Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
Posts: 2,815
|
Post by Spudiator on Dec 23, 2009 18:46:16 GMT
I'm looking forward to the Bolivian special. The epic road trips are usually pretty good and to be honest after the last episode (which was a bit disappointing to me, and quite a few others from what I can gather) they need something like this to get the enthusiasm for the series going again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Baron Canier on Dec 24, 2009 14:18:10 GMT
The Stig? He's an urban myth. Like that "Batman" fellow.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nab on Dec 24, 2009 23:28:10 GMT
News that Top Gear might be coming to an end is not surprising. It’s become to predictable and it’s not really much of a car show anymore. Still, I’ll be sad when it’s all over.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Jun 27, 2010 18:35:19 GMT
For those not in the know, Top Gear series 15 begins in 25 minutes on BBC 2, and sees the start of a new Celebrity lap board 'cos there's a new reasonably priced car.  |
|
|
|
Post by Beeth on Jun 27, 2010 18:59:04 GMT
It isn't season 13, though, it's 15. This thread is seriously outdated. I've proposed a new title in the top of this post.
Anyway, enjoy the TV programme.
|
|
|
|
Post by madhair60 on Jun 27, 2010 19:03:54 GMT
Updated opening post
|
|
|
|
Post by Beeth on Jul 9, 2010 16:13:02 GMT
Jeremy Clarkson.
1988.
Afro in full force.
Slightly posher voice.
|
|
|
|
Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Jul 11, 2010 19:29:51 GMT
Mein Gott... hes faster than The Stig!
|
|
|
|
Post by Retro on Jul 12, 2010 14:52:14 GMT
Stiggy won't be chuffed. I forsee a new lap.
|
|
|
|
Post by Juliett. Bravo. Alfa. on Jul 12, 2010 15:33:58 GMT
Mind you - Rubens was always faster than Schumi at some tracks...
|
|
|
|
Post by Dragonsteincole on Jul 27, 2010 18:29:02 GMT
Episode 5, the best episode of any recent series, and one of the best of this new incarnation of Top Gear. Started well and just built from there. Richard doing a quite serious test. Captain Slow becomes his alter-ego Captain Lightspeed again in a successful revisit of a previous bit. Tom Cruise actually came off as quite charming and enthusiastic. Cameron Diaz swearing up a storm. And then the Ayrton Senna tribute - it's so evident the amount of work and effort, and personal moments that went into that film, and it comes off as mature, well informed and fantastic tribute to the man himself.
Cracking episode.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Sept 1, 2010 16:02:12 GMT
The Stig is James Bond stunt double Ben Collins (as has been pretty widely known for a couple of weeks now because of this case). Since his contract is broken if his identity is ever found out, one assumes that just like his predecessor, the Stig will be killed off at the start of the next series and replaced. |
|
|
|
Post by Feniiku on Sept 1, 2010 17:01:18 GMT
To take out the Stig there needs to be an epic battle, where Black Stig comes back for full vengance and they're both destroyed  I tried to portray this, but my artistic talents could not capture the epic. So they ended up just Staring at eachother instead |
|
|
|
Post by Beeth on Sept 1, 2010 18:00:49 GMT
I had an inkling it might be him all the way along, given previous citations. Mind you, it makes sense given how he's a lesser-known name on his own merit, when they could've picked someone more obviously well-known such as Eddie Irvine or someone. I'm surprised they didn't use someone like Irvine in an attempt to throw people or something. Mind, only a really smart person would've thought a plan like that up anyway.  |
|
Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
Posts: 2,815
|
Post by Spudiator on Sept 1, 2010 18:03:09 GMT
Ben Collins is indeed a fool. As The Stig he could've gone on forever in infamy, but he's ruined that and will now become forgotten in no time once White Stig is written out, and after what happened to Perry McCarthy it's surely an inevitability. It's an idiot who doesn't learn from his mistakes, it's an even bigger idiot who doesn't learn from other people's. I can't help but worry about the future of Top Gear from here-on. In a blog entry by executive producer Andy Wilman last year, he alluded to the eventual end of Top Gear: While this isn't exactly condemning TG to the graveyard just yet, the general feedback for series' 14 and 15 hasn't been the best, I've been a huge fan of the show for many years, even before it was reinvented, but even I've felt like they were running out of ideas in the last year or so (although there have still been the occasional highlights, like the Reliant Robin testdrive earlier this year), and this Stig story could be another nail in the coffin, depending on whether they consider it worth their while to invent another new Stig (which would surely mean finding a new gimmick for him, the outrageous "some people say..." lines was very much a White Stig bit, along with the various "cousin" characters). On the other hand, perhaps this will prove to be the beginning of a renaissance for TG, and lead to the show returning closer to its roots. We shall see... |
|
|
|
Post by Nam on Sept 2, 2010 8:28:56 GMT
The problem is that they're trying to force the comedy too much, when in actuality the comedy comes from three blokes who like to take the piss out of each other, as well as there chosen subject. Go back and watch a few of the early episodes and you can see none of the jokes are planned, and the intention isn't even to be funny, it just happens to be funny because of there natural chemistry.
