[15x05] July 25th, 2010

[15x05] July 25th, 2010

  • 10

    Votes: 556 66.8%
  • 9

    Votes: 165 19.8%
  • 8

    Votes: 60 7.2%
  • 7

    Votes: 24 2.9%
  • 6

    Votes: 5 0.6%
  • 5

    Votes: 10 1.2%
  • 4

    Votes: 4 0.5%
  • 3

    Votes: 6 0.7%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1

    Votes: 2 0.2%

  • Total voters
    832
One of Top Gear's greatest episodes! 10/10
 
I'm just lost for words right now. I'd like to point out everything that I liked about the episode, but it's kind of pointless because it'd be...well, everything. I'm afraid I'm going to sound like a massive fanboy, like the people I pretty much laughed at for giving last weeks episode a 9 or even a 10, but right now I don't give a rats ass. This episode was so epic that I don't even care if the rest of the season is like episode 4.

One of the best hours of my life.

Ever.
 
10, loved the whole thing, even the Senna film. I generally find most car racing to be dreadfully dull, especially spec racing like Nascar & F1, but that was pretty good, and even though I never heard of the guy, it was interesting. The Cruise & Diaz segment was surprisingly good, they seemed like they had a good time. The rest was great as well, loved seeing Captain Slow rage in the Bugatti.
 
Tuareg Race - fake, I guarantee that it was not RH in the action shots driving that thing. Also, the way he delivered the commentary during the race made the film feel like a high-school project despite of the brilliant cinematography. Below average. 4/10
TG News - Pretty funny all the way through the segment, and so true about the most dangerous time to drive a vehicle. Quite enjoyable 8/10
Veyron - Surprisingly I enjoyed this very much, even chuckled when JM coughed again in the Veyron at 407 KPH. Excellent segment, ranks up there with one of my favorites 10/10
SIARPC - Both guests were fun, and they seemed like the actually enjoyed being on the show. lap times were also nice. 9/10
Senna Tribute - I distinctly remember the day he passed on and I still have the VHS recording of the race at Imola. The TG film on Senna was very nicely done and is a good tribute to the man. Just one thing....That race at Suzuka... Senna had pole, and the starting position for the pole-sitter was on the dirty side of the track which senna was very vocal about and he felt that being on pole at the track was a disadvantage. Anyways - awesome film 10/10

41/50 - or 8/10

its amazing how a lackluster segment can effect the final score of the entire episode but I guess I can always skip that segment and have one of the most enjoyable episodes of TG, therefore I am artificially altering the episode rating to 9/10.
 
Well - um, Senna film was a departure and I think could have been done better. SIARPC was really good - never mind it was two A listers (who I would normally think of as rubbish! But they just were not now were they?). James' Mays bit was really good but no a 10 spot. so overall an 8/10 for me.
 
I rarely give out 10s, but damn this one deserved it. I don't care much for the SIARPC (even with these guests), nor did I think the Sweden race was that great, but the Veyron bit, and especially the Senna section, made it an instant classic. This episode is one of the greats.
 
Still a lightly miserable Norwayist then? ;)

Just can't help it. The episode had 2 properly good segments with the Veyron and Senna. Touareg was passable at best, news had nothing interesting in it at all and I really don't like watching movie trailers in Top Gear. If you wanna see guests like that you should go watch 'Johnny Ross. Atleast they talked about cars in some ways. Have to say hearing Diaz talking about cars is totally hot. :)

Strangely I'm with ahpadt for now, this is what describes the episode best

:)

More to come when I watched the episode a 2nd time, so no score yet.
Already watched the Senna film for the 2nd time. Properly good stuff. The thing I probably appreciated the most was the JC didn't do a stupid voice in the voice-overs. It's an honesty and 'realness' to JC that he once every so often shows us, like in this film or in one of his many war or engineering documentaries. If you haven't seen them I urge you to do it with great haste!

I find it astonishing that whenever Jeremy Clarkson stops fooling around he produces utterly incredible films. The whole episode was overshadowed by Jeremy's film at the end so there is no point mentioning anything else.

E-fucking-xactly
 
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9/10 -- because I don't give out perfect scores. This one was tempting, though.
One thing that makes this feel right: it's one of the first eps of series 15 where the presenters all went solo on their films. Thus the temptation to act juvenile went missing.
Didn't expect the Veyron to hit the top of the lap board, mainly because I didn't think the Bugatti people had relaxed their policy about not loaning Veyrons out on conditions they didn't control.
The Senna film: I'm not an F1 fan, and I only know of Senna in passing. But this is one of those rare achievements: a film that conveyed the subject's greatness without the viewer needing to know all about the context.

