Top Gear

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RUNAMOK
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Top Gear

Post by RUNAMOK »

With all the Brits and interest for British television I wondered if there were any fans of this poky little motoring show.
Personally I’m quite fond of Top Gear and watch reruns on TV3+ it quite often. Admittedly it’s kind of stupid, but very entertaining. Also it can occasionally get a bit too fake or staged. In general though, there are lots of interesting locations, amusing challenges, odd bits of history and exotic vehicles.
Also it’s kind of interesting to occasionally see what the real counterparts for certain transformers alternate modes are like in real life, for instance after seeing the short tale of Lancia’s history it seems like a very good fit for Wheeljack’s personality.
For that matter, does anyone have opinions on the international versions? I have seen a little of the American and Australian versions.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I really want to see the Bond cars one, apparently as well as makeing a working Lotus submarine it apparently shows an invisible car isn't as silly as Die Another Day heters may make you think.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Top gear's one of those shows i catch occasionally. I think because its always there,i never think much of it. Its so far removed from what it used to be though. Clarkson is a terrific bore though.he's one of those loud shouty people whom has a very narrow view of the world.

The bond cars special was really good.i liked the history and factoids they dug up.although their invisible van was a bit of a clunker (mainly due to technological and budgetary limits) the working lotus sub was impressive,even if it did spring a few leaks.nice to see moore and craig chatting fairly normally about normal car stuff and things too :) i'd like more stuff like this in top gear.
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RUNAMOK
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Post by RUNAMOK »

Well, I have to wait until the day after tomorrow for the Bond special, although it’s not all that surprising that something they made would end up being ambitious but rubbish.

I have heard something about the hosts in general cartoonifying their personalities on the show, such as exaggerating the narrow world view. It also shows when you watch some of the really old episodes and compare them to how they behave today.

Then again, I do miss the hammines a bit in the American version.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Like Skyquake said, Top Gear used to be an informative programme. Now it's all about fitting melons into a Fiat 500 and being pseudo-offensive. It's the WWE of car programmes.

Does it teach anyone anything about cars anymore? It's fine to do entertaining shows but they could've given it a different name and left the Top Gear to the more discerning punter rather than sullying it's once good name.

I dunno, is it because they think people can find out boring car stuff on-line? So now all that's left is showboating?
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RUNAMOK
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Post by RUNAMOK »

I have once heard that the reason for the lack of more ordinary stuff on the Top Gear TV show is that they moved those more practical aspects to the Top Gear Magazine instead. I haven't read the magazine, so I can't really confirm that statement. Then again, they do occasionally make jokes about their unfactual nature on the show such as Top Gear Top Tip jokes.

I generally just watch it for the sake of entertainment, what actual information or historical tidbits that is included is just a bonus. This may also come from the fact that I have never seen the old version of Top Gear, I have only seen the new one. I probably wouldn't mind some more down to earth things on the show though.

Anybody who has some favorite episodes, challenges or guests?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I actually used to watch it a lot more when Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson were in the mix with Clarkson and it was a show about cars rather than just laddish hi-jinks. It tended to be funnier when a car review or whatever would randomly degenerate into an offensive diatribe simply because the car was shocking rather than it being a regular forced feature.

Clarkson's great in the right doseage, though, especially if he's onside for something - his Great Britons lobbying for Brunel and his Victoria Cross documentary (Robert Cain is a double-hard bastard) are genuine classics, harnessing his passions in the right direction.





And it was nice to get Perry McCarthy in the papers.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I think that's what is a bit off putting about TG now. Away from the programme, all three have done decent docs (i liked all of James May's toy shows in particular :))... although Hammond has no excuse for his pointless fronting of Wipeout.
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Post by Addl »

I watched a couple of the shows online in 2006-2009 and liked it very much. Good car reviews of old classics and my favorite fun part was the North Pole expedition.

What happened to the show the last 3 year? It changed style?
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Post by borg72 »

Addl wrote:I watched a couple of the shows online in 2006-2009 and liked it very much. Good car reviews of old classics and my favorite fun part was the North Pole expedition.

What happened to the show the last 3 year? It changed style?
It's been running a wee bit longer than that... it used to be a clip show of just the test-track/on-the-road reviews (so no studio, guests, stig, or audience), with each presenter having a different 'style' or preference in terms of the car they were reviewing that week. Clarkson was the 'funny' one, the rest were all rather serious.
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Post by Heinrad »

I love watching Top Gear. It's a lot of fun. Although my favorite ones are when they jave to drive across a country(I loved the Vietnam special).
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Post by RUNAMOK »

I saw the Bond special yesterday evening, and I have to say, that was a pretty good episode. Sorry if I spoil things from it.

It was odd that only Hammond was in it, but I guess that helps give the special a more consistent tone.
I always love seeing interviews with the people that were behind the special effects in the old Bond movies, there are usually some quite interesting stories behind the various effects they had to come up with as things went along. Got to say, it apparently takes quite a bit of, as my brother put it, testicular elephantitis to be part of or become part of the Bond crew. Also neat to see Roger Moore, he still sounds like himself.
Admittedly the “vanish van” was kind of rubbish, but it did prove that the concept behind the Bond car wasn’t pure techno babble. The Lotus submarine worked pretty well, certainly better than any of Hammond’s dampervans, although the water looked surprisingly shallow.
Not much in the field of juvenile hijinks in this special, but the jabs at Ben “The X-Stig” Collins was kind of amusing.
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Post by Summerhayes »

I do love a bit of Top Gear, despite having next ot no interest in cars. I think its problem is that it stopped being funny when it noticed it was funny, and now its a bit forced.
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Post by RUNAMOK »

So… has anyone here seen some of the international versions of Top Gear? TV3+ where I watch Top Gear on has the English, the Australian and the American version. Admittedly I haven’t seen all that much of the Australian and the American versions.

The Australian version is very similar to the British version but with an Australian twist to the challenges of course. They also had an amusing look on old Australian car adverts going on at some point. The hosts are just as hammy as Clarkson, Hammond and May.

The American version is rather different. I like the show, but it is lacking some of the personal and human touches of the British original. The way they do the guest star laps, big star little car, is missing out on showing the amusing tension the guests can have when they have just seen their lap and are waiting on their lap time. Some of the challenges are rather blatantly recycled from the British version, but this isn’t necessarily bad, the truck challenge was pretty good for instance as the punishment payloads were rather creative. The hosts aren’t as loudly hamming it up as the hosts of the British and Australian versions, and they swear too much for my taste.
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