[12x08] December 28th, 2008 [Vietnam Special]

[12x08] December 28th, 2008 [Vietnam Special]

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Just great, 10/10 as long as you don't see it as a tg episode, more like the adventures of jezza, hammond and slow. Sucked as a tg episode BUT as a buddy movie/pure entertainment is was bloody briljant!

@hammonds camera
Later on you can see the strap of his camera bag around is shoulder clearly reading "canon" so I recon its a EOS of some sort
 
raphael said:
The episode was brilliant !
I just hope for HD torrent to be available soon. The one available is of cr.. bad quality. Because the episode was longer, RiVER had to make sacrifices in quality to fit in 700MB, which is stupid because nobody is using CD for data anymore.
Seeing that in High Definition would be completely new experience. Still, after watching it in awful video quality I would give it 10/10
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Was it on BBC HD? I didn't know that this episode would be HD


Anyway, i give this ep a 10/10
 
Just watching this on the iPlayer for the first time. Still only 38 mins in, it is absolutely epic. Congrats and thanks to the entire TG team, an unbelievably awesome piece of television. Vietnam looks like such a beautiful place.

:jawdrop: :cheers:
 
Akilles said:
Was it on BBC HD? I didn't know that this episode would be HD
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I don't think the episode was filmed in HD sadly. BBC HD was simulcasting what was on BBC1 at the time (programmes on BBC1 get priority to the HD channel if there's a clash), but there doesn't appear to be any Top Gear scheduled on the channel for the foreseeable future.
 
nice!
The best thing about this episode is the soundtrack.Top Gear music is always brilliant but this...this was something else!
Jeremy is incredibly fat...all of his fat is on his abdomen which is weird(-Congratulations, Jeremy! It's a boy !).
That can't be healthy.

Blonde girl - hot stuff !
Holy Crapolly !
Vietnamese veteran - the part of this episode I'll never forget.
James' riding shoes - nice
You missed a bit there,that you mustn't do,as well !
pink motorcycle
Jeremy offering Hammond the ******-baby mannequin suit
Always give way to the car from the right! genius, it reminded me of Logics class in high school
In the night,can you water my flowers for me?
You simultaneously head busted me in the gentleman's area and ...
swan ornament on Hammond's boat - you might find something similar on a gypsy's shiny Mercedes,as a wealth symbol.
Richard and I thought about going back to help...but we didn't.
James falling in the water
You don't know man, you weren't there !



Could anyone please upload the 'have I got news for you' show from last night(with Jeremy)?

See you next year !
 
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That episode was simply epic. I can understand why they let it run to 75 minutes. I think it could have easily gone to 2 hours and still been as gripping as it was..

Simply awesome! 10/10!
 
I'm sorry but, in my opinion, Clarkson's episode on Vietnam in Motorworld was better than this one. Maybe my expectations were too high but somehow I was left a bit disappointed. The first American road trip, the African trip and the Polar Challenge were far better than this one.

What I liked:

* Beautiful scenery especially the lush mountains and the bay in the end. The thick green forestation (the bane of American soldiers) looks great on screen (although it adds a lot to the hot and humid weather)
* Good soundtrack

What I didn't like:
* Jokes that were way too forced; the gift shtik, the forced angers, the driving test and the fake getting lost bits
* No studio segments. I'm not a fan of SIARPC but I do enjoy the news most of the time. No Goodbyes in the end as well since it was the last episode of the series

Things to note:
Hopefully Clarkson has had Tetanus vaccination done. Those burns as a result of bike fell-offs sting quite a bit.

Hammond was using a Canon DSLR. You could see the Canon strap when he was riding the bike. Regarding the clicking sound, the digital cameras have it as a legacy to the film cameras and also to help people realize that the camera has taken the photograph. The sound though can be muted through the menu option. Sometimes the lens motor also makes some noise during autofocus, unless the lens has Ultra Sonic Motor (USM), which is mostly the case with cheap kit lenses.

Alas the season has ended too quickly and the agonising wait for the next one begins. Hopefully 5th Gear can pick up the slack otherwise its back to my DVDs for reruns.
 
Dann said:
Just great, 10/10 as long as you don't see it as a tg episode, more like the adventures of jezza, hammond and slow.
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Well, I thought TG WAS "the Adventures of Jezza, Hammond & Slow" ? :?
 
NooDle said:
Well, I thought TG WAS "the Adventures of Jezza, Hammond & Slow" ? :?
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But if you recall Top Gear used to be a motoring program. Last night was a comedy program that had a script through and through, and didn't feature a single car other than in the background.

Now, the main focus of the show is these three mates and their antics.
 
elweasel said:
A very good episode. But if your are going to tease about Stig's Commie Cousin on a motorbike, you have to show it. I guess it will be out later this week.
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My guess is it was cut. As it was they had trouble fitting it all in, even with an extra 15 minutes.
 
SR71 said:
I'm sorry but, in my opinion, Clarkson's episode on Vietnam in Motorworld was better than this one. Maybe my expectations were too high but somehow I was left a bit disappointed. The first American road trip, the African trip and the Polar Challenge were far better than this one.
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I'll agree with you.
 
