Worst Season of Top Gear

[cdbob]

While the debate rages as to the best season being either season Six or Seven, I want to know what you guys think is the worst season out so far is. I know we all hate polls but fuck lets do this because I am interested what everyone else thinks.

EDIT: If you also want to talk about the best season as well that works out great, since the best seasons would be shown by the least votes in this poll

[Censport]

Any season prior to James May.

[Seasonone]

May > Dawe so that's a simple question.

[MrBooby]

I don't remember all the seasons, so I can't vote. Also about the recent episodes, I don't think they're bad they're just way too short. But I hope Top Gear never dies so i can keep enjoying it

[Labcoatguy]

I can't wait to see Andy Wilman's comment on this thread.

[upyourego]

Might have ben better to have this as a multiple choice poll (don't know if thats possible).

For me it was pretty much the first five series.

[LurkerPatrol]

Originally Posted by Labcoatguy

I can't wait to see Andy Wilman's comment on this thread.

Viper is too lazy though

I'm going with anything before Season 3. Aka Season 1. It's just not the same without the 3rd bloke.

[skylock]

For me, I can't vote.

Like I have said before, I have never felt like I wasted my time watching Top Gear.

It would be like trying to say which of my children I like the Least/Best. Each has flaws, but each also has prefection, but each is their own person.

If you put a gun to my head, I would say season 1, but it would not be true, because I liked season one in it's own right.

So no vote from me today.

[Ottobon]

I rather liked them all, but the beginning of season 10 was a bit of a turn off because i hated the crappy desperate sounding rock music they put in the Supercar Vacation, i mean i think the review was good, but i couldn't stop being distracted by how depressing a cover of "in the air tonight" sounded when what was actually going on should be represented as a joyful experience. That and the Monaro review, which with all i can seem to remember is that it was forgettable. I just felt like after season 9 they felt so much pressure to live up to what they had became that they felt the need to dumb it down in a attempt to relate to their seemingly larger audience, their didn't seem to be the sharp wit of JC and JM nearly as much as i had come to expect and love.

With that said the end of season 10 was amazing, with the 24 hour race and all. So even my least favorite season is a wonderful one.

[Viper007Bond]

It's like "what is the worst Ferrari"? Regardless of your choice, it's still awesome.

Still though, gotta be season 1. No James May and they hadn't worked out their kinks yet, so it's kinda a no brainer.

[Crazyjeeper]

I liked season 1

[Old Lace]

[La Chaton]

Season 1 hands down. I couldn't STAND Jason Dawe. And who cares about buying used cars? Show me the expensive stuff please!

RH+JC+JM=
Dawe =

I'm sad to see a whole 3 votes for season 9 though, that was my favorite. :/

[Mineworksfine]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

It's like "what is the worst Ferrari"? Regardless of your choice, it's still awesome.

Still though, gotta be season 1. No James May and they hadn't worked out their kinks yet, so it's kinda a no brainer.

My guess is that Season 1 is going to win a landslide victory here, but as Viper said they were finding their feet, not to mention James May (who I heard was in line from the start but was eaten by Jason Dawe at the final screen test).

For a more representative poll it would have been better I think if the poll only contained seasons 2-11, but I'd still have had a hard time deciding which as I only watch the repeats on Dave and they aren't shown in any kind of order.

I have therefore had to abstain from voting.

[Shadowness]

How do I vote for more than one!

If I could Id vote for most of the later ones, probs 7 onwards.

[Jupix]

Season 9 no question, I remember that one leaving the worst taste in my mouth. It was bad enough to make me think TG was never really gonna recover from it. All the crappy and mostly painfully unfunny challenges (road work, farming petrol, limos), gaah. It was a pain seeing the highly anticipated new TG be that.

Season 8 is not far behind with building the Caterham (where it seemed the boys were actually fighting, not just bickering) and the convertible Espace. As for season 1, contrary to the public concensus, I think it's one of the best seasons. Most of it is really down-to-earth stuff and the funny stuff they did was actually very interesting besides funny. Just too bad Captain Slow wansn't aboard back then. (No pun intended.)

[Mineworksfine]

Originally Posted by Jupix

Season 9 no question, I remember that one leaving the worst taste in my mouth. It was bad enough to make me think TG was never really gonna recover from it. All the crappy and mostly painfully unfunny challenges (road work, farming petrol, limos), gaah. It was a pain seeing the highly anticipated new TG be that.

You have to bear in mind that the balance of Season 9 was thrown totally by Hammond's crash. It was supposed to be a 10 episode run, but by the time he had recovered enough to take part there was only a 6 slot run available in the schedules. As a result they had to take the decision to use the stuff that is the most costly and labour intensive to produce ie the bigger films and challenges where all three of them are involved. Had Richard not had that appalling accident there would have been much more in the way of normal road/power tests etc to dulite the silliness as they would have had 10 hours to fill and not just 6.

[Jupix]

What you're saying might very well be the case, however, this is the way the season turned out - awful. Even in the case of Hammond not having his crash, and there being more car reviews and whatnot, I'd still have disliked the challenges.

[Dsemaj]

Nothing wrong with season one, a bit dull yes, but still good. Season nine was the worst. Too much cock..ing about. I mean, I like those segments, just needs to be a proper mix of it.

That said, 09x04 turned out to be almost perfectly balanced.

[cdbob]

I agree as well, Season Nine was the worst of all of Top Gear. I re-watch Top Gear every once in a while and I find myself almost never going back to season nine. Though in my mind the show was starting the slip in season eight. It was very clear that season eight was a turning point for Top Gear, though I felt it to be not too bad. It's hard to say what Top Gear would be like now without Richard's accident. To me I think it would be far better. I mean if we look at modern Top Gear, Seasons Ten and Eleven, they lack that spark that Top Gear had in seasons seven and eight and earlier. To me Season Six would be the best season, because of all the cars that were released, and thats were the show was still unaffected by its appeal. I can remember it being a hell of a lot less popular when I started watching it before season six startedl airing and before I had come here. I watched parts and clips on youtube and then came back to it. I remember it being a good show, but rather unknown in my area. By season seven, it seemed the show really picked up with the Bugatti vs. Plane part, because of all the hype on that car. To me it seems that modern Top Gear after season eight was not as good mainly because of the cars coming out. I mean after season 7 all of the golden cars had come out, the Enzo, the Carrera GT, the SLR, the Ariel Atom, The Koenigsegg, The Zonda, The Murcielago. All those hyper cars made the show good because it was excited to see their take of all those supercars. After that it seemed that the makers died down a lot of that hayday of hypercars died. Modern Top Gear is more based upon less excited car and so they must be more humorous. I mean look at season eight, they did a great job in turning the show in a different direction, since they knew the material they were getting hypercar wise was drying up. The highlight would be the Caravan episode. Which though very scripted, never felt that way, the way modern Top Gear does. After that season which for the most part was very good, I felt Top Gear lost its direction and with Richard's crash became an alright show. I mean look at the cars across Africa, that show sucked ass, no offense to the Top Gear team, who do a great job of making the show, but it did not work out well. To me the earlier seasons were something that very exciting the watch, because Top Gear was still getting its ground. A show that felt a lot less scripted. That is why a voted for nine, because they is the season were Top Gear lost its edge that it had had before and became its current show. Though I still watch it and think its alright, it is not as good as season 6 or 7. Those are the two best seasons. The GT-R vs Train race to me felt about as good as the Aston vs Train race, I mean they were very good, but nothing to really watch again. Top Gear has the ability to rebound and make the transition back to being an amazing show, but only if they realize where they are now. So find interesting cars again and good ways of reviewing them and bring the show back to its former glory.