Here's the thing: if TG wanted to get a BAFTA or an International Emmy nomination, *THIS* is the episode you'd submit for consideration.
 
- Ice race: been there, done that. The first time in a Top Gear episode I thought about fast-forwarding.
- Veyron SS (what's in a name): very d?j? vu obviously, I found it weird that they showed it like James was never there before, with the whole "cold war no-fly zone"-bit included.
- Cruise & Diaz: I didn't expect Cameron Diaz's lap to be that fast, but Tom Cruise's lap looked simply brilliant. Especially T1, Hammerhead and Chicago, I've never seen a non-F1 celebrity take those corners that perfect. Not suprised at all that it was the fastest lap, and I think it will be up there for quite a long time.
- Senna piece: I don't think this fits in the Top Gear setting, but obviously it was a brilliant piece. I'm disappointed we didn't see any more of Hamilton's drive in the MP4/4 though, I thought the footage of it was a bit... crap. Could have been a lot nicer if you ask me.
Every true F1-fan already has seen all of the great duels shown in this video on YouTube of course, but the quality of that footage was breathtaking when you compare it to the usual YouTube crapness. BBC, please put your fabulous F1 collection on the internet! (somehow)

The combined total for me is a 8/10. It could have been higher, but the opening piece ruined it a bit for me.
 
9/10. It would have earned a 10 in my opinion if it wasn't for my complete and utter distaste for Tom Cruise. The Senna segment was, for the lack of a better word, awesome.
 
I'm so amazed. This is the best top gear episode I've watched.
10/10.
Loved the last segment. Loved it.
Props to Tom Cruise for keeping the car on two wheels through the corner, and I kinda liked the touareg bit, because I saw that dakar car when I went to W?rthersee gti-treffen this year, and I wanted more info on it, and inside looks, but I've never gotten around to do that :p
 
This is what I'm talking about. The guys doing what they love: documenting, speed, nutjob racing. And some big stars visiting. The Senna-bit was not only an excellent memorial, but also a good peek on this great driver's career. Also made me feel all mushy inside.

9.5/10, knocking a halfpoint off for reusing ideas. But I don't mind giving a ten, because this feeling of awe is what only Top Gear can deliver.

:thumbsup:
 
I've never postet a review here, but after tonight's show I'll simply have to. What an episode! One of the best Top Gear episodes ever. Mainly because of the Senna bit. Speechless!
 
Well, well, well ! They finally do a show with very little stupidity and look at the response. Jeremy, James, Richard and Andy should take note methinks.

To sum up for me, The Tuareg review was just a vehicle to get Richard into the Dakar racer, which was still a very good and entertaining piece, but the review bit was shoddy and awkward, quite obvious that they simply aren't interested. I think their tongue was firmly in cheek when he commented about rear visibility.

News was short, but the Porsche bike thing was amusing, and thankfully the only cocking on the show. Just enough to get a laugh, lighten the mood, and then allow things to get serious again.

The Veyron was beyond awesome, and I only wish that James could have held the actual record. Brilliant piece ?

The guests were surprisingly good. Like many people I have an inherent dislike for Tom Cruise, but he came across as fun, personable and laid back. I didn't realise his acting had improved recently ;) Ms Diaz on the other hand has always appeared to enjoy life, and make it fun for those around her. I'd have enjoyed it with just her, but TC was still OK. Well done to both on their laps, but the sceptic in me wonders if it was either specified in the contract for them to do so well, or if TC spent a bit of time prior to the appearance preparing with some professional tuition.

The Senna tribute was superb, showing how good a motoring journalist JC can be if he puts his mind to it.

I'd have squeezed in another review, but then I always say that and live in hope. I long for a return to the days when the three of them group test a selection of similar cars, bickering, laughing and genuinely enjoying themselves without a script, anything falling over, blowing up or catching fire. Tonight was a definite step in the right direction, THANK YOU.

Not the best episode ever, but certainly the best from this series, and probably the last few. PLEASE learn from this TG, this is what we want, can't you tell ?
 
I usually don't do the whole episode rating etc. but after watching this episode I simply had to come here to give it a clean 10/10.

@Andy and the crew: Great job! One of the greatest episodes in Top Gear history.
 
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Instant classic. 10/10
 
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