GORDON AND THE GREMLIN
Based upon the episode by Britt Allcroft, David Mitton and David Maidment
Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens
Early one morning at Tidmouth sheds, Gordon, Henry, James, Diesel, Bear and Derek were waking up.
"It's a pity that you're not going to be sleeping here for much longer, Derek," said Henry sleepily as the fire's warmth spread through his boiler.
"I'll miss being here, but I'll enjoy sleeping with Bill and Ben at the china clay works," smiled Derek. "Besides, it's not like I'm leaving Sodor."
"Pity that Katie and Nicole have," sighed James when his fire was starting to burn in his firebox.
"They'll be in good hands with Amanda Hatt," Gordon said confidently. But unlike James and Henry, he didn't feel any heat in his firebox. "What's going on with my fire?"
"I don't know what it is," said the firelighter. "I think there must be gremlins about."
"What are gremlins?" asked Bear to Derek.
"I've heard they're little green men who play tricks," replied Derek.
"Ooh, does that mean we can catch one?" Bear joked.
"Pah," said James. "Gremlins don't exist; they're just an excuse when things go wrong and no one knows why."
"Well, this is just great," grunted Diesel. "Who's going to take the express with our main express engine down for the day?"
Just then, Sir Topham Hatt arrived at the sheds.
"Silence!" he boomed. "I am expecting a VIP, a very important person today. She has heard that all my engines are really useful; please prove it."
"Yes, sir," the engines promised.
"As long as the gremlins let us," chuckled Bear.
"What gremlins?" asked Sir Topham Hatt.
"The ones in Gordon's firebox," muttered Diesel sarcastically. "Apparently, that's why he's not ready yet."
"Hmm… we'll see about that," Sir Topham Hatt muttered as he walked over to the big blue engine. "Gordon, I expect you to be on your best behavior today. You are to take a very special coach for my special visitor, but no high speeds please. She won't like that!"
"Yes, sir," beamed Gordon proudly. "You can count on me to take the special visitor!"
"The rest of you, business as usual," said Sir Topham Hatt. "Bear, while Gordon is getting the special visitor, could you take the express?"
"Of course I can, sir," smiled the Hymek. He rumbled away to the station and the other engines left one by one. Just as Diesel cleared the turntable, Gordon's fire finally started to burn.
"Finally," the big engine sighed with relief. He was hoping that this would be the last of his problems for the day… but it wasn't.
"Oh, come on!" groaned Gordon. "Now what?"
"The points where the special coach is are stuck," grunted Diesel when he was shunting the express. "My driver's telling me there's gremlins in the points."
"First my fire is slow to start, and now I can't fetch my special coach," grumbled Gordon. "Whatever next?"
"Sounds like there must be gremlins everywhere," chuckled Bear from the platform.
"I'll go get some workmen," said Derek. "We mustn't have a delay for the special visitor."
At last, the points were mended and Gordon could finally couple up to his special coach.
"Hopefully that's the last we'll have to hear about them for today," sighed Diesel. "This is getting ridiculous."
"If I hear about gremlins again tonight, it'll be too soon!" agreed Gordon.
On the mainland, far away from Sodor, a high speed train was waiting at St. Pancras station in London. They were both painted in blue and yellow with the British Railways logo on their sides, and their numbers were 43011 and 43173. The leading unit was named Phillipa (she preferred Pip for short), and the unit facing the station wall was Emma.
"How's the view, Emma?" called Pip in a joking manner.
"As usual, you've got the best one," chuckled Emma. She then looked curiously at the platform. "I don't think I've seen this woman before."
The woman Emma was referring to wore a green dress and matching hat with a gold band and red flower on it. But she wasn't alone; on a leash in her hand was a white dog with black spots.
"Aww, Pip, there's a cute puppy dog down here," called Emma.
"Oh, I do hope I get to see the dog too," said Pip.
"I just adopted this little one from the local shelter," the woman explained. "Unfortunately, he doesn't have a name. I don't know any good ideas."
"I'm sure we can think of something," smiled Emma. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Emma, and down the far end is my sister, Pip."
"My name is Sharon Hatt," replied the woman. "Though I'm more commonly known as Dowager Hatt." She got a saddened look in her eyes. "Dowager is a name used for… a wealthy woman who had lost her husband."
"Oh…" gasped Emma. "We're sorry to hear that, ma'am."
"Percival was such a good man," she sighed. "He was very sick one day and… though I've seen other members of my family over the years, I've been lonely."
"Was that why you adopted this puppy here?" asked Emma.
"Yes," Dowager Hatt nodded. The dog seemed to wag his tail at Emma playfully, and extended his paw out, as if to shake hands. Emma giggled.
"Engines don't have hands," she remarked, "but it is very nice to meet you."
