[16x00] December 26th, 2010 [Middle East Special]

[16x00] December 26th, 2010 [Middle East Special]

  • Total voters
    636
I enjoyed it immensely. Part of it might be that it's the first Top Gear special that I saw uncut first (it's all been cut on German TV), but mostly it was just brilliant. Even though it was obvious in retrospect, I did not see little baby-Stig coming. As I'm a bit in love with the Z3 since a certain JB movie, I did enjoy the fun poked at it. Especially the "Armed/Disarmed" bits. Damn, I know it's not a good car, but it's soooo pretty!

James hitting his head was a bit of shock though. Makes me worry that one of them might really bite the dust at one point...
 
I'm one of the ones that didn't saw baby stig coming.
I like the fact that the Phil Collins stereo joke was killed early instead of becoming tedious later on.
As a member of the catholic church I don't feel the least bit offended.

Excellent episode. 9/10
 
Firstly I think this episode seemed to miss out a fair bit, or rather the idea of an overview of the journey as opposed to a fluid story came over a bit more than could, or should, be. Either way - full of brilliant moments (maybe minus James' little accident - but I'm glad they put it in) and quotes.

When they entered the stable however I did think to myself (but did not say anything as I wayched it alone) "oh they could introduce the new Stig here - that would be interesting". Maybe a little too predictable ending, but a nice way to do it - now they just have to get he follow up right, and not push it aside.

Overall it was still a classic Topgear special - funny, entertaining, informative (that not everywhere that isn't the UK isn't horrible), and brilliant. A great decision with the cars (I know about having a connection to a car :p), and a classic ambitious ending (it must be noted that the passage about the young Jesus' anger at not getting a DS was removed from the bible in early editing). I gave it a 9 as it was an 8.5, but I did a James and rounded up. Welcome back, Topgear.
 
10.

Too quick to call it my favoirte episode of all time but I doubt its not in the top 5 or 3. There honestly must be about a hundred awesome quotes or amazing demotes in this ep. The ending was amazing and I figured it out just enough before to laugh my ass off for a good minute.

Probably the best all around episode I've seen.
 
mikiha said:
its easy to write facist when you are not afraid to go on a bus fearing it will explode.
but that wall saves lives every day. so i dont have a problem with saving lives.
Click to expand...
In short term, that's true. In the long term, it'll just invite more trouble. Furthermore, its placement is at places.. interesting.

Blargh, I just did it. We shouldn't derail this futher.
 
Tzarrim said:
It didn't work for me, don't know why as it had all the normal ingredients.
Click to expand...

I have to admit it did not work for me, as well. I kind of found it a bit of a chore to watch, honestly. It struck me as a one-dimensional "pantomime" episode where they just maximized the cocking about.

The cinematography did HD justice (a complaint I have had in the past with Series 14, especially), but in the end, I felt it was the weakest "adventure" they have done so I gave it a 6.
 
In JCs words: absolutely epic :)

Can`t remember any serious flaw - was more on the serious side, looked not to staged etc --> pretty much perfect
I just wondered for a moment if James accident was for real
 
Last edited:
It took me several hours to watch because I kept stopping the video when they acted stupid in places where it is very stupid to act stupid like at border crossings.

Though I think the Daily Mail thinktank has shut down as they try and decide what to complain about Burkhas or the BBC's gay agenda because they were in drag.
As a person who is slowly becoming a petrolhead because of James May it made me sick in the stomach to see him hit his head like that.

For politcal reasons we should not mention Israel at all.
 
Wonderful. Was genuinely scared for James though when he was slammed to the ground. Yikes. Ending had me going "omg!" :D

10/10! Thank you TG!
 
The others before me pretty much covered my thoughts, but I?d like to add proper soundtrack to this episodes list of pro?s. Fast paced music was used just enough.

At James' fall, before JC said things were going to get worse, I assumed an axle would fall off, or something similar. Good for him nothing worse happened, but it?s still a bit surprising JM didn?t figure out what could happen.
 
Last edited:
So good I watched it twice right off. 10 for me I just must be in a generous mood - Better than Vietnam but behind (just) Botswana.