If anyone thinks this ep was too scripted, go to vietnam buy a bike and try to drive 1000 miles in 8 days without planning anything. And now multiply it by 10x to count the Boys, all film crew, and a fact that it is a Tv show that is not a reality show. Its television ffs, it must be scripted, otherwise we would just end every week with news when Jeremy goes oh *** another *** Peugeot ******** and a lot of beeps and rants ;)
 
I personally think the reason why the show had negative reviews was simply because it was last and the expectation just grew as the series went on. The other three specials were all in the middle of the series or spontaneous. Next one HAS to be off-road through the Aussie outback PLEASE!

Any news on Richard's suit? name? where can i get?!
 
I watch TopGear for the cars and the funny things done with cars. I didn't like this episode too much because it didn't have cars and most of the time it seemed somewhat forced like the Top Gear Ground Force episode.
 
Gave it an 8, mostly because of lame gags with 'presents' and absence of Stig's Communist Cousin.

And -
SR71 said:
Hammond was using a Canon DSLR. You could see the Canon strap when he was riding the bike. Regarding the clicking sound, the digital cameras have it as a legacy to the film cameras and also to help people realize that the camera has taken the photograph. The sound though can be muted through the menu option. Sometimes the lens motor also makes some noise during autofocus, unless the lens has Ultra Sonic Motor (USM), which is mostly the case with cheap kit lenses.
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Sorry for offtopic, but that was some purebred ignorance. You know, that sound can't be muted. Because, strangely, it comes not from some speaker, but from a rather real shutter and the mirror lifting mechanism. I don't know where you got the idea that digital and film SLRs are any different in that regard.
 
SR71 said:
Hammond was using a Canon DSLR. You could see the Canon strap when he was riding the bike. Regarding the clicking sound, the digital cameras have it as a legacy to the film cameras and also to help people realize that the camera has taken the photograph. The sound though can be muted through the menu option. Sometimes the lens motor also makes some noise during autofocus, unless the lens has Ultra Sonic Motor (USM), which is mostly the case with cheap kit lenses.
Click to expand...

Sorry mate, i've got to correct you there.
The clicking sound is a result of the mirror being hurled back, letting the light through to the sensor (or film) on the back instead of reflecting it upwards to the focusing screen, then pentaprism, then eyepiece, and it can't be muted, obviously. Some people reckon that on some old hasselblad cameras, the mirror slap was so violent that you couldn't make a sharp image.
Also, ultra sonic motor is what canon call their lens internal focusing system, exactly what you will not find on cheap lenses.
In any case, the noise that the lens makes focussing you wouln't have been able to hear in the scene.


oh and the episode was fantastic :)
 
I wonder if watching Top Gear Australia has indirectly ruined Top Gear for me in a small way (or possibly TG as well), I now wonder what has been pre-planned. eg. bike selection, ticket/platform mixup, James and Hammond happening to drift towards the bar, the bikes happening to be fairly trouble-free after they were not allowed to make major repairs etc.
Otherwise a great episode and I wonder how many times Clarkson has been to Vietnam, he's been there at least once as it was a destination in his Motorworld book (and associated television show).
 
This is the episode that makes this season remarkable. I was laughing my ass off or dropping my jaw when seeing this magnificent film.

10/10

I will review my ratings so far... a bit more drastic. So, hmm this episode i'll rate at:

10/10
 
They've taken the Botswana script and scribbled "Vietnam" over the bits that say "Africa". Botswana was epic. This was not.

The American bike gag got old very fast and probably should have been cut completely from the episode. I'd liked to have seen more of the guys on their bikes riding through some remarkable countryside rather than the endless amount of shots riding in the rain. It's the rainy season. We got that. Although the lightning bits made for some interesting footage.

I also liked the close-up they used on Jeremy while he was giving Hammond the ship. Again, some visually interesting stuff that we don't normally get in a regular Top Gear episode. I like that stuff.

The whole driver's license bit could have been cut. Painfully obvious to see Jeremy looking down at the paper on his desk with the words he's to say in Vietnamese. As were the results of the "driving test".

Where was the whole "blinders on!" bit that they started the series preview clip off with in episode 1? I wanted to see them get across that street without stopping. Or take a bike wheel to the leg.

The helmet gags were pointless. Jeremy's bucket with a real helmet underneath was painfully bad to watch. Although the bit with them crushing Hammond's helmet and replacing it with a pink one was hilarious. Proper fun.

The look of misery and hate on Hammond's face when he sees the new paint job to his bike was just priceless. I burst out laughing when Hammond hit the ship on some bins and again at the toll booth.

How about some close-ups of Jeremy's new shoes. Those things looked like clown shoes from the few shots we had of them.

I thought the real shining moment of the whole episode was Hammond interacting with the deaf guy on the beach. That guy must have an interesting story to tell. I think there should have been more video of the guys interacting with the locals. The language and culture barriers can make for some genuinely hilarious (like the girl taking the pink paint to other bikes) and special (the guy on the beach) moments.

8/10 for me. Less scripted gags, more scenery and interacting with the locals. And despite what I might feel was wrong with the show, it was way better than anything Michael Palin's been in since he left Python.
 
Hammond "headbutting" James crotch, James falling/jumping of his "boat" and Hammond's ship hitting the tree "Oh, dear." God, how I laughed.

and Hammond in the classroom! haha. Jeremy's laugh was brilliant.
 
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