It's fair to say that Wonky Whistle is one of, if not the, worst received episodes of the show. I personally think there are worse ones from writers with more experience than Neil Ben had, but that's another story.
I recently made a Twitter poll as to whether fans would appreciate another episode written by him and the result was... interesting:
If Neil Ben was given another opportunity to write a Thomas episode, would you give it a fair chance?
— Chris Tomson ♿️ (@ChrisTomson2013) January 29, 2016
It was actually very close, but 39% of fans polled were unsure whether they'd give it a fair chance, which is understandable. There's still a lot of animosity towards that episode and him (why against him, I don't know. You may not like his work, but don't attack him). However, it's nice that fans are willing to give him a chance.
38% of the vote said that fans would give him a fair chance, which is very surprising considering all the hate I mentioned. However, considering he wrote only one episode with some very tight restrictions from those higher than even Sharon Miller, we can't really say whether he'd be a good writer or not, and it would be a huge shame if we never found out what he could really do.
Only 23% of the voters said they wouldn't be giving him a fair chance which. while it's a shame, I can also understand. To be honest, I thought that was going to be the runaway winner, so it's probably a testament to the writing set up the show has now that "no" came last in the poll. Like I said, though, with the one episode he did put out, he didn't leave a positive impression - whether that be all his fault is probably up for debate should we ever know what happened behind the scenes during that period.
Personally though? I'd give him a chance. Yeah, he wrote a bad episode, but I've seen worse, even from the current team (spoiler alert for a future episode review, by the way). Speaking of which, I'm reminded of the lesson from Spencer's VIP: everyone deserves a second chance. Should Neil Ben return, I'd be more than willing to give him that. I just hope the team actually give him that chance..!
