Top Gear S21 Episode 3 (16th February)

colm_mcm · 10-02-2014 06:57PM #1

3/7. The three petrolheads demonstrate their love of small cars with a trip to Ukraine. Jeremy Clarkson chooses a Volkswagen Up for the journey, while Richard Hammond takes a Ford Fiesta and James May opts for a Dacia Sandero. On their adventure, the trio absorb the history of the Crimean Peninsula, including a visit to an old submarine pen - but the carefree exploration looks likely to become a chore when Jeremy, Richard and James are challenged to a long drive north through the expansive country, during which they must combat serious boredom. And as if that wasn't arduous enough, a new task is set when they arrive in Kiev - a trip into the wasteland of Chernobyl. This edition also features a track test of the Danish Zenvo ST1 supercar and James Blunt returns for another drive in the Reasonably Priced Car.

Radio Times

Foxhole Norman · 11-02-2014 11:06AM

Looking forward to this episode as Chernobyl/Pripyat has always been a place that I'd love to visit. Should be good to see how the cars hold up.

Nody · 11-02-2014 11:39AM

Sounds promising but then again so did both the previous episodes as well...

tossy · 16-02-2014 05:31PM

I wonder will they have a 15 minute recruitment drive for the army in this weeks episode lol

spank_inferno · 16-02-2014 08:16PM

All that setup for a lame "drunk queen" gag.

Terrible

spank_inferno · 16-02-2014 08:22PM

My aunt has an Up!

Great little car.

Zascar · 16-02-2014 08:22PM

Oh dear. There's the end of that company. No one is going to buy one after that disaster. Looks lovely in orange though!

Thargor · 16-02-2014 08:28PM

Cringey bit with the charge of the Light Brigade stuff there, hate when they go all pompous like that.

spank_inferno · 16-02-2014 08:29PM

Thargor wrote: »

Cringey bit with the charge of the Light Brigade stuff there, hate when they go all pompous like that.

Pompous?

They were rather solemn.

No pomposity there tbh.

Oh great, James Blunt....again

Red Kev · 16-02-2014 08:31PM

I'd loved to have seen the Zenvo in the dry, I don't think they gave it a proper review though it did itself no favours by going on fire.

WTF is James Blunt on again for, same stories again..... TG can't be running out of celebs, there must be plenty of footballers who'd like to have a crack at the lap.

squirrelohara · 16-02-2014 08:40PM

I wonder what will go on fire tonight.

Dartz · 16-02-2014 08:55PM

Are these cars not going to ****ing explode at 6000rpm for 90 miles?

knucklehead6 · 16-02-2014 09:02PM

Thargor wrote: »

Cringey bit with the charge of the Light Brigade stuff there, hate when they go all pompous like that.

Why? They're paying respect to men who died.

spank_inferno · 16-02-2014 09:03PM

Dartz wrote: »

Are these cars not going to ****ing explode at 6000rpm for 90 miles?

Yeah, you'd think the engine would be a tad hot after a while.

The Black Oil · 16-02-2014 09:22PM

Ah, I felt a bit sorry for the Danes there.

I like how they go these places and find little known sites around Europe - the submarine base was cool, and the pause at the Crimean War place seemed poignant. Obviously Chernobyl is another story, and atmospherically I'm not even sure what word to use. Bleak? Scary? They could do more of that without arsing around with car stuff, but that'll never happen.

alchemist33 · 16-02-2014 09:25PM

The Black Oil wrote: »

Ah, I felt a bit sorry for the Danes there.

I like how they go these places and find little known sites around Europe - the submarine base was cool, and the pause at the Crimean War place seemed poignant. Obviously Chernobyl is another story, and atmospherically I'm not even sure what word to use. Bleak? Scary? They could do more of that without arsing around with car stuff, but that'll never happen.

Well, my ten-year-old went to bed scared anyway!

I enjoyed that episode.

pixelburp · 16-02-2014 09:26PM

I'm pretty sure it's relatively 'easy' to visit Pripyat & Chernobyl these days; certainly I've read a number of amateur blogs of people visiting the zone, along with the occasional press junket to the facility & area. Still though, maybe it's because I played too much STALKER, but the sight of that reactor and ghost-town still chills me every time I see it, it's so bloody creepy & dripping with dread - you couldn't pay me to go there (though part of me would like to). I was also quite surprised how hurried the portion was; it wasn't like the rest of the Crimean drive was that interesting either.

The rest of the show was so-so; turned mute on for SiaRPC, and as for the test drive... yeesh; pretty embarrassing for that Danish company, you'd think that's their business sunk after their prized product is seen going up in flames on the biggest car TV show in the world.

The Black Oil · 16-02-2014 09:29PM

Also, £800,000 GBP? I know that's close to Veyron territory, but...

knucklehead6 · 16-02-2014 09:37PM

I know that the Chernobyl area is highly restricted, and the H&S guys wouldn't have allowed them do it without all the usual stuff, AND they played it up, but not for all the tea in china would I have done that drive.

knucklehead6 · 16-02-2014 09:38PM

I did like the extra brave camera crew gag in the credits though! :-)

pixelburp · 16-02-2014 09:48PM

knucklehead6 wrote: »

I know that the Chernobyl area is highly restricted, and the H&S guys wouldn't have allowed them do it without all the usual stuff, AND they played it up, but not for all the tea in china would I have done that drive.

