Top Gear: Series 19

lol of course it was intended.

How do you think they got the camera cars across ? and the support trucks ? and all the backup vehicles. There was probably a bridge out of shot they didn't show you. Wouldn't be as fun if they just drove over a brige.

Plus the fact they were wearing white lab coats. We were supposed to see it. If we weren't they would just have been wearing the same as the production crew and cheated by using the metal briding ramps they kept in the support truck for this sort of thing etc..
 
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adam cool dude said:
Whether the car was there or not they had all the kit there to fix the cars.(The whole car sinking was staged and I bet it was pulled out and started again) You miss the point. The Botswana special had the whole point of fixing the cars with simple tools. Same with the Vietnam special. The backup car/bike being there for this very reason. Do not trash your car or you end up using the backup which none of them wanted. It seemed the backup car was entirely pointless in this special.
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It is of course entirely feasible that the backup car failed too, if it went wrong in a way that simply could not be fixed (and lets be honest that is more likely to happen to a Scorpio than any of the other four) then it would make sense to at least do something funny like that with it before abandoning it. I.E if the auto box died in the middle of Africa it would pretty much become a 2 ton paperweight.
 
tigerstyle said:
You really think that?
I am sure there is no way of safely getting that car out of an unknown swampy muddy depth of water, and if they did to what end? Starting it again?
No way.
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Haha. You're seriously suggesting the car going in was an accident?

Of course it was planned!

What makes you think it was of unknown depth?
 
Basher said:
Haha. You're seriously suggesting the car going in was an accident?

Of ctheourse it was planned!

What makes you think it was of unknown depth?
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sorry, didn't phrase it well, planned to go in of course ( it's top gear) , but zero plan for them to retrieve it. Where did I suggest anything else?

Oh I'm sure they all got across on that raft too, even the twelfty metre long landcruisers they had, oh no wait I'm not 7 years old. but pulling a fully submerged 2 tonne plus car out of flowing water from a muddy bank?

dolphin browser doesn't like these forums I don't think!
 
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Regardless of the intentional/unintentional dunking of the back up car, and wether or it was or wasn't retrieved and possibly even started again, why WOULDN'T they take such tools as Hammond used to fix his car?

It would be a bit of a hit to the filming if something happened whereby they couldn't continue...so prepare for the worst. They had a generator on the Botswana special also, so I bet they had all manner of tools then too but we don't get an inventory list to peruse. :rolleyes:

Not really replying to anyone in particular 'just saying' :cool:
 
It was mildly entertaining. I thought it was stupid to make the show like they were doing it themselves and then say they had all this support.
I previous ones, we all know they don't do it, but at least they stick to the charade. This time it felt lazy and stupid to say, ohhh we achieved something, look at this raft we built, then have the directors fall in. Or Hammond pretending to well when we all know they have a car with lots of tyres and mechanic in, which they mentioned.
 
I too didn't enjoy this special because I spent my entire time analysing the entire thing and trying to work out how many support trucks they had or how many times the wheels changed, because this is more interesting than just kicking back and enjoying the pretty scenery and cars.
 
[TW]Fox;23917848 said:
I too didn't enjoy this special because I spent my entire time analysing the entire thing and trying to work out how many support trucks they had or how many times the wheels changed, because this is more interesting than just kicking back and enjoying the pretty scenery and cars.
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Much like the wise old fox here, I certainly didn't kick back and enjoy this with a beer or two. Neither did my mrs look at me strangely for laughing like a school girl at various points.

IMO: It's one of the only reasons the tv license is worth paying.
 
The problem is: if you're going to hide the details of what you are doing in the background, do it properly. If you can't hide it properly, just put it out there in the open and use it. This started by pretending they three were isolated, then slowly revealed more and more of the support stuff. But they've done trips (the Arctic) where the support stuff was blatant from the off, and it was just as good. The raft building was just laughable, as it clearly took a whole team of people who actually knew what they were doing, a day or two. It would have been just as good if they'd said: "The support team built a raft, now the presenters have to use it".
 
Basher said:
Is there a danger people are over thinking this?
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No, I don't think so, it just feels cheapened and like they think we're idiots by doing it so half and half. I don't mind pretending for the sake of comedy, but showing all the support staff and then pretending ludicrously is just lazy and ruins the joke, and at the same time, lessens my enjoyment compared to previous Specials.
The one for me they got perfect was Vietnam, because you didn't need the support staff, and they did achieve a great show without needing to do ridiculous things.
 
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Not the best special they have done, but stunning scenery and a few genuine lol moments (log through back window, bog seat Subaru scoop etc)

My mrs loved it, but did point out (having lived in Mozambique for a while) that they would have one hell of a backup team, and not just mechanics!!

Silly entertainment, nothing more & very well done overall imo.
 
Meridian said:
The raft building was just laughable, as it clearly took a whole team of people who actually knew what they were doing, a day or two. It would have been just as good if they'd said: "The support team built a raft, now the presenters have to use it".
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While it is a bit of a stretch that they just happened to have the materials lying about, I don't think it would have taken just the three of them much more than half a day. Having done pioneering projects like that in Scouts, it isn't as hard as you might think, and May in particular probably enjoyed it.
 
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