Episode suggestions

wuud

wuud

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Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
61
Location
Germany
Car(s)
Alfa Romeo 156
Hi, I'm a German student and for my final exams next year, I have to write a scientific paper/term paper (or whatever its called). Well as you can guess mine is about Top Gear and there is the problem. My English teacher has never seen an Episode of TG and she asked me to give her a DVD with some Episodes. And now I don't know which I should show her. I think 3 Episodes should be nice to get to know what TG is about :D
At least one with a big challenge should she watch too. Maybe the Arctic or Botswana? But still I have no clue what "normal" Episodes I should show her. A cheap car challenge would be nice and perhaps one with a good news section and the Cool Wall... :???:
I really hope you can help me :)
 
I'd say indeed the Africa one, the one with the green Ford Fiesta review and one of the old ones, preferably the Pendine Sands episode. No time to find the right episode-numbers, but the FG-downloadpage can help you with that one!
 
Right, Let's start with challenges. While the Arctic challenge was very good, the whole drink driving thing might affect her opinion of the show so I'd suggest one of the others. Probably the Botswana episode like you suggested for the fun and games with Oliver.

I've always been a fan of the cheap coupe challenge with the Starion, 6 Series and Jaaaaaaaag XJS, where James constantly breaks down, Jeremy gives his car too much powah and Hammond gets picked on by the others. Cool wall is always good, I don't remember which episode had Hammond in the scissor lift but that was a good laugh.

Ultimate driving roads or Sunday's episode would be good too although maybe this weeks wasn't entirely typical of TG, I think it's been quite a long time since each of them has had a VT entirely on their own eliminating the cocking around. Another suggestion for showing the funny side would be either of the Amphibious car challenges. This was before they got too silly but showed what they're capable of. The second would be better because they actually succeeded but you might have to explain what happened last time.

Personally I would cut parts together and leave out the boring bits (SIARPC for example doesn't really tell her much about TG at all).
 
:+1: on Botswana - it pretty much is nothing but one giant cheap car challenge. Also I'd recommend 7x3 - some supercars, some sensible reviews, decent news, interesting guest.

PS: Oh yes, first amphibious challenge. Why? AmphibiousAmbitious but rubbish.
 
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Caravan Holiday ! Season 8 Episode 6 !
 
Yeah the caravan holiday certainly wasn't TG's finest hour. And while we're on the subject your sig quote is wrong, it should be "easy does it plenty of revs."
 
wuud said:
Hi, I'm a German student and for my final exams next year, I have to write a scientific paper/term paper (or whatever its called). Well as you can guess mine is about Top Gear and there is the problem. My English teacher has never seen an Episode of TG and she asked me to give her a DVD with some Episodes. And now I don't know which I should show her. I think 3 Episodes should be nice to get to know what TG is about :D
At least one with a big challenge should she watch too. Maybe the Arctic or Botswana? But still I have no clue what "normal" Episodes I should show her. A cheap car challenge would be nice and perhaps one with a good news section and the Cool Wall... :???:
I really hope you can help me :)
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If your english teacher owns a car and has a son, I'd suggest Season 6, Episode 4 as the TG introduction episode for her. Just skip the stretched limo part (Cause I'm afraid it's the lowest-rated part of this ep in terms of too much of "cocking about") but I'm sure she would quite like to see the Top Gear's mum segment, where Jezza and his mum, May and his mum and Richard and his mum do a bunch of road tests of Peugeot 1007, Renault Modus and Honda Jazz. That's my personal suggestion but then again there are loads of other great episodes to begin with.
 
My choices would be:

10x04, Botswana special, just simply the greatest episode ever.

04x03, The first cheap car challenge, and some fine reviews, like 911 GT3 RS vs 360 (the hardcore), Hammonds Charger crisis, and motoring survey result (should make you're teacher atleast think that TG isn't just cocking about)

09x04, Reliant in to space, 991 Turbo, Brabus SL. Good reviews and a really ambitious and really really rubbish project.