I'm pretty sure there are public tours you can go on to take you around Pripyat; I believe it's safe to stay in the area for a few hours at most, but any longer and it gets dangerous. As you say they wouldn't have been allowed drive around were it not safe, I'm just surprised they didn't do more while in the area.

Mycroft H · 16-02-2014 09:48PM

Cannot believe how expensive that little fiesta is.

Rhys Essien · 16-02-2014 09:53PM

knucklehead6 wrote: »

I know that the Chernobyl area is highly restricted, and the H&S guys wouldn't have allowed them do it without all the usual stuff, AND they played it up, but not for all the tea in china would I have done that drive.

No its not,anyone can book a trip there.

http://www.lupinetravel.co.uk/chernobyl-tours-and-holidays.html#prices

https://chernobyl-tour.com/english/

Zascar · 16-02-2014 09:54PM

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/the-day-i-went-to-watch-top-gear-be-filmed-1523994592

Dartz · 16-02-2014 10:23PM

knucklehead6 wrote: »

I know that the Chernobyl area is highly restricted, and the H&S guys wouldn't have allowed them do it without all the usual stuff, AND they played it up, but not for all the tea in china would I have done that drive.

500 ***** a minute isn't really that much.... the radiation needle is heavily exaggerated. The vicinity of the plant itself is actually one of the cleaner places - it's been cleaned up heavily to keep from cooking the plant workers. It was in operation up until 2000 generating power for the Ukrainian grid, and people still actually work there maintaining the idle reactors while they cool down and defuel..... (And BBC documentary crews.)

The worst parts are the forests that've sucked the contamination out of the ground, or the places where the wreckage was dumped underground. The fun part about radiation is that the 20,000 year stuff is actually pretty inactive --- it's the the stuff that has the half-life measured in hours, minutes or seconds that you have to worry about because it's fizzing. But most of that will have decayed to ****all by now because of how half-lives work.

TitianGerm · 16-02-2014 11:03PM

Anybody know when the repeat is on ? My sky didn't record all the episode and I'd like to see the rest

FunLover18 · 16-02-2014 11:05PM

knucklehead6 wrote: »

I know that the Chernobyl area is highly restricted, and the H&S guys wouldn't have allowed them do it without all the usual stuff, AND they played it up, but not for all the tea in china would I have done that drive.

Sure John McClane was grand, he even had a swim ... no wait, that didn't happen did it. There are only 3 Die Hard movies. My bad, must've been some weird fever dream.

Back to the episode, I want to vote in the poll but I'm unsure what the average quality of this show is anymore. I was going to go with below average but then I realised that the show has been below average for quite some time, thereby dragging down the average quality

colm_mcm · 16-02-2014 11:19PM

emmetkenny wrote: »

Anybody know when the repeat is on ? My sky didn't record all the episode and I'd like to see the rest

Wednesday at 23.20 on regular BBC, Thursday at 23.20 on BBC NI and twice a month on Dave till 2320.

TitianGerm · 16-02-2014 11:23PM

colm_mcm wrote: »

Wednesday at 23.20 on regular BBC, Thursday at 23.20 on BBC NI and twice a month on Dave till 2320.

Thank you !!

Chris_Heilong · 16-02-2014 11:30PM

I watched it on the BBC iplayer using Expat sheild. I liked this episode, the Supercar looked great but maybe 1000hp is the real problem there.

spank_inferno · 17-02-2014 12:26AM

Am I right in saying that the fiesta engine is the same one intended to be in the next gen of Mondeo's??

Shame Jezz had the regular Up!
There is a GTI version with about 100ish bhp.
Stick some good tyres & brakes on it and the Up! Would be a hoot to drive.

dickwod1 · 17-02-2014 01:18AM

I think Jeremy summed up this episode best when he said "Right I admit it this is boring"

I used to love Top Gear, Now it just feel's like I'm literally wasting my time watching it.

Dravokivich · 17-02-2014 09:38AM

spank_inferno wrote: »

Shame Jezz had the regular Up!
There is a GTI version with about 100ish bhp.
Stick some good tyres & brakes on it and the Up! Would be a hoot to drive.

That would have missed the point though. It was meant to be average small cars. Sporty versions aren't what the average punter would get themselves.

sebastianlieken · 17-02-2014 11:06AM

holy crap this was one boring ass episode.

Everything was so drawn out!

Jeremy trying to speak ukrainian... oh look, he said something he didn't mean to say.... again.
James Blunt... again.
The whole road trip in general was brutally boring! I mean, what even did they do? The Only reason I was looking forward to this episode was pripyat/chernoble, and they really didn't take advantage of what they could have done with it and as a result wasted an awesome oppertunity!

