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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book.

“Bouncing buffers! It's got me!”
― Duncan getting pulled up the incline with the empty slate trucks

Dunkin Duncan is the twenty-fourth episode of the sixth series.

Plot

Rusty, Rheneas, and Skarloey are sent to the incline railway to help Duncan with an important job. The engines like how the empty trucks are pulled up by the loaded ones, but Duncan has a bad habit of being so impatient to get back to the junction that this often gets him in trouble with many accidents. Rusty hopes that Duncan will stay out of trouble one day, but Duncan is already impatient and acts rudely towards the others. Skarloey and Rheneas do not like Duncan telling them what to do, but Rusty tells them that he just wants to get back to the bustle of the junction.

Duncan wants everyone to work faster, but Rusty and Rheneas tell him that they are proper engines and that they follow the rules. Duncan still tells them to work faster, so he shows the others how fast a useful engine can work by biffing one slate truck after another at a time. Rusty warns Duncan that slate trucks will pay him back for being biffed, but he simply does not care, claiming he can handle slate trucks. The engines see that Duncan will not listen, so they leave the incline with four slate trucks each.

Duncan pushes the trucks around and while shunting some empties at the incline, he boasts how he will show the other engines that he will get the job done. His driver warns him that he is asking for trouble, and he gets it. Duncan does not notice his front coupling gets tangled with the truck in front of him. The winch hauls him and the empty trucks up the slope. Duncan's driver jumps out before he gets hurt. Rusty returns in time to see everything and is not pleased to see it, but his driver reassures him that engines like Duncan never listen to advice. Duncan is too heavy for the winch and the chain breaks, causing him and the trucks to slide down the incline and land into a muddy swamp, much to Rusty's horror.

After a careless and irresponsible Duncan is fished out, the Fat Controller scolds him for his behaviour and demands that he apologises to the other engines. Duncan does so, and his punishment is to work at the incline once he is repaired until he learns to be patient and careful.

Characters

Locations

Trivia

  • The title of this episode is a portmanteau to the fact that Duncan is "dunkin" into the muddy waters. It could also be a pun on the American doughnut restaurant, Dunkin' Donuts.
  • This is the only episode story thought of by Simon Nicholson since he was also the same writer who wrote for A Bad Day for Harold the Helicopter. This was also his last contribution to the series until he wrote for A Smooth Ride for the the tenth series in 2006, four years after he came up with the story idea for this episode.
  • CGI smoke is used after Duncan falls into the swamp. A broken sign is also digitally inserted (or photoshopped) into the crash.
  • From this episode until the twenty-second series episode, The Case of the Puzzling Parts, Skarloey's brass ring around the top of his funnel is removed.
  • Duncan shouting "HELP!" in both dubs is the same recording used as Diesel's voice in the sixth series episode, The World's Strongest Engine; making it the second time to reuse a recording for the character that was previously used from another character, the first being in the fifth series episode, Rusty and the Boulder (although only in the UK) where Skarloey and Rheneas' line "EYYOIIIKES!!!" was previously used for James in the fifth series episode, Busy Going Backwards.
  • This is the only episode where Duncan's current cross face shows his teeth in some scenes, which resembled a snarling face. But in the remainder of this episode, and other subsequent series in the model era, the said face is just a normal closed mouth.
  • This is the first time the Fat Controller says his catchphrase, "confusion and delay." However, there were five previous episodes, the fifth series episodes, Cranky Bugs and Oliver's Find, as well as the sixth series episodes, The World's Strongest Engine, Middle Engine and Gordon Takes a Tumble in which either the narrator, or a different character says it.
  • This was the very last episode where the steam engines are addressed as "steamers" before they started being called "steamies" from the eighth series onwards.
  • A deleted scene showing Skarloey and Rheneas crossing the viaduct in an opposite direction was later used for the seventh series episode, The Old Bridge.
  • This is the first time Rheneas' large scale fifth series content face is used on-screen.

Goofs

  • The narrator says "Rusty, Rheneas and Skarloey chugged cheerfully through the Sodor countryside," but Rusty is a diesel and Skarloey looks sad and his eyes are misaligned.
  • A string can be seen moving off screen when the trucks fall in the mud.
  • When Duncan falls into the swamp, one of the trucks splatters mud under his mouth. But seconds afterwards, the mud is all over his buffers and mouth.
  • At the very end of the episode, Duncan's eyes are misaligned.

Quotes

Duncan: I'm a plain-speaking engine, so collect your trucks, and be quick about it!
Rheneas: Bossy boots!
Skarloey: Pushy puffer!
Rusty: He just wants to get back to the bustle of the junction.

Duncan: You're supposed to be helping me. But you're as slow as snails.
Rusty: We're proper engines. We follow the rules.
Rheneas: We can't send up more than four slate trucks at a time.
Duncan: Then work faster.

Duncan: I'll show you how fast a really useful engine can work.
[he shunts four of his slate trucks to the incline]
Duncan: Nothing to it!
Rusty: Those slate trucks will pay you back. Trucks don't like to be biffed.
Duncan: I can handle trucks.

Duncan: I'll show that smelly diesel and those lazy steamers.
Duncan's Driver: Careful. You're asking for trouble.
[it is revealed that his coupling chain is tangled with the slate truck in front of him. Together, Duncan and the trucks are suddenly pulled up the incline]
Duncan: Bouncing buffers! It's got me!
Rusty: I tried to warn him.
Rusty's Driver: He never listens.
[once at the top, a coupling snaps, causing Duncan and his slate trucks to plummet down the incline]
Duncan: HELP...!!! [dives into a very muddy swamp] Glub-glub-glub! Bluggle my boiler!
[later, once rescued]
The Fat Controller: You have not been a responsible engine. Your impatience has caused confusion and delay and you owe these engines an apology.
Duncan: [to Rusty, Rheneas and Skarloey] Sorry.
The Fat Controller: Once you have been repaired, you will work the incline until you learn to be patient and careful.
Duncan: Yes, sir.

Merchandise

In Other Languages

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Language Title
Albanian Padurimi i Dankanit
Chinese Mandarin 邓肯 邓肯
Czech Duncan se Koupe
Danish Dunder til Duncan
Dutch Ongedulding Duncan
Finnish Tauno törpöllee
Hungarian Duncan Türelmetlen
Italian La Locomotiva Frettolosa
Japanese どろんこダンカン
Korean 사고뭉치, 덩컨
Norwegian Duncan Dummer Seg Ut
Polish Niedobry Damian
Romanian Morocănoscul Duncan
Russian Нетерпеливый Данкан
Serbian Nestrpljivi Dankan
Slovenian Nestrpni Francelj
Swedish Dunkande Duncan
Welsh Gwers i Duncan

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  • James and the Red Balloon and Other Thomas Adventures

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