"Arf! Arf!" the dog replied. Just then, the high speed diesels' guard blew their whistle.
"You both best get on board," said Emma. "We go quite fast."
"Ooh! I love going at high speeds," she grinned as she hopped into the nearest coach with the dog.
The high speed train was going well; Pip giggled as she picked up speed.
"We'll get to Barrow in record time," she grinned.
But I'm afraid to say they didn't, because Pip was starting to cough and splutter when they were about halfway to the station.
"Oh, bust my radiator!" gasped Pip.
"What's wrong, Pip?" called Emma.
"It's my cooling system," sighed Pip. "We can't get me to the workshops in the middle of nowhere."
"Afraid you've got a point there," sighed the driver. "We're going to have to swap you and Emma around."
"Oh dear," sighed Emma as she was uncoupled from the coaches to go to the other end of the train. "This isn't our day, is it?"
"You can say that again," muttered Pip.
Eventually, Emma had moved Pip to the other end and got onto the end facing Barrow.
"Let's make up for lost time," said the driver. "Come on, Emma."
Emma raced along, pulling Pip and the train behind her. There wasn't any weight difference; high speed trains like them were specifically designed so the driver could get into the other diesel and not turn the engine around.
At Barrow, Gordon was waiting for his special visitor to arrive, but the train bringing her in was late. Sir Topham Hatt was growing concerned.
"Where's that train?" he said anxiously. "It was supposed to be bringing my visitor from London."
"Huh!" snorted Gordon. "The engine pulling that train won't be really useful if he or she is late."
The big engine was surprised, however, then it turned out that there were two engines on the train, one on either end.
"Wha… how on earth…?"
"Hello," sighed Emma. "We're sorry that we ran late; my sister broke down while taking the train and we had to switch engines about halfway here. We hope that the visitor is safe and sound."
"Indeed she is," smiled Sir Topham Hatt, "and it's nice to see you." The visitor came out of the coach with her dog and the two people greeted each other warmly.
"I say, Gordon," called Bear as he rumbled in with the express. "Who's that with Sir Topham Hatt? And who are those two?"
"I'm not sure," said Gordon, "but he's keen to impress her." He then remembered when Bear had asked about the high speed duo. "Oh, right, what are your names? I'm Gordon and this is Bear."
"I'm Emma," said the leading high speed unit, "and the one at the other end is Pip."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," smiled Pip. "We've heard so much about you from that London excursion."
"Seems to be the talk of the mainland," chuckled Bear. "It's nice to meet the two of you as well. Are you a new design?"
"You could say that," said Emma. "We're designed so that our driver doesn't have to turn us around at the other end of the line, or recouple us to the other end of the train."
"As efficient as it is," added Pip, "we're not designed to handle goods traffic, so we come a bit short there. You are both lucky to be able to handle both types of trains."
Gordon's eyes widened in shock to be called "lucky" to be able to handle trucks, but Bear managed to cut in.
"Oh, why thank you," the Hymek said tactfully. "You're not like some of the other diesels we've been meeting up with here."
Just then, Gordon and his driver heard the sound of the guard's whistle.
"That's us, old boy," said the driver.
"Nice meeting you two," called Gordon to the high speed duo as he started off. "Hope to see you down here again."
"Broken down, eh?" said Bear. "I wonder if gremlins got in your cooling system, Pip."
"Huh?" She and Emma blinked in confusion as Bear went on to explain what had happened with Gordon's firebox and the points, as well as the conversations that ensued that morning. The high speed diesels couldn't help but chuckle when he finished.
"I hope that's the last of them we'll see today," laughed Pip.
Gordon started off at a steady pace at first, but he wanted to make up for lost time.
"Sir Topham Hatt is relying on me to be on time for the visitor's party," he said to himself. "I don't blame Pip for breaking down - that happens to everyone. But I can't let that delay me."
Then there was trouble; some of the line had been buckled due to the sun.
"We'd better slow down," said the driver. "It could make things uncomfortable for the VIP."
And it did. She was taking a bath when water splashed everywhere!
"Aaauuggh!" she cried.
"Oh, bust my buffers," groaned Gordon.
"I guess there's gremlins in the tracks," suggested Gordon's fireman.
"Not this talk about them again!" the big engine snapped. He sighed under his breath. "Knowing Bear, he's probably made that joke about Pip's cooling system too."
Eventually, Gordon got to Elsbridge where Percy was waiting with his passenger train.
"Hello, Gordon," greeted Percy with a laugh. "What's gotten into you?"
"All this talk about gremlins today," Gordon sighed. "No matter what, I can't seem to get away from it!"
"Oh," replied Percy. "So that's what James was going on about when he came through here earlier today. I was hoping to catch one."
"Ugh, not you too…" moaned Gordon as his guard's whistle blew.