The ONLY good part of this epsiode was that Danish supercar which Jeremy ripped to shreds because it was so brutal, and that it caught fire, and that it did worse than a Focus ST. But then Jeremy is such an ass you don't like when he gives bad reviews because it just feels like he has a political agenda.

felt like such a budget episode.

Myrddin · 17-02-2014 11:12AM

First segment with the Danish supercar was a bit meh. The car, despite the power, is ten years too late to the show imo. Hybrid tech is where things are heading, & if the P1 is anything to go by, the future is bright. £800k is just insane, as shown, the car is undrive-able with the assists off, & suffers from AMG syndrome (torgue overload).

James Blunt, again, as the SIARPC. I was expecting to tune out at this point as I normally so, but he actually turned out to be the most interesting part of the show for me, & I detest the SIARPC segment.

The main segment/Ukraine. Dull, dull, dull. With ten minutes of the show to go, the word Chernobyl was mentioned. So much for my expectations. There's so much they could have done within the exclusion zone, but no, the dangers were over hyped & an opportunity was missed. And before anyone chimes in about the radiation, I watched an episode of River Monsters there recently where Jeremy Wade spent tons more time within the zone that TG did, & was down catching fish from the canals that supply water to the cooler towers. It's quite, quite possible to make a show there.

Colour me disappointed with this episode

Gillespy · 17-02-2014 01:16PM

Two weeks in a row, two £800,000 hyper cars and they couldn't be more different. When I heard they had this Danish car coming up I wondered why they didn't take it to Spa with the P1, even wait for the new Porsche and do a big think on them. Have to feel sorry for them I guess, even a glowing endorsement from Top Gear wouldn't have meant much with cars like the P1 around though.

Zascar · 17-02-2014 01:31PM

I actually fast forwarded the James Blunt bit - I might go back and watch it if they talk about his twitter replies, but I'm not impressed with the quality of guests on the slow these days. Why can;t they bring on actual car enthusiasts rather than people trying to plug their latest book/movie/album etc?

Gillespy · 17-02-2014 01:38PM

I didn't watch it either. With the BAFTA awards on, one would think there's a movie star in town with an upcoming movie to sell that would like a day on a track with the Stig.

Mike Litoris · 17-02-2014 04:06PM

Yay, finally a decent episode.

cdeb · 17-02-2014 04:25PM

Zascar wrote: »

I actually fast forwarded the James Blunt bit - I might go back and watch it if they talk about his twitter replies

They did.

I'm with Myrddin on the Ukraine bit - a very similar idea to the Spain trip last series. That was an excellent episode - interesting, informative and fun all at the same time; the best type of Top Gear. But I didn't learn much about Ukraine last night, and there wasn't much in the way of laughs. Not bad as such; just a missed opportunity.

The Zendo bit was amazing. Apparently they're only making 15 of these things (a little snippet that could have been mentioned during the show?). Their reputation must be completely shot now. Granted, the Noble was as bad but has since improved, but at least the Noble was quick...

Don't generally agree with the doomsayers for the show; I thought most of the last series was very strong for example. But last night was a bit quiet, and I think I didn't get half the cultural references in the first episode of the series (missed the second), so overall, a bit meh on this series.

Still looking forward to the Burma special and the micro-car feature.

Vinz Mesrine · 18-02-2014 12:03PM

My recording cut short just as Clarkson ran out of petrol. Was there much after that?

Mycroft H · 18-02-2014 12:08PM

Nope; James carried on and then back to the studio.

Mike Litoris · 18-02-2014 12:28PM

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

My recording cut short just as Clarkson ran out of petrol. Was there much after that?

UPC? Its a bastid.:p

It ended rather abrubtly after that, back to the studio and that was it. They did, though, slag Hammond for having a radioactive anus because he was sitting on his car.:D

bogmanfan · 19-02-2014 01:31PM

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

My recording cut short just as Clarkson ran out of petrol. Was there much after that?

My UPC box always does this. Problem is although Top Gear is listed as 60 minutes, it's always at least 61, sometimes up to 64 minutes. So the box always misses the ending

dickwod1 · 19-02-2014 02:26PM

bogmanfan wrote: »

My UPC box always does this. Problem is although Top Gear is listed as 60 minutes, it's always at least 61, sometimes up to 64 minutes. So the box always misses the ending

The SKY box has a function to record 5, 10, 15, more mins at the start/end of a programme, Does UPC box not have that?

TitianGerm · 19-02-2014 02:43PM

dickwod1 wrote: »

The SKY box has a function to record 5, 10, 15, more mins at the start/end of a programme, Does UPC box not have that?

How do you do this on a sky box ?

dickwod1 · 19-02-2014 03:15PM

emmetkenny wrote: »

How do you do this on a sky box ?

This explains how to

TitianGerm · 19-02-2014 04:50PM

dickwod1 wrote: »

This explains how to

Sorry the link is missing ?

dickwod1 · 19-02-2014 05:13PM

emmetkenny wrote: »

Sorry the link is missing ?

PM sent

BoