[20x03] July 14th, 2013

[20x03] July 14th, 2013

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Can someone fill me in with the donkey and the tower? I recognized the dart bull, but i have no idea about the donkies...
 
Red Falcon said:
Hmmm....

I'm just guessing but maybe they got the permit to close the streets early, and had to do the rest later? There are still people living there, despite the ghost town look, so the crash could've happened after the race :think:
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Nah, at the end of his lap, Hammond says: "Little Fezza, I really hope I've made up for crashing you this morning"



Four Five Eight said:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/river_felix/ScreenShot2013-07-17at14227PM.png

If you look closely at that shot there is a suspicious box over the location of where the damage should be. In a later shot you can see small evidence of damage in the form of a faint black mark.
My theory is this, the production crew cleaned up the damage as best they can to look good for the street circuit filming, the first shot was digitally fixed as it is a long still shots but for everything else they decided that the on set fixes where sufficient.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/river_felix/ScreenShot2013-07-17at14335PM.png
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Yeah, I also noticed that kind of sticker where the damage should be, but I thought it was too small for all the damage it had, so it must have been something else... But thinking about it, you might be right.
 
The_Doctor said:
Well, that's a surprise, I really thought the presenters drove all the bits and pieces they show in the program (call me naive if you want).
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Dr_Grip said:
It's a matter of money as well as logistics: The presenters are much more expensive per day than a picture vehicle driver (who will make in the ballpark of ?150/day and stays in a way cheaper hotel) is. Thus, keeping the TG three around for a grueling week of filming beauty shots over and over again until the cameraman is satisfied makes no sense economically.
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^This. Jeremy even said as much in one of his Top Gear/Sunday Times columns. I can't find it right now, so I'm paraphrasing:

"When we review cars on TG and there is a film of them on the track, are we doing the driving? No, not all of it. We have to write our script. We drive the car, get a feel for it, then go and write stuff. Then maybe drive it a bit more; write a bit more. During the writing time there's an expensive car and expensive film crew sat around doing nothing. So one of the crew jumps in the car and they film it. If they get anything useable, they'll use it."
 
GerFix said:
^ that's a very detailed piece of paraphrasing there :)
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And it's still setting my OCD off that I haven't quoted him exactly! :lol:
 
^ I can still remember the words to my school song (after 35 years) .. so I don't think you have anything to worry about.
 
When they discussed the V10 advantage in noise and Jeremy said "Welcome to top gear the worlds leading motoring show!" was my favourite line of the episode :)
 
Just realized they never actually made it to Madrid. That's a pity, as they could have gotten some very nice shots of those cars in the real city like the did in Rome in their last continental supercar holiday. Maybe it would have made more sense to cut out the silly flashbulb test or maybe do it in Madrid?
 
Did anyone else catch the upside-down Union Flag at the beginning of the episode?
http://imageshack.**/a/img801/5383/wlla.jpg
 
Well...if it was right-side-up, it would be backwards from this angle. Maybe it's a mirror-flipped image?
 
No. On the side with the flagpole (the "hoist" side), the thick white part (the white saltire with white fimbriation) should be above the red saltire.
Here it is flown correctly:
http://imageshack.**/a/img203/1994/zyhc.jpg

Still incorrect:
http://imageshack.**/a/img18/9964/6g0e.jpg

Now it is correct:
http://imageshack.**/a/img199/9916/2f4b.jpg
 
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A properly good episode. The city course at the end was particularly brilliant!

Not quite perfect (the SIARPC was a bit "meh", for me), but close enough. 10/10
 
Definitely the best episode of the season so far. They found a novel approach for depicting Spain that gave the episode a strong underlying theme, and they got some nice spontaneous-looking comedy out of locations like the abandoned airport. Obviously all the locations were scouted (with filming permission granted) in advance, but that doesn't matter. They trusted the locations to give the episode life, instead of laboring to craft jokes (in a badly-scripted episode, Jeremy tweeting about James's car would have resulted in James losing the challenge--instead the tweet had no effect).
 
9/10

The Spain trip was very well done. It was funny where it needed to be, but there was a human interest element here that I don't think should be overlooked. Economic crises affect real people. The empty apartment complexes and the deserted airport in the interior of the country, contrasted with the obvious luxury on the coast, is pretty strong stuff if you think about it enough.

The road trips are at their best when they actually let you see the places they're visiting. They make me want to go there myself.

I enjoyed the interview with Benedict Cumberbatch, even if he isn't a giant petrolhead like some of the others they've had on in the past. His carjacking story was pretty harrowing.

The cars were all great; I thought the Audi was a pleasant surprise, and that McLaren is a special machine. Agree with the presenters though that I'd rather have the Ferrari.
 
9/10

+Spain
+All the cars they used are three of my absolute favorites (especially the F458)
+458 in red (as opposed to yellow)
+Cumberbatch, my man!!!!
+Funny for a change!
-It ended. ;(
 
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