[19x06] March 3rd, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 1]

[19x06] March 3rd, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 1]

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Mitchi said:
As far as I understood it, Jeremy concluded that by the fact that the river(s) east of Lake Victoria are futher away from Gibraltar, which can be seen as the real river ending.
Not sure if this is a scientific fact - don't think so.
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He is right though that water will always look for the easiest way to get out of a place. I'm not sure Gibraltar can be seen as the real end of the river Nile, but assuming we can (he does have a bit of a point about it), the furthest drop of water that is eventually going to flow in the Atlantic Ocean is probably somewhere on the East or South East of Lake Victoria, depending on the geography. Of course, one can argue about whether a small stream of water that starts there can be called the source of the Nile, but theoretically Clarkson can be right about this. Let us wait and see next week.

On the episode: brilliant. The first part in Kampala felt a little bit stretched out but overall I thought it was a great episode. It is especially nice to see Africa as a continent where normal people live their lives, probably not always in the same luxury as people in Europe or the US, but overall happy, with enough food and peacefully. Also love both the Volvo and the BMW, although the Subaru is probably the better choice, showing us the power of 4wd.
 
Aonsaithya said:
If I were a presenter, I guess I'd always go for some bullet-proof roomy AWD vehicle no matter what the challenge. Just to be on the safe side.
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Sure, picking a roomed, rugged AWD vehicle makes perfect sense for driving across Africa. But it doesn't make for good television.

The point was to drive across Africa in vehicles that were completely unsuited for it. That's why Jeremy picked the BMW and James the Volvo. (Although I must admit that James picking a Volvo 850R seems very out of character for him. I would have expected Jeremy to pick the Volvo and James an E-class Mercedes.)
 
That American Girl said:
Film crew carries all the extra stuff they need in the support cars.
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well, yes, I do know that but my point was that in such conditions they'd have to get a tanker following them.

btw. Jeremy has a magical front-right rim paint as it changes its color ;) (it's mostly blackish but at 41:32, 41:59 - silver)
 
I suspect those who don't think this special is as good as Bolivia and Vietnam (oddly, no one mentions the North Pole?) are a bit like 'Carry on ...' fans of 40 years ago - after watching the first dozen films. Maybe this special isn't lacking anything, as some suggest, but maybe the viewer has changed and some amongst us have become a little bored. Where once a camp cooker exploding into flames was funny enough, now we want something nuclear, but unscripted. Maybe that's why the camp cooker didn't go bang.

I really enjoyed this first installment with the excellent cinematography with the locals immersed in their own activities as a backdrop with their unexpectedly familiar (Orange) and not-quite-familiar (Kobil?) signs and logos. I can't help thinking that a TGUS version of this trip would have been obliged to have blurred every familiar advertising hoarding and passer-by leaving little of central Africa for us to focus on.

Hammond's fly paper and quietly surrounding his camper car with a dozen glowing bug zappers, Jezza the town's 'back passage' and his morning 'press stud', the result of a cold shower. Also his interesting and apparently true explanation of the Ugandan motorcycle helmet rules. There was a momentary glimpse of James' retro pin-up calendar, open at May, with a blonde in high heels and stockings pulling a wheel off with just a screwdriver! All great stuff and a nice sprinkling of subtle gags :)

I'm keen for the week to roll by for Part Two. Gave this one 9/10, but I'm wondering what those who thought it was worth 10/10 are going to give next week's if it is indeed better than Part One?
 
A strong 9 from me - it will be better when the DVD comes out with both parts shown together.

What an inspired choice of cars - gotta love the 850 R.
 
Interrobang said:
All the good comments make me think that I will need to rewatch that ... because to be honest ... I didn?t really like the episode. Will watch again in the following days, then comment some more :)
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The reason I rated this one so highly is not because I think it was the best episode of TopGear, but because this is what I want TopGear to be. I want it to at least seem real. I hate thinking of the show as a scripted sitcom and I refuse to do so. I want to think it's 95% real and 5% basic scripting to give each film a general structure. And that's what this film (so far) has done for me. I can watch it and believe the boys actually searched through classifieds and bought those cars and drove them all over Africa.
 
I really enjoyed it but I was sratching my head over James's car choice. It just didn't seem in line with his usual choices.

I only thought I had stayed in some bad hotels.

I think I laughed thru most of the show. I loved the little "in" jokes. I probably didn't even get all of them.

It looked like Hammond was in a very good mood which is nice to see.

I can hardly wait for part two.

And I really can't wait for the DVD.

9/10
 
Watched, made a coffee, watched again, and still loved just the same. Only Bolivia special had this effect on me untill now :)


10/10
 
Smagma said:
Seriously, I couldn't stop looking at Jeremy's huge pot belly.. he's clearly in poor shape but I wasn't sure if it was worse than usual.. definitely caught my attention though.
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It's not just his belly either, look what it's doing to his spine. He's going to have some seriously bad back problems with that.
 
it was either an 8 or 9.
I gave it a 9, even if a lot of things they did were done before.
Great episode.

Of course, next week will be even more epic!
I'll save the 10 for that. ;D
 
8bit said:
Clarkson reads / is aware of Final Gear? *shocked* (fyi: not a teenager)
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They've been aware of this site for years.

Anyhoo. So far, so good. More like a proper TG special, IMO. Not going to rate until after Part 2 airs.
 
9/10 so good, but yeah it was a slow start at first and I really enjoyed the camera work this time round. I will never get bored of Richard and James answering to Jeremy together ("What else is not electrical in here?" "Not the exhaust manifold") for some reason. Also, they seem to really interact with the locals a lot more and it is quite genuine those meetings.
 
CAPT_Howdy said:
Sure, picking a roomed, rugged AWD vehicle makes perfect sense for driving across Africa. But it doesn't make for good television.

The point was to drive across Africa in vehicles that were completely unsuited for it. That's why Jeremy picked the BMW and James the Volvo. (Although I must admit that James picking a Volvo 850R seems very out of character for him. I would have expected Jeremy to pick the Volvo and James an E-class Mercedes.)
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Mmmyes, but they most likely knew at least where they were headed. I can't imagine they'd intentionally agree to off-road in cars like that :D
 
Fantastic special. I WANT MOAR!

After this, despite how funny the Subie looks, I kind of want one. :|

What bugs me to no end is how they find such magnificent looking vehicles for so cheap. Any of those cars would go for 5 grand roughly in the US...
 
I can't believe it.

They can act their age, be funny, be scripted (obviously), and make it all seem so effortless and perfect.

This is the show, guys. Bottle this essence and whiff it before every episode of every season gets filmed. It will not steer you wrong.
 
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY TOP GEAR IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing cars (zomg E39 BMW FTW!!!!!!, oh and the WRX and 850R are sick too), Jezza, Hamster, and Captain slow are at their best, the scenery is amazing, there wasn't a boring moment at all!!!! How will next weeks episode top this?!!? I honestly cant wait!! I can't even begin to express how happy i am about this! I've been waiting a long while for TG to come out with something of this quality, i thought the show was going to die. No, it isn't. It's still got plenty of life left!
 
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I didn't get the part (around 36.25) where Jezza tells Hammond "this seems familiar, you telling me about animals that you've just seen and I haven't .........." Could someone explain that?
 
Go back a couple pages. Look for "Planet Earth Live." It was a show that Hammond hosted. I have not seen it, but it sounds like it was a disaster.
 
predator101 said:
Brilliant stuff!!! I couldn't understand one thing though:

What was Jezza saying about the source being on the the other side of the lake? Can anyone explain how he concluded that?
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They needed a reason to
drive around some more. He made up something semi-plausible and that's fine by me.
 
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