Train, on the far left, was derailed.
 * In the first close up of Gordon, his eyes look wonky.
 * When Percy puffs away to get the coaches, studio equipment is visible at the top of the screen.
 * When Percy and Duck first puff away, a crew member's shadow briefly passes in front of them.
 * Duck's eyebrows are missing when the engines "wheesh" him and a weird noise can be heard after they do so.
 * The narrator says, "Duck and Percy calmly sat on the points...", but they're not; Percy's on the turntable and Duck was on a line outside a berth.
 * Percy's roof is lifted up when Duck says "We'll do it later".
 * When The Fat Controller shouts "SILENCE!", his left eyebrow appears to be peeled.
 * According to some photographs, James was still at Knapford when Duck and Percy were making their plan. If this was true, wouldn't he seem to have heard them talking and known what they were going to do?
 * When Duck passes through Knapford at the end of the episode, the wire reel drums are not secured to his flatbeds.

US Home Video Releases

 * Thomas Breaks the Rules and Other Thomas Stories
 * Thomas and His Friends Get Along and Other Thomas Adventures