[15x07] December 21st, 2010 [Special]

[15x07] December 21st, 2010 [Special]


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Long time lurker, one or two time poster (a long time ago) hence re-register-er.

Great episode. All the best moments have been said already however some of the negativity is getting to me.

The "it's scripted" whinging.
No shit Sherlock. The BBC are just going to go head first into the Middle East no planning or anything, and expect that everything's going to go 'swimmingly.' No chance at all that JC, Hammond and May knew that they were going to land in Iraq or the route they were going to take.
Let's point this out again for the umpteenth time, Top Gear is not a reality show - it's an entertainment program*.

And no, when James had his accident they may not have been far from a road. And? Your point is? Their's was to sneak across the desert. It looked pretty deserty to me even if the roads weren't far off. Was all that blood staged as well?

I've been watching Top Gear since the Tony Mason/ Tiff/ JC days and I've learned that any car program that involves Jeremy Clarkson - you don't take it seriously. He is, in the words of Mr May, "A big giant cock." But, a funny one.

*Lets be honest, the reality of car driving is neither funny nor interesting. We don't all have access to really nice cars, tracks, helicopters, exotic locations and so on. It took me 30 mins to de-ice my car the other day and that's just dull, cold and irritating. Ocasionally you'll see a nice car on the road that'll remind you of why you like cars (for me, a Dodge Ram SRT-10 a couple of days in a car park - Wouldn't want one but it sounded fanfeckingtastic), so let's all bring out the Xmas cheer and be thankful for Top Gear which reminds us of why we think cars are special in the first place.

I would have that Barchetta any day. Always liked them.

And the reason some of you aren't liking Top Gear = Jealousy. You want their job and you know it.

Sorry if this is a repeat post - got confuzzled about the admin and new-poster schtik
 
I'll read all the comments when I get time, but I'll say this.

You don't work with someone for 8 years and then call them a Judas.

That was was well offside guys.

I've lost a lot of respect for Clarkson over this.

'nuff said.


When you work with someone for eight years, then stab your friends and coworkers in the back for a lousy book deal, that's when you add "Judas" to your middle name. The guys were a lot more restrained than I expected.
 
When you work with someone for eight years, then stab your friends and coworkers in the back for a lousy book deal, that's when you add "Judas" to your middle name. The guys were a lot more restrained than I expected.
I was just going to say the same thing. Sure, we don't know exactly what happened and JC et-al may have gone over the top in their response, but it was exactly the fact that he'd worked with them for 8 years that pissed them off. If it had been less time they probably wouldn't have felt so hurt. Like Jeremy said, he thought Ben was a friend.

I've lost a lot of respect for Clarkson over this.
'twas actually James that called him Judas.
 
:nod: The longer you work with someone, the less you expect them to do unexpected things (sic!), the greater the feeling of betrayal may become.
 
Gave it an 8/10.

Not going to bore you with a long explaination as I asume everything has been said already ... All in all ... a good episode. Boyle sadly didn?t make a good guest and in tradition of christmas-presents-studio-bits of the past - that segment suffered from a bad case of funny script that 3 not so good actors failing to get across. I think we?re at a Point in TG-History where they should start to realize that they are not good actors, especially together. The chemistry goes wooden all of a sudden when they try. It?s visible from space and they should stop doing it. The actual road-trip bit of the show was 99% pure gold. Only the studio segments were a let down ...
 
Yeah was good episode all in all... But i didnt like the gap between gt3 rs and others. There should have been a gt2 rs... Sory top gear and Hammond this was stupid to bring that knife in a gunfight...
 
Yeah was good episode all in all... But i didnt like the gap between gt3 rs and others. There should have been a gt2 rs... Sory top gear and Hammond this was stupid to bring that knife in a gunfight...

Again -- I hate having to repeat myself -- the GT2 RS could not have been available for this shoot.
 
why?
EDIT: oh yes i saw what you have written. They could have shipped a german one to the us. No so hard that is
 
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Not in full production when this was filmed. The only available cars would have been press demonstrators or prototypes, all registered and "living" in Germany. After all, this was filmed some time in the very late summer/early autumn (early September).

Reviews of the car might have appeared in the motoring press around that time, but generally journalists drive the cars on specially-scheduled press test days.
 
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well they had press demonstrators as you say in their shows earlier... And those are unchanged when delivered to customer... Nevertheless this spoiled the episode a bit... To be honest i forgot that the episode was filmed way erlier tha aired.. Stupid me...
 
well they had press demonstrators as you say in their shows earlier... And those are unchanged when delivered to customer... Nevertheless this spoiled the episode a bit... To be honest i forgot that the episode was filmed way erlier tha aired.. Stupid me...

They don't really go as far as shipping a S-GO **** plated Porsche (i.e. a press demonstrator) to the USA just for this kind of thing. To the UK and the TG studio? Maybe. Over the Ocean just for 3-4 days of use by a single person? Not profitable enough.
 
When you work with someone for eight years, then stab your friends and coworkers in the back for a lousy book deal, that's when you add "Judas" to your middle name. The guys were a lot more restrained than I expected.

I still don't get this "stabbed in the back" nonsense. The whole Stig thing was just an inside joke anyway and besides, we all know Michael Schumacher is the real Stig, didn't you see that episode?
 
Long time lurker, one or two time poster (a long time ago) hence re-register-er.

Great episode. All the best moments have been said already however some of the negativity is getting to me.

The "it's scripted" whinging.
No shit Sherlock. The BBC are just going to go head first into the Middle East no planning or anything, and expect that everything's going to go 'swimmingly.' No chance at all that JC, Hammond and May knew that they were going to land in Iraq or the route they were going to take.
Let's point this out again for the umpteenth time, Top Gear is not a reality show - it's an entertainment program*.

And no, when James had his accident they may not have been far from a road. And? Your point is? Their's was to sneak across the desert. It looked pretty deserty to me even if the roads weren't far off. Was all that blood staged as well?

I've been watching Top Gear since the Tony Mason/ Tiff/ JC days and I've learned that any car program that involves Jeremy Clarkson - you don't take it seriously. He is, in the words of Mr May, "A big giant cock." But, a funny one.

*Lets be honest, the reality of car driving is neither funny nor interesting. We don't all have access to really nice cars, tracks, helicopters, exotic locations and so on. It took me 30 mins to de-ice my car the other day and that's just dull, cold and irritating. Ocasionally you'll see a nice car on the road that'll remind you of why you like cars (for me, a Dodge Ram SRT-10 a couple of days in a car park - Wouldn't want one but it sounded fanfeckingtastic), so let's all bring out the Xmas cheer and be thankful for Top Gear which reminds us of why we think cars are special in the first place.

I would have that Barchetta any day. Always liked them.

And the reason some of you aren't liking Top Gear = Jealousy. You want their job and you know it.

Sorry if this is a repeat post - got confuzzled about the admin and new-poster schtik

Did you even read this thread and the negative sentiments which are apparently getting to you? Because this thread is not for the Middle East special which aired on Boxing Day, it's for the third US special which aired five days prior.

Also, the line I highlighted in your post is an absolutely baseless and rather childish way of looking at things. If you plan to become more than a lurker here you might be interested to know that that kind of thing isn't looked upon too highly on FinalGear. If you have sensible rebuttals to the criticisms then by all means, but saying any criticism stems from jealousy just makes you look like a childish prick.
 
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Please tell me that was a joke.

It was, just like the rest of TopGear. I really wish the delusional extremist fans of the show would at least try to be realistic about the whole thing. TopGear is a silly fucking TV show that has become famous for one thing and one thing only, cocking about and ruining almost everything they get their hands on. The Stig is a character and there is a living human being underneath that suit and his name happened to be Ben. Get the fuck over it already. Andy, Jeremy, James, and Richard are all rich and famous from TopGear, enjoying their millions and having a grand old time going on TV shows, releasing DVDs, writing their own books, etc etc etc. Ben Collins writes a book to tell his life story and people call him "true scum" and other such bullshit. It's pathetic.
 
It was, just like the rest of TopGear. I really wish the delusional extremist fans of the show would at least try to be realistic about the whole thing. TopGear is a silly fucking TV show that has become famous for one thing and one thing only, cocking about and ruining almost everything they get their hands on. The Stig is a character and there is a living human being underneath that suit and his name happened to be Ben. Get the fuck over it already. Andy, Jeremy, James, and Richard are all rich and famous from TopGear, enjoying their millions and having a grand old time going on TV shows, releasing DVDs, writing their own books, etc etc etc. Ben Collins writes a book to tell his life story and people call him "true scum" and other such bullshit. It's pathetic.

Ben Collins wasn't sold to Top Gear as a slave. He was a well-paid employee of the BBC with some special clauses in his contract. If he was a good friend and indeed a man who stands by his decisions and keeps his word he would have waited until his contract with the BBC ended, then said: "I'm sorry guys, it's been a fantastic X years, but I'm interested in doing other things now." The BBC could then have offered him money to never talk about his career at Top Gear, or they could go their separate ways and he could publish whatever book he wanted.