Nowadays they set too much stuff up, and it's become painfully obvious in the last couple of seasons that they've been told ""Right, we'll do this, because it would be funny to end on, now you try and act natural about it". Best example was the one where they built motor homes, and the final shot deliberately frames Clarkson with his back to the cliff that his car just so happens to be pushed off of. Clarkson's reactions were unnatural, and the shot was a much too clean for something that was "unplanned".
Compare that to an earlier episode, such as the one where they built boat-cars, and you can see that while Hammond sank, it really wasn't planned that way, and yet it's still funny because f the naturalness in there commentry.
Likewise, pretty much all the car reviews now are for supercars, or other really expensive, really fast types of car. They seldom touch other types, and when they do it's usually not for a review, but rather because they've got some absurd set-up and wish to use a much cheaper car for it. Case in point, the bright pink car they made Hammond drive around his home town. You could guarantee, if that had been a dark red, or black car, they'd've not bothered with it, but because it was pink they thought "We can get a few jokes out of this one."
A good chunk of the humor in the old series was when they reviewed a bad car. Listening to them slag off the various faults was highly entertaining, as was the ironic sentiments when a car would break down.
Ultimately Top Gear is slipping because they're trying too hard to force comedy, and focus a bit too much on really good fast cars, so they can have lots of shots of them doing burnouts and power laps on the test track. If they could stop forcing things, the natural chemistry of the hosts should carry the show for even non car buffs as it did at the start.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beeth on Sept 16, 2010 16:19:29 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Retro on Sept 16, 2010 19:03:46 GMT
Ben Collins
"The Stig"
Whoever wrote that CGI namebar needs a slap. That man is not the Stig. At least, not anymore.
|
|
|
|
Post by madhair60 on Sept 16, 2010 19:09:07 GMT
Ben Collins "The Stig" Whoever wrote that CGI namebar needs a slap. That man is not the Stig. At least, not anymore. Seems entirely reasonable. He was The Stig for several years, and they've not yet aired with a replacement. Unless I'm missing something. What else would they write? "Former Stig"? That'd just be stupid. It's entirely possible there's some Stig-based information I'm out of the loop on here. |
|
|
|
Post by Retro on Sept 16, 2010 19:31:27 GMT
Black Stig was the mystery man.
White Stig was a character.
He is not "The Stig", because "The Stig" is fictional.
Not to mention the fact that he doesn't deserve the title.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beeth on Sept 16, 2010 19:44:46 GMT
He is not "The Stig", because "The Stig" is fictional. He was tagged as "The Stig" because that's who he played. Any actor known for a specific role at the time would be credited in a name bar as such, so that people who aren't yet versed will recognise who they are. As for "not deserving the title"... what the hell are you on about? If he didn't deserve it he wouldn't have been offered the role in the first place. |
|
|
|
Post by Retro on Sept 16, 2010 20:13:39 GMT
One quick look at the Top Gear site's producer opinion pretty much echoes my own on the matter. Far as I'm aware they are seeking to pretty much outright forget about Collins.
|
|
Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
Posts: 2,815
|
Post by Spudiator on Sept 16, 2010 21:18:09 GMT
A few thoughts occur to me from watching that This Morning interview:
1. Ben Collins is no way cool enough to really be The Stig, even though we know it was him. In real life he just seems a bit like a boring posh knob.
2. Philip Schofield is a crap presenter and interviewer, so's the woman but I've no idea who she is!
3. Look at that video again, every time they put a photo on-screen they used a really crappy animated background graphic that looks like it was designed by a four year-old!
Last 2 points are nothing to do with the subject at hand really, just further reminders of why I make it my business never to watch ITV if it can be helped. The first point is valid though, the TG team have created a persona that Ben Collins himself could never truly live up to in real life, he would've been better off staying anonymous, at least until TG had run its course and been cancelled by BBC (it's probably only got a couple of years left at most anyway if you ask me), and he could've gone down as part of the folklore, now he'll be replaced, be rapidly forgotten, just like Black Stig was, and will probably be forever regarded as the man who ruined the mystique of the whole character. What a tit!
|
|
|
|
Post by madhair60 on Sept 17, 2010 15:01:05 GMT
One quick look at the Top Gear site's producer opinion pretty much echoes my own on the matter. Far as I'm aware they are seeking to pretty much outright forget about Collins. That producer seems pretty butthurt about the whole thing. Someone should tell him it doesn't matter. I eagerly await the next series of Top Gear. |
|
|
|
Post by Retro on Sept 17, 2010 16:26:23 GMT
That producer seems pretty butthurt about the whole thing. Someone should tell him it doesn't matter. I eagerly await the next series of Top Gear. Sooo...one of the main characters from his show that is a huge marketting icon and brings a lot of viewers and merchandise sales into his show and thus funding his paycheck losing all his mystery and impact doesn't matter? Maybe not to a very casual watcher of Top Gear. But to it's cast, crew and producers this is a massive problem affecting their shows output in the near future. Not to mention the fact that they now have the trouble of finding another highly skilled driver who can take on F1 cars (not exactly an abundant supply) on an affordable level and keeping that a secret from a press that will be going into overdrive to find out. Not to mention this calls into question how the Lap Times will be sorted out. |
|
