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The first 10min or so was good. Went downhill with the delivering lunches stunt. The train part was OK, but the dinner party was poo poo, not interesting at all. The driving on the highways was OK, as was the driving into the mountains, (except for the car mods, bit sick of the gag about them ruining the cars, would have been nicer to keep them more standard).
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Dec 29, 2011 11:44
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Yeah have to agree, even compared to other lesser car shows that really wasn't up to scratch, let alone anywhere near what TG UK is known for. It's like when they did the journey they had not much happen and had to go back to force things - I think the specials tend to have unexpected poo poo happen that the crew uses to script and stage other events, so you have what feels like a spontaneous show as it builds dynamically. There really was no feel that they had anything other than their set of pre trip bullet points and that's why it fell flat.
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Dec 29, 2011 12:07
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Wow, that was complete poo poo. The lunch delivery was predictable. The garden party boring as hell and far too long. And no real explanation as to why they took the train for half the time. Then when they get to the interesting roads at the end it's rushed through, and oh look the front of Hammond's car came off, you wouldn't have guessed that as soon as you saw the winch.  All the good specials are about the cars and how they cope with the journey, not the silly contrived rubbish.
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Dec 29, 2011 16:21
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Yeah, that wasn't very good. I liked Hammond's seemingly genuine enjoyment of razzing his Mini around, and did manage a good solid laugh at the sight of the Jag and Roller running Simex tyres, but that doesn't help drag up the rest of it. I also wish they'd had the balls to have Hammond "accidentally" paint the Pakistani flag on his bonnet.
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Dec 29, 2011 16:47
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Seems theyre getting lazy and dont realize that everyone can see the scripted gags from a mile away. The only parts where i was entertained was when poo poo actually could have gone wrong, like when the banner fell out of the train and they freaked out, or driving at night. Maybe they all feel like theyre getting too old for this poo poo, but i think without a certain element of suffering like in the south america or vietnam specials you have specials like this where they have waiting-in-line be a 10 minute gag
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Dec 29, 2011 17:11
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I enjoyed it once they got to the mountains, but before that it was predictable and boring
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Dec 29, 2011 18:03
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Clarksons Motor World India was about three times more interesting and hilarious. Also I think fame got to Hammond's head not to mention an awful hair stylist.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:05
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No hyperbole, I think that was one of the worst TG episodes/specials. I'd rather watch any regular episode or even the one where they gently caress up someone's garden.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:17
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Crustashio posted:No hyperbole, I think that was one of the worst TG episodes/specials. I'd rather watch any regular episode or even the one where they gently caress up someone's garden. Top Ground Gear Force was a legitimately good show.
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Dec 29, 2011 18:42
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Preoptopus posted:Also I think fame got to Hammond's head not to mention an awful hair stylist. Something got to his head, anyway...
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Dec 29, 2011 19:49
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coolskillrex remix posted:Seems theyre getting lazy and dont realize that everyone can see the scripted gags from a mile away. Golden years are season 5 to 10 
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Dec 29, 2011 20:01
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Fo3 posted:They're happy with the pay cheque and want to run that same poo poo into the ground. That's about it as far as I'm concerned. Season 12 was the best one: Truck challenge, communist cars, the Fiesta test, Vietnam... 
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Dec 29, 2011 20:28
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So, Mexico next year?
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Dec 29, 2011 20:36
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Sheik Yerbouti posted:Season 12 was the best one: Truck challenge, communist cars, the Fiesta test, Vietnam... edit: Think of all the 'firsts' they did in s5-10, it's been in repeat since then in some form or another in any of the newer series (except for Vietnam or Bolivia), that was my point. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Dec 29, 2011 |
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Dec 29, 2011 21:08
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I enjoyed what I could out of the India special. Hammond was the entertaining one in my mind, as far as watching a small dude in a small car almost get crushed by crazy drivers can be entertaining. The normal episodes are still of good quality and are genuinely entertaining in my opinion, and I'm hoping series 18 will deliver (which if it continues the trend the show has set it will).
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Dec 29, 2011 21:15
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What do all the good specials (US, Bolivia, Vietnam, Africa) have in common - they buy local vehicle on shoestring budgets. Make the journey itself the challenge - get a crap, broken, unsuitable car thousands of miles through an unfamiliar country. Taking reliable cars with them removed all the fun and any sense of difficulty. The choice of cars didn't affect any of the challenges in the slightest way. They could have all taken completely different cars and nothing would have been different. They should have had a challenging route - through the crazy traffic of Bombay and out into the wilds before the hard mountain climb. Clarkson in a Premier Padmini, May in a Hindustan Ambassador, and Hammond in a Maruti 800 - all as old and as crap as possible. Let them break down. Let them ruin the cars. Let something actually happen. Sweevo fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Dec 29, 2011 |
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Dec 29, 2011 21:27
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I want a special where one of them has to take the backup car.
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Dec 29, 2011 21:31
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Sweevo posted:What do all the good specials (US, Bolivia, Vietnam, Africa) have in common - they buy local vehicle on shoestring budgets. Make the journey itself the challenge - get a crap, broken, unsuitable car thousands of miles through an unfamiliar country. I thought the same thing.. $7k pounds buys you a nice condition car with good reliability and doesnt make for exciting anything. Although my memory was wrong and i though they bought cars for cheap in britain for the bolivia episode but turns out i was wrong
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Dec 29, 2011 21:46
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Does anyone know when Top Gear is back officially beyond January, or have they not announced that yet?
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Dec 29, 2011 22:09
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That was in fact quite poo poo. Whole thing seemed to have been written in a boardroom from transcripts of viewer statistics - or reading forum posts or something. Haw haw people totally dig when they ruin something on James' car!!! Eyerolling and facepalms were aplenty for this one. Atleast only way from this is up, right?
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Dec 29, 2011 22:20
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Seriously though, not one loving car breakdown besides the time a truck ran into Jeremy. Even after they ruined their cars they still ran fine. All of the previous specials where equal parts enjoying the beautiful scenery and trying to get their vehicle of choice moving again while sprinkling in some cocking about at night after a few pints which may have been scripted at first but then the locals catch on or things progress that make them feel spontaneous. This one involved probably the least amount of driving, a 30 second bit of one car being broken, and too much scripted cocking about.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:28
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s0nar posted:I want a special where one of them has to take the backup car. James did in the Morris when they raced cheap sports coupes in the Alps and his Capri broke.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:37
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Preoptopus posted:James did in the Morris when they raced cheap sports coupes in the Alps and his Capri broke. I completely forgot that one.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:39
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coolskillrex remix posted:I thought the same thing.. $7k pounds buys you a nice condition car with good reliability and doesnt make for exciting anything. Although my memory was wrong and i though they bought cars for cheap in britain for the bolivia episode but turns out i was wrong Even for 7k, you'd expect that an ancient Rolls and a Leyland Jaaaag would be broken more often then not, so I think that's the surprise of this episode. Sadly, I have to agree that this was the weakest special, basically the hill climb, highway and the mountain roads were the only highlights. The party was awkward and boring and I skipped through it, most of the rest was just kind of unremarkable. The problem might be that they spent too long in the city - oh look, there's traffic everywhere, just like in other cities! Once they were in the more unfamiliar territory, I thought it got better. A few of the complaints might've been references to other specials - the oversize present and the train ride to Vietnam, and loving up their cars with huge tires to South America, for instance. I didn't mind that, but it was shame that they ruined what were up to that point perfectly fine cars. Oh well. Maybe for the next special, they could go back for these cars (if they're not stolen) and drive them through China to Hong Kong or Macao or something.
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Dec 30, 2011 00:25
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Jeremy's Jag sounded loving amazing with those six unsilenced exhausts, like the truck from Duel. Or the Battletruck. Apart from that, yeah, the weakest special by far. The best bits were unscripted, but unfortunately the scripted stuff was about 95% of the show.
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Dec 30, 2011 01:16
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I think it's gone past being a parody of itself and come full circle, where it's a parody of being a parody... or something. I enjoyed it, far far better than the middle east one last year.
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Dec 30, 2011 01:30
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I wonder if they were under some sort of rules about not driving in certain areas or something. For a Top Gear Special there was very little driving. I think that is what hurt it the most was a utter lack of them in the cars.