Instead Ben chose to be a dick, got a pack of lawyers to sneak him out of an agreement he willingly accepted and fuck up the concept for Top Gear and in the process his many friends and coworkers at the BBC. He did a job he was well paid to do and knew the terms before he accepted. I don't feel sorry for him at all and he truly deserves "judas" as his middle name.
 
It's my understanding that his contract did end and that's when he decided to release his book. The BBC tried to take him to court over it, but they rightfully lost.

Also, how does knowing the Stig's true identity "fuck up" the concept of TopGear? His leaving the show in no way, shape, or form hurt the show. If anything, TopGear is using it for more gimmicky segments and jokes. His leaving may have increased the ratings and made the rich richer. They should probably be thanking him. But what's really interesting in this whole thing are all the insults and condescending treatment the boys have been throwing at Ben, but Ben has acted like an adult with class and didn't stoop to their level. It seems to me that almost everything he said about working on TopGear and it's crew were positive, only the stressfulness of keeping his identity secret did he complain about.
 
I see a part missing in my previous post, sorry about that. Thing is, "The Stig" isn't Collins property, the concept and the secretive man in the white suit is an IP that belongs to the BBC. When he says "Hey, I'm the Stig!" they can't just put another racing driver in the suit and move forward: That's how he's fucking with the concept. Ben Collins destroyed something (The white Stig) that didn't belong to him. It does create headlines and publicity for Top Gear. But they already swapped Stigs once so they probably have to do something entirely new now.


Here's an excerpt from The Guardian:

Clarkson said he felt "a bit hurt really". "It was such a shock. It was horrible actually because I liked him and he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book," he added, in a video interview published online today by Oxfordshire-based community news service WitneyTV.

"He's just decided he'd rather be ... put it this way he's history as far as we are concerned. He's sacked," said Clarkson, who was interviewed at a charity auction at Chipping Norton Lido.

"I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying work out what out what an earth to do instead. You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said greed was good and greed works. It doesn't, if you're watching this children, greed is bad," he added.
 
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I see a part missing in my previous post, sorry about that. Thing is, "The Stig" isn't Collins property, the concept and the secretive man in the white suit is an IP that belongs to the BBC. When he says "Hey, I'm the Stig!" they can't just put another racing driver in the suit and move forward: That's how he's fucking with the concept. Ben Collins destroyed something (The white Stig) that didn't belong to him. It does create headlines and publicity for Top Gear. But they already swapped Stigs once so they probably have to do something entirely new now.


Here's an excerpt from The Guardian:

Clarkson said he felt "a bit hurt really". "It was such a shock. It was horrible actually because I liked him and he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book," he added, in a video interview published online today by Oxfordshire-based community news service WitneyTV.

"He's just decided he'd rather be ... put it this way he's history as far as we are concerned. He's sacked," said Clarkson, who was interviewed at a charity auction at Chipping Norton Lido.

"I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying work out what out what an earth to do instead. You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said greed was good and greed works. It doesn't, if you're watching this children, greed is bad," he added.

You see, I don't buy a word of that. Ben Collins told the truth. He was honest. All these horrible things being said about him are uncalled for. Yes, he was asked to keep a secret, but it sounds to me like the BBC dropped the ball and his identity was leaked. He mentioned quite a bit being harassed with accusations of being the Stig and trying to find a way to avoid answering without lying or giving the secret away. In the end, he never agreed to take the secret to his grave. And he's not obligated to tell Jeremy Clarkson what he does in his free time. What possible business is it of Jeremy's if Ben Collins was writing his life story in his free time? The answer is, it's not. It sounds like his contract ended and he decided to move on. And once his contract ended, he was no longer bound to it and he was free to be honest about what he was doing with his life the past 8 years or whatever. But of course the BBC decided that they can own truth and violate people's freedom of speech to protect their "property". Thankfully the courts didn't agree. There is some sanity left in the world it seems.

As far as Jeremy talking about greed, I find that ironic, what with the complete selling out of the TopGear franchise. TopGear US, TopGear Russia, TopGear Australia, and probably more to come. Merchandise, DVD sales, series syndication, etc. It all seems to revolve around making as much money as possible. And no doubt Jeremy and Andy had plans for how they wanted to reveal the Stig's identity, which no doubt involved them making lots more money, but then Ben threw a wrench into their plans. You'll have to forgive me if I couldn't care less about their feelings and blatant overreactions.

Edit: And sorry Narf and anyone else annoyed, I just have difficulty tolerating the fanboyish nonsense with hating Ben Collins over this. But I'll shut up now. Haters gonna hate, right? /shrugs
 
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