Wild Water Rescue

"If any engine should get their picture in the paper, it should be a modern diesel engine, like me."

- Diesel

Wild Water Rescue is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the nineteenth series.

Plot
There has been a big storm on Sodor, and Percy is helping the Sodor Search and Rescue team to clear up the mess and rescue anyone who needs help. Back at the rescue centre, the Fat Controller proudly announces that the team have completed their one-thousandth rescue. And to celebrate, the mayor is to present the rescue centre with a new alarm bell.

At Brendam Docks, Percy tells Thomas all about the mayor and the new alarm bell. Percy hopes that he will have his photograph taken and placed in the Sodor Newspaper. Thomas is sure that the photographer will only want photos of the rescue team, but Percy is too busy practicing his photo face to listen. Diesel overhears them talking, and believes that the only engine who should get his picture in the newspaper is a modern diesel engine, like himself.

Percy heads towards Knapford to pick up the mayor, still practicing his photo face. He stops at a level crossing where Diesel pulls up next to him. Diesel tells him that the mayor is waiting for him at the old quarry. Percy is puzzled, but he does not want to be late to have his photograph taken, so he hurries away towards the quarry. Meanwhile, Diesel heads to Knapford and tells the Fat Controller that Percy has a problem and cannot take them to the rescue centre. So the Fat Controller and the mayor climb aboard Diesel's coach.

Percy arrives at the gloomy old quarry, unaware that Diesel has sent him on a wild goose chase. As he looks around for the mayor, he gets spooked by some crows and puffs straight into a flooded section of track. The water splashes his fire, leaving poor Percy stranded.

Meanwhile, at the rescue centre, the mayor proudly presents the team with their brand new alarm bell. A photographer arrives and asks the rescue vehicles to gather for their photograph. Diesel tries to get into the photo too, but the photographer only wants the rescue vehicles in his photo. So Diesel sheepishly reverses out of the frame.

Later that evening, Diesel brings the Fat Controller and the mayor back to Knapford, still sulking that he could not be in the photograph with the rescue team. Thomas overhears and becomes confused: he thought Percy was supposed to be at the rescue centre, not Diesel. Thomas firmly asks him where Percy is, and Diesel remembers that he sent Percy to the quarry, so he hurries there at once.

Diesel finds Percy stranded in the water, which he finds quite amusing. He offers to help him, boasting that he has a generator instead of a firebox. But as Diesel oils into the water, his generator fizzes and sparks, and he breaks down right behind Percy. Percy feels very guilty that he has caused both engines to get stuck, but Diesel confesses that he tricked Percy into coming to the quarry so that he could pick up the mayor instead. He even tries to say sorry, but he cannot quite bring himself to say it. Suddenly, Harold appears above them, and the rescue team puffs into the quarry, along with Thomas, the Fat Controller, the mayor and the photographer, who manages to snap a picture of Diesel being lifted out of the water by Rocky.

The next day, Percy puffs into the Dieselworks and finds Diesel having his generator fixed. He thanks Diesel for trying to save him from the water, even if he did trick him in the first place. The Fat Controller arrives too and shows Diesel the newspaper. On the front cover is the photograph of Diesel being lifted by Rocky. Percy jokes that Diesel managed to get his picture taken after all, and Diesel cannot help but smile proudly.

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Percy
 * Diesel
 * Rocky
 * Harold
 * Sir Topham Hatt
 * The Mayor of Sodor
 * The Photographer
 * Belle
 * Flynn
 * Butch
 * Captain
 * Henry
 * The Ffarquhar Policeman
 * The Bird Watcher
 * The Teacher
 * The Fireman
 * The Lady with the Big Hat
 * The Welsh Bird Watcher
 * Dowager Hatt's Friends
 * The Great Railway Show Judge
 * Albert's Wife
 * The Search and Rescue Manager
 * The Female Puppet Show Entertainer
 * Big Mickey

Locations

 * Sodor Search and Rescue Centre
 * Brendam Docks
 * Sodor Shipping Company
 * Three-Track Level Crossing
 * Knapford
 * M.C. BUNN
 * The Old Quarry
 * Vicarstown Dieselworks
 * Elsbridge

UK

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Nigel Pilkington as Percy
 * Kerry Shale as Diesel
 * Matt Wilkinson as Rocky
 * Keith Wickham as Harold, The Fat Controller and The Photographer
 * David Bedella as The Mayor of Sodor

US

 * Joseph May as Thomas
 * Christopher Ragland as Percy
 * Kerry Shale as Diesel and Harold
 * William Hope as Rocky
 * Keith Wickham as Sir Topham Hatt and The Photographer
 * David Bedella as The Mayor of Sodor

Trivia

 * Just as in Toad and the Whale and Rocky Rescue, the Sodor Search and Rescue team's theme, which plays at various points during the episode, is an arrangement of Percy's and Harold's themes by Robert Hartshorne.
 * This episode marks the first time Elsbridge is mentioned by name in the television series.
 * Edited stock footage from Henry Spots Trouble is used.
 * This episode was released on the Wild Water Rescue and Other Engine Adventures US DVD on 16th June 2015. Almost three years after the DVD's release, the episode aired on TV on 15th March 15 2018 on Nick Jr. It also took two years after the episode's first release to air in the UK.
 * The area where Harold helps rescue the lady appears to be a modified set of where Duck was stuck in the water on his branch line, as a railway bridge is positioned in the exact same position, with the rails removed. Both episodes have similar scenes of Harold flying over the bridge.
 * In the Nick Jr USA broadcast of the episode, it is paired with Blown Away.
 * This episode marked the last of a few things:
 * The last episode, with music composed by Robert Hartshorne. Chris Renshaw would later take over from the twentieth series onwards.
 * The last episode narrated by Salomé Larrucea in Spain.
 * The last episode directed by Don Spencer. Although he directed Thomas & Friends in 4-D: Bubbling Boilers.
 * The last time Thomas and Percy are voiced by Javier Olguín in Mexico and Latin America.
 * The last episode written by Becky Overton until the twenty-second series episode, Trusty Trunky.

Goofs

 * David Bedella is not credited in the UK credits despite voicing the Mayor.
 * The brake van on Henry's train changes colours.
 * Despite the water going as high as Diesel's buffers, he has water stains on his face as he is lifted out.
 * When the picture is about to be taken, Diesel moves off the rails.
 * When the photographer tells Diesel to move, Rocky is in a different position.
 * Cranky is missing from his usual spot at Brendam Docks.

UK

 * Full Steam to the Rescue!
 * The Complete Series 19

US

 * Wild Water Rescue and Other Engine Adventures

Merchandise

 * Take-n-Play - Lake Levee Repair