Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends Poster (A2 (594x420MM))

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In January 2016, three more episodes from the nineteenth series aired in the UK, followed by another five episodes in March 2016. March 2016 also saw the release of six more nineteenth series episodes released on the annual mini-tentpole, episodic release, Start Your Engines!. These episodes later aired in the UK in July 2016. A special 4-D theme-park exclusive production was released titled Thomas & Friends in 4-D: Bubbling Boilers on April 9, 2016 in Boston. saw the broadcasting of the ninth series as well as the release of the first direct-to-DVD special, Calling All Engines! The tenth series aired in 2006 and was the only production to contain twenty-eight episodes unlike the usual twenty-six. The first broadcasting of the eleventh series took place in 2007 and this marked the final series to contain twenty-six episodes, until the seventeenth series. The second direct-to-DVD special, The Great Discovery was released in 2008 and this marked the final full live-action production. In 2017, it was revealed that the series would be undergoing a drastic revamp. The name of the series was changed to Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! beginning with a special of the same name, which was released theatrically in the UK in the summer of 2018. The movie and the first half of the twenty-second series revolve around Thomas travelling the world and learning about different cultures, while the second half takes place on Sodor. The theme song was changed to Big World! Big Adventures!, the visuals became faster-paced, there is a greater emphasis on comedy and action, animals became a more prominent feature of the stories, and fantasy sequences became more prevalent, with at least one fantasy sequence in every episode. The show no longer features a narrator at all, replaced with Thomas speaking to the audience. Additionally, it was revealed that Edward, Henry, and Toby would be removed from the Steam Team, while the former two would be replaced with new female engines named Nia and Rebecca in an effort to bring the gender ratio among the main cast to a 50/50 split. It was announced that the episodes' runtime would be split into 7-minute stories (shortened from the 9-minute time slot used from series 13-21) and 4-minute segments featuring songs, puzzles, and other activities. These changes were made in an attempt to keep Thomas & Friends relevant by making it more similar to other preschool shows.

The first fully CG animated production was the 2009 direct-to-DVD special, Hero of the Rails, directed by Greg Tiernan. This was also the first time the engines and people had individual voice actors since Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The voice acting continued for all series and specials hereafter.

Mark Moraghan ( UK/US narrator for Series 17–21, re-dubbed one Series 13 episode, two Series 14 episodes and two Series 15 episodes; 2013–2018)

Thomas appears and speaks in every episode of the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and nineteenth series. He also appears in every episode of the ninth, sixteenth and twentieth series, despite not speaking in all of them. However, starting from Big World! Big Adventures! and the twenty second series onwards, Thomas himself takes over the role of narration, telling it from his point of view. September 2016 saw the release of the next direct-to-DVD special, The Great Race. The twentieth series began broadcasting in the UK on 5 September 2016 with the first five episodes of the series and in the US on the October 21, 2016. HiT Entertainment and SiF released a poll in which fans voted for what they wanted to see rendered in CG for this series. Notably, this was the first series since the fourth series to adapt Railway Series stories, with the book Small Railway Engines being adapted into the final three episodes of the series.There are no characters that have appeared in every episode of the series, not even Thomas himself. However, the narrator seems to have lines in every single episode, despite not technically being a character. Michael Angelis ( UK narrator for Series 3–16; 1991–2012, US narrator for the New Friends for Thomas and Other Adventures VHS/DVD, 2004)