Train Tooting Sounds Were Taken Out Last Year
Here is a theory based on some flavour text and cut content that were written in Series 1, but were not carried on in Series 2 and 3. The following is just a fun idea, but it does serve to highlight that I do genuinely think something was planned to be implied about the underground tunnels, but didn’t end up happening due to writing budget, less author involvement etc.
Let’s talk about the tooting trains.
In the tie-in Netflix merchandise IHOSO book, there is included the full version of a Daily Punctilio article written for Series 1 that only partially appeared on-screen. Some of the new text states that VFD financially enabled the trolley company to completely buy out the underground subway system, which at the time was a much more successful, efficient and profitable transport system than the antiquated trams. VFD justified their actions by arguing that the trolleys are more environmentally friendly, but it does seem like they did this in order to use the abandoned network of tunnels for themselves. (Incidentally, environmental issues is not usual territory for VFD, that’s more the domain of a different organisation, though that organisation is now extinct.) From then on the railway system continued above-ground, owned by the same company as the trolley system, following the same routes that they used to have below-ground.
At the same time, there is a reoccurring story in the on-screen Punctilios about City citizens who live near the overground train tracks complaining about hearing loud tooting noises at night. However, the trains don’t make that noise anymore, they had their 'toot-toot' taken out ‘due to complaints that they were annoying’. The Daily Punctilio attributes these reports to 'ghost trains'.
The sound effect ‘toot-toot’ must, I think, refer to a steam whistle. No other types of train horn or whistle quite fits the bill, and it’s the type you would most expect in this context. Do we ever see a steam whistle in the Series? Actually yes, on board the octopus submarine. It plays a key role in distracting the crew.
Now to quote from the Anwhistle Aquatics Goes Up In Flames article:
‘What went wrong?’ According to my source, who asked to be identified only as L.S., the trouble began when the Anwhistle brothers ordered the construction of a series of tunnels beneath the facility. “They dug too deep. They unearthed things that should have stay buried. There are secrets in this world too terrible for decent people to know”. Other (sources) hint that the construction (led to some) sort of (?i????) (biological?) discovery - perhaps even a new species, though whether animal, vegetable or mineral remains unknown. In the (subsequent?) years, Gregor was reportedly obsessed with unlocking the scientific potential of this species. In his last public appearance, he spoke of a project he called “Volatile Fungus (Deportations? Depictions?)” that he promised would “change the world”.’
Obviously this is implied to be about the Medusoid, but I would like to imagine for a moment that it is not. ....apart from the literal fungus bit. Still, given that Gregor announced a project with the word Fungus right there in the title, why would there still be doubt if this new species were animal vegetable or mineral?
Note also that it is specifically Lemony who is written as commenting on this, a very rare instance of Lemony himself being quoted in text. Of course it is generally bad practice to trust that you definitely know who is meant by a set of initials, but in this case I’m pretty confident. Netflix tends to run things a little simpler, and never flagged ‘L.S.’ as confusable initials in the way that the books did, and are much more eager to include our actual Lemony in flavour material. But why would L be the source, when there are much more callback-appropriate volunteers close to the Anwhistle operation, such as J.A. or K.S. or F.W.? Simply the desire to weave L.S. in somewhere? It’s possible. However, the phrasing ‘secrets in this world too terrible for decent people to know’ doesn’t sit right with me as a description of the Medusoid, when there are published books about it and it is well known to the whole organisation. This sounds more like a phrase taken from Captain Widdershins, and reattributed in his absence.
You probably remember, when the Baudelaires get to the remains of Anwhistle Aquatics in TGG pt1, they find ‘scientific equipment’ that does not appear to be for testing fungus, though it may be for testing the effects of fungus on subjects.
Generic sinister implications? A reminder that Georgina Orwell (who had the same equipment) learned from VFD? More cynically, a re-use of props? Yes. All of those. But consider also, the large C-shaped manacles may also be a reference of a different kind, one that Netflix is very prone to make in the last season.
Speaking of which, it has been well noted (and much derided) among Netflix-critical volunteers that the sound effect used for The Great Unknown sounds a lot like an elephant. Personally speaking, I don't mind this too much, because that does seem to me the sort of noise the type of creature they showed on screen would make. A sort of echoing, trumpeting, kind of metallic sound, like an elephant or a whale, maybe a pheasant. No doubt they chose a slightly fake-sounding (though natural) effect so that one can more easily believe that Violet is able to imitate this sound using plastic wrapped around a whistle. In fact, if there’s one thing that is clearly spelled out to us, it’s that the muffled tooting of a steam whistle closely resembles the sound of The Great Unknown’s species. Close enough for regular humans to mistake one for another, even though they had heard the real thing just hours before.
It is not suspicious to hear loud tooting whistle sounds when you are in the vicinity of a railway.
What would be suspicious though, is hearing two different sets of train whistles, at conflicting times. Especially when you can easily compare them, and find one sounds a lot more like a trumpeting or hissing. You might wonder why it sounds different, or even wonder if something is running through the underground tunnels after all. But you dont, because there is only one set of whistles. If you expect to hear a tooting train, and you do hear a tooting train, you are likely to assume its a train. Unless, perhaps, you have a pre-existing association between trains and dubiously extant metaphysical monsters. But who would think like that?
