[19x07] March 10th, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 2]

[19x07] March 10th, 2013 [Africa Special, Part 2]

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The episode has some pretty funny stuff, but there's too much failures for them to say the cars made it. May's Volvo had broken wheels, Hammond's Subaru had broken suspension (and probably wheels as I saw the rims where different at the end). Clarkson's BMW got stuck many times. It would've been better if they took care of the cars a bit better so it's more convincing when they say their cars made the journey.
 
I liked it
 
Part 1 was better. Part 2 had way more obviously scripted parts in it, and bringing spare parts in the support truck seems like cheating to me.
 
When they were crossing the river by building the raft, how did they get the ropes across the river and anchored so that they could pull on the ropes to get the raft across. That scene was completely staged.
 
Squeezer said:
When they were crossing the river by building the raft, how did they get the ropes across the river and anchored so that they could pull on the ropes to get the raft across. That scene was completely staged.
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You clearly weren't paying attention if you didn't see the scenes with James rowing across to set it up
 
I liked it, but too much of it was them driving on standard roads without incident. The part near the end where they struggled on the ratty road was great, but incidents like that were too few.

While we all know there is a support crew I liked the fantasy that they do these things alone, it was jarring when they showed the half dozen or so crew helping them along.

I didn't sense a connection to the cars. My first point I suspect being the reason for this.

Still I loved it. One of the best specials since quite awhile.
 
Sandy106 said:
Part 1 was better. Part 2 had way more obviously scripted parts in it, and bringing spare parts in the support truck seems like cheating to me.
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That part with the Ford sinking... that couldn't have been scripted, right?
 
This episode sums up my feelings towards top gear and the specials recently. They're good but there is something missing. It's not scripting, because clearly Botswana, Vietnam and the Pole were. It's not the challenge, because it could have been great. I think it's just because as time goes by they're finding it harder to find the magic. Put it this way, if they'd tried this mission when they did Botswana, we'd have had a very different programme.

I see top gear as being like a long lived band. First few albums are good. Middle few albums are sublime, then things tail off because they've nothing new to cover and fewer ideas. The reality is series 10 was probably top gears creative peak, and Vietnam (Series 14) was the best special moment. From these points on there's been a steady decline. At times along the way we will get some stinkers (like India) and will have times, possibly like this one where people hail a return to form.

That is still fine by me. A not as good as 5 years ago episode is still better than most of the stuff on TV. In the same way that a new Rolling Stones album is not nearly as good as Exile, but it still better than 95% of modern music. We need to lower our expectations and stop posting "worst episode ever" in reply to a joke that's fallen a bit flat.

Top gear back in the summer, great is all I can say!
 
AudiEnthusiast said:
Seriously? Middle East? On 3? By what measure? Too much script and overly modified cars without ANY sense or beauty in it?.
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It's a tie between Middle East and Bolivia. Clarkson summed up exactly why I loved that Episode at the end of it. A small open-top sports car giving you access to 93 million miles of blue sky. And no real beauty in it? Some beautiful scenery around Damascus, sunset over the Sea of Galilee and the Syrian desert etc.
 
The whole special was dull and unmemorable. There was a complete lack of "great moments" that the good TG specials always have. Think of Hai Long Bay in Vietnam, the Road of Death in Bolivia, the vista shots of the salt pan in Botswana, the rednecks in US, and the boulder field in Polar. Nothing like that here. What few memories I have of it won't have to be driven out like India did, but there's nothing that will sink in and be memorable.

Again, another 6, and again, the Easily Amused Brigade is swamping the voting. Here's a hint: Average is 5. Average is not 7.5. You don't give extra credit because it has the name "Top Gear" slapped on it.
 
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It was all a bit low key, but I actually liked it.

I'm not going to mark it up (out of relief that the script writers didn't ruin it), but I would give it a higher score if I was sure that that was really "the source" of the river Nile (can't be sure, because they have stuffed around too much in the recent past).

7/10
 
I am just glad the show is on. I love cars and so do these 3 blokes. That's all that matters when it comes to Top Gear. I am not going to critique it but I will be sad if it goes off the air because people have started saying it's not as better as before.
 
The Spie said:
Here's a hint: Average is 5. Average is not 7.5. You don't give extra credit because it has the name "Top Gear" slapped on it.
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In scoring/grading systems used in most countries, half the score is the passing level. It's only natural that people use a scale familiar from school/uni.

So I would argue that 5 is not the average, 5 is the failure threshold.
 
8/10

I've watched part 1 three times this past week, I was hoping part 2 would equal it for quality but it just just fell short. The scripted sillys were starting to shine thru. I'm hoping the dvd extras can make up for it.

Overall i think they should just stick to making specials.

Looks like May and Clarkson swapped (stole?) their hood emblems too.


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^^ yes, but this isn't a pass/fail situation. If each individual here thought this episode was average (and scored it appropriately), their scores should be normally distributed around the score "5"; that clearly isn't going to happen. The scores given here are negatively skewed, indicating that the frequenters of this forum are not "normal".
 
smtk said:
If they're going to do this much scripted comedy then they all really need some acting lessons...

/ducks
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jack_christie said:
Sorry, bit boring.... could do alot better
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Agree with both. Whatever happened to "let's drop 3 guys with 3 knackered and inappropriate cars into a harsh environment and give them a (semi) serious task to achieve and just see what happens"?

Part 1 gave me high hopes for part 2 but then they reverted to type and just went with one silly cliche after another. Last season (bar the appalling India Special) gave me a glimmer of hope but this run has been disappointing. They have no new ideas and the old ones are getting really really tiresome.

I never thought I'd say this but I think they have reached that point where it is time to hang up their driving gloves and go their separate ways.
 
Better then part 1 I think, I see lots of people complaining about scripting which I don't feel is warranted, I liked pretty much everything my only complaint is that for whatever reason it felt as though it was about to end quite abruptly and the final race wasn't the best final race they've ever done.
Still, solid episode I can't wait for the blu-ray disk to come out so I can listen to the commentary track which presumably will have James May and some of the producers.
 
It wasn't bad, but I just didn't feel that connection to the vehicles like one should on a TG special.

Up until the deeply rutted road near the end there, it didn't appear that the journey was terribly perilous or difficult at any point, and as a result I just failed to appreciate the enormity of the challenge. The soundtrack was also a little plain compared to what we usually expect from Top Gear.

All in all not bad, but I can't rank it up there with the best.
 
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