Oh I was at school with a kid that sheep?s head reminded me of. ... :lol:
 
Last edited:
Hello from a lurker. This was quite an epic episode, I'd love to see a much longer "behind the scenes/making of" episode, because the bureaucracy must have been a nightmare trying to prepare that trip... because of the real life dangers I guess the whole thing was carefully planned, so there was less of an opportunity for them to be real fools, which is unfortunate. And we as the audience probably know in our minds, "yeah, they didn't just decide to do that, that must have been planned" (like that whole James May blimp thing), which makes it quite a disappointment.

I actually thought that was Jeremy who got knocked down, and laughed at first, then when I realised it was James I thought, "oh no, James!", which is a curious reaction. Pretty gruesome seeing the blood on the ground.

So will the next Stig be "Burka-Stig"?
 
As a regular churchgoer who devotes her Wednesday afternoons teaching catechism (surprised? :lol: )....I loved every minute (well, not counting James' head wound and the lamb brain-eating) of the special.

I can hardly wait for the shitstorm of complaints that are pretty much inevitable; it should be interesting seeing whether the Christians or Muslims were more offended.

If you'll excuse me, I'm off to go watch Life of Brian.
 
Brilliant, beautiful, irreverent, hysterical, poignant, and possibly educational. Not quite the greatest story ever told, but easily the most entertaining TV I have seen in 2010. Kudos and many blessings be upon everyone involved.
 
James was very lucky, given what can go wrong with snatch recoveries - standing where he was, some of the other failure modes could have been instantly fatal! A case where a man in a flourescent jacket with a clipboard might actually have been useful...

You can't do snatch recovery with a dead rope - things just break when the rope goes tight. Snatches use a bungee rope. The same thing people jump off cranes attached to by the ankles. The idea is that to pull a stuck vehicle out of a really nasty hole takes more energy than 4 tyres on a tow car scrabbling for grip can give, so the idea is that the bungee is used, the tow car flys off up the road at speed until the bungee stretches massively, kinetic energy being stored all the time in the bungee, and at some point the vehicle being snatched will suddenly leap out of the ground towards the tow car, even if it was up to the bottom of the doors. Thing is, if the bungee is stretched by enough to enable it to catapult a car out of the ground, think what it would do to... say... A shackle attached to a sheared off eye bolt if something went bad?

Yes, it would fly through the air like a bullet. And through the head or body of anybody standing adjacent to the rope...
 
It was a great episode, but I did have a couple problems with it. The whole "crossing the desert" part. At first I thought they might actually be serious about it, but when they presented their modified cars I pretty much lost hope. I couldn't shake the feeling that throughout that entire portion of the show, if the camera turned around, you'd see a highway and support vehicles. When James got hurt I was shocked. Tow straps can be dangerous, as they learned the hard way. Kinda makes me think of the drive by shooting complaints from the last episode, being careless can end badly and the entire show can come to a quick end if they're not smart. Luckily James appears to be alright, although I don't like the idea of him getting hit on the head that hard, people have been known to drop dead weeks/months after suffering a head injury and thought they were alright.

I did love what James did to his BMW though, that just looked awesome. :D I wish the other 2 would've taken it as seriously as James, even if they would have been less funny. The scenery was incredible, but the cities were just depressing.

The Stig thing at the end bothered me though. Not because of the (sensationalistic) religious offense it's going to cause, but because of how cheesy and stupid it was. It was a very serious and emotional episode, with a few scary and a few hilarious moments sprinkled in. It would have been nice if they could have ended it with some class and style, rather than with some silly gimmick of a joke. They say the ending of any film is the most important part, because it makes the biggest impression on the audience as it's the last thing they see and can make or break the rest of the film. The baby Stig nonsense broke it for me. I would have given it a solid 8 or even a 9, but because of the ending I ended up giving it a 7/10.
 
Last edited:
Good but not my favorite special. Third place behind Vietnam and Bolivia. Measured by the usual friends on the couch watching a fresh rip... fewer LOL's than even just last week's episode.

I'm gonna sit down and watch it again with no distractions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top