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Dec 30, 2011 01:31
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Djarum posted:I wonder if they were under some sort of rules about not driving in certain areas or something. For a Top Gear Special there was very little driving. I think that is what hurt it the most was a utter lack of them in the cars. Well, India really is the most dangerous place to drive in the world, so I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC didn't want to risk killing one of their top stars.
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Dec 30, 2011 01:48
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Sweevo posted:The garden party boring as hell and far too long. 7k is three times what my (perfectly functional, though not great) car cost. Way too much money unless they're buying secondhand supercars. I want them to try and do the Magadan-Anadyr route, or even all the way to Uelen (the part of Russia Palin can see), since there's not really much of a road between the two. They'd have to take a barge for a significant portion, but there'd be plenty enough driving on horrible roads and/or non-roads. Unfortunately they're all too old at this point, and I expect the next special will be "Top Gear drives to the shops to pick up their medication" or somesuch.
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Dec 30, 2011 17:46
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Russia is a good idea, this road (the M10, I think) looks perfect:  (note the optimistic limit there)  The script writes itself: go to Russia, buy a Soviet/Russian car for <$500, drive it from A to B, where the points are chosen to maximize lovely roads between them. Clarkson would love that because he'd be able to fix his car with a hammer.
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Dec 30, 2011 18:06
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mobby_6kl posted:In this picture you see an anecdote forming which is going to trump the poo poo out of your puny Western "horrible camping with parents" story at some party in the future.
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Dec 30, 2011 18:13
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Yeah, if they do even a small amount of what was in Long Way Round, it'd be pretty interesting. I can see Hammond buying a Niva, May a UAZ-452, and Clarkson turning up in a 6x6 Ural 
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Dec 30, 2011 18:24
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fivre posted:Unfortunately they're all too old at this point, and I expect the next special will be "Top Gear drives to the shops to pick up their medication" or somesuch. Best bit of the episode, IMHO: "Why can't we do a Christmas special one year where we go from Miko* to Portofino? "How luxurious can this be?"." "I was the first to check in to a 5-star hotel, and as you can see I've done it properly: a man is carrying all my bags." "But then Jeremy arrived" *Dumb horn* "Oh my word, Jeremy. Look what you got as your car, it's the new Ferrari FF." "I wonder where Hammond is?" "Hammond had indeed checked in to a Formule Un in a Renault 4." * Miko, Barcelona?
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Dec 30, 2011 18:44
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KozmoNaut posted:* Miko, Barcelona? I heard it as Mykonos, Greece?
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Dec 30, 2011 18:47
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EVERYWHERE 
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InitialDave posted:Yeah, that wasn't very good. I liked Hammond's seemingly genuine enjoyment of razzing his Mini around, and did manage a good solid laugh at the sight of the Jag and Roller running Simex tyres, but that doesn't help drag up the rest of it. The idea that he painted a mexican flag on it is stretching credulity a bit, accidentally painting a star and crescent moon would just be ridiculous.
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Dec 30, 2011 19:41
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Clearly all of you swooning over the Vietnam special have beer goggles on. The best special was the Africa special
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Dec 30, 2011 19:45
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^^^ Africa and Polar were the best specials, no doubt. InitialDave posted:Yeah, if they do even a small amount of what was in Long Way Round, it'd be pretty interesting. You know, the more we talk about this, the more it makes sense. Another benefit would be that they seem to genuinely hate soviet cars, so seeing them stuck in some commie death traps for several days would be perfect. They might even come out liking their cars, teaching us the important lesson that it's possible to love even objectively terrible cars, as long as they have some character and you do something interesting in them.
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Dec 30, 2011 20:02
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mobby_6kl posted:Leyland Jaaaag That was a Ford-era Jag with the 6. About a billion times more reliable than the old v12 XJS.
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Dec 30, 2011 20:24
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It's time for Richard Porter to go.
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Dec 30, 2011 23:58
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mobby_6kl posted:^^^ Топ Гир представляет Ричарда Гаммонда и его друга "Оливар!" Sadly, I know of no good Russian equivalent of "Oliver."
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Dec 31, 2011 00:13
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