Pick those!
 
From all the big films / big challenges I'm gonna go with the Botswana. In my opinion the best of them all. As for the normal shows, a regular cheap car challenge would be nice too. My favourites ones are the first (100 pounds) and the 2 door sports coupe thats not a Porsche or the amphibious cars. And one with the Cool Wall, sadly there arent many newly epsiodes with it. Geez, I never thought that would be so hard :D
I think I should include all segments of TG even the SIARPC bit. She should know all segments.
 
I'd say S05E08, since it was pretty much on e of the best ep all around (also an early one...)
Maybe S09E03, the US special. If they could fall in love for those pieces of junk and make good telly out of it... Its fitting for TG...
Finally S15E05, yeah, the most recent one... Also a VERY good allrounder...

Those aren't my fav Eps or anything, but they do give a good overview of TG and all that its made of...
 
Matt2000 said:
Cool wall is always good, I don't remember which episode had Hammond in the scissor lift but that was a good laugh.
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13x07. I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend that one, though, especially given some of the content in the Scirocco ads (e.g., guy killing himself, guy losing his arm).

Botswana is a good recommendation. Beyond that, any of the following...

* 7x03 (Supercars in France; Ford Focus ST; and probably the funniest and best Cool Wall segment ever (at least IMO))
* 15x05 (VW Touareg (thanks, narf :D) vs. X Games snowmobilers; James maxing the Veyron SS; tribute to Ayrton Senna)
* 10x09 (BritCar race; Ascari A10; Fiat 500 vs. BMX bikers)
* 7x04 (Pagani Zonda F; ?10,000 Mid-Engined Italian Supercar challenge; Richard Burns tribute montage in lieu of the news; Renault Clio vs. downhill biker)
* 5x04 (Pagani Zonda Roadster; Conkers with Caravans; James and Richard spend 24 hours in a Smart ForFour; Aston Martin Vanquish S vs. Ferrari 575M)
* 4x01 (first epic race -- Aston Martin DB9 vs. train to Monte Carlo; James's undercover review of the CityRover; Cool Wall; Lotus Exige)

You could also, if you wanted to and had the know-how, make a compilation of some of your favourite reviews and/or challenges in addition to showing her the Botswana episode.

@Vislani: The 2004 survey results aren't in 4x03 (they simply start calling for responses). They're in 5x03. Which is also a pretty good episode (Land Rover Discovery up a Scottish mountain; Dodge Viper SRT-10; Richard looks for the craziest car in the world).
 
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1. Try to get hold of the extended clip of the Cool Wall from Season 12 (either from the S12 DVD set or the Challenges 4 DVD). Much better audience interaction there.
2. Botswana Special is good.
3. For a normal episode, I'd go with either S13, ep6 (BMW with 370Z, Majorca Rally with auction cars), S13, ep1 (Jag/Black Shadow/Peppercorn race, Lotus Evora), or Season 11, ep 4 (GT-R vs bullet train).

Since this is a term paper, I'd suggest focusing on the cinematography and editing, as these have always been of a consistently high standard no matter how rubbish the item.
 
Vislami said:
04x03, The first cheap car challenge, and some fine reviews, like 911 GT3 RS vs 360 (the hardcore), Hammonds Charger crisis, and motoring survey result (should make you're teacher atleast think that TG isn't just cocking about)
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Seconded on this one.... it contains what is arguably the first Top Gear car review in the style that they'd later become famous for.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far. Sadly I have to give her the DVD tomorrow, but maybe I can give her a second DVD later in time.
So far I'm going with Botswana and the first cheap car (Se4 Ep3). So for the last... still watching some of your suggestions. Maybe I'll put 4 episodes on the DVD if I cant choose one :D
Maybe I'm gonna add one with a race. Thinking of Veyron vs Plain or Nissan GT-R vs Bullet Train or the one "from 60 (?) years ago" (bike vs car vs train).


So I got my teacher covered but still a whole lot to do for my paper :D
 
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