"Have a good day, Gordon. Don't let the gremlins bite," laughed Percy.
As Gordon was departing, he let out a whistle, which frightened the little dog as he broke away from Dowager Hatt's leash.
"Oh my!" she cried. "Come back!"
The dog scrambled off and didn't stop running until he raced over the footbridge into Percy's cab.
"It's okay, little one," soothed Percy. "It was just a whistle."
"Arf! Arf!"
"Terribly sorry about that," said Dowager Hatt. "My dog has only seen diesels on the mainland; this is the first time he's heard steam whistles."
"That makes sense," sighed Percy. He then glanced back at the bundle of fur in his cab. "Well, little one, an engine whistling is our way of saying hello, like how you bark." Of course, whistles - or toots, in a diesel's case - mean a whole lot of different signals, but Percy wasn't sure how much the dog would understand.
"Does the dog have a name, ma'am?" asked Percy's driver.
"Not yet," said Dowager Hatt. "He didn't seem to have one in the shelter, but after today's events, I'm thinking of calling him Gremlin."
"In that case," laughed Sir Topham Hatt, "I've met one at last."
"Oh, Gordon's not going to be too happy when he hears this," laughed Percy. Dowager Hatt took Gremlin back from Percy's cab and boarded one of the coaches along with Sir Topham Hatt.
When Percy dropped off the two passengers and dog at Maithwaite, he then realized something.
"Sir," he asked, "who is your special visitor?"
"Ah, she's my mother, Percy," Sir Topham Hatt explained.
"I moved to the mainland well before you arrived," Dowager Hatt explained. "They had a nice retirement village up there. But it was a bit dull, especially since Percival died, so I decided to come back down to Sodor. Adopting Gremlin here sealed the deal as they don't allow pets up there." She then blinked. "Wait… did Topham mention your name to be Percy?"
"Yes, ma'am," the little green engine confirmed.
"That was Percival's nickname back in the day," gasped Dowager Hatt. "Were you always called Percy?"
"No, ma'am," replied Percy. "Sir Topham Hatt named me that when I was purchased for the North Western Railway." The penny then dropped. "Sir… you named me after your late father?"
"That's correct," said Sir Topham Hatt softly. "According to stories I heard from mother when he was younger, he resembled you a lot in personality."
Percy felt a rush of warmth spread through his firebox, and it wasn't his burning fire. "I'm honored to carry the name of your father, sir."
"I'm glad to hear that, Percy," replied Sir Topham Hatt.
Gremlin wagged his tail and nodded his head eagerly.
"I don't think you're the only one, sir," laughed the green tank engine.
That evening, Percy was explaining everything to the other engines, who had all gathered around the turntable. This was the first meeting that had Johnson, Lauren and Julie as full members of the North Western Railway, and also the first one without Katie and Nicole.
"You were named after Sir Topham Hatt's deceased father?" gasped BoCo.
"That's correct," said Percy. "All this time I thought Sir Topham Hatt got that name from thin air."
"Well, I'm glad to hear you have a well thought out name, Percy," smiled Bear. "Speaking of new names, Gordon and I met a friendly pair of diesels at Barrow today. They're called Pip and Emma, and they are quite fast."
"Ye think they'll be comin' tae Sodor yin day?" asked Donald.
"Seems possible," said Daisy. "We do need a couple more diesels around here, preferably ones like them and not ones like Bowler."
"Oh, and did that dog ever get a name?" asked Gordon. "Dowager Hatt said she was stuck for ideas."
"You might not like it, Gordon," said Percy, "but she's decided to name him… Gremlin."
Everyone burst out laughing, all except Gordon.
"Oh, the indignity…"
THE END
Author's Comments
We're now at the midway point of Series 5 Redux, this being a rewrite of Gordon and the Gremlin, mixed in with elements of the Railway Series story Gordon Proves His Point. Yep, Pip and Emma are now a part of the Seventyverse, and we'll see more of them on the mainland. The official episode is pretty confusing, especially with how Dowager Hatt traveled by train; Thomas takes her from Brendam to Kirk Ronan so Gordon could take her to Wellsworth, only for Thomas to be there to take her back to Brendam again. Why couldn't it just be Gordon picking her up from the mainland? That was where Pip and Emma came in, picking up Dowager Hatt as she was moving from the mainland back to Sodor and then Gordon drops her off at Elsbridge where Percy takes her to Maithwaite, where she lives according to the TV series. I gave Dowager Hatt the name Sharon as a tribute to the writer who brought her back into the fray in series nine and, later, the CGI series. Dowager Hatt's prominence was one of the best creative choices Sharon Miller ever made as writer, so in a strange way, it's a salute to her.
Upcoming stories:
- Don't Fear the Scrapper
- Branching Off
- Deep Freeze
- Something in the Air
- Put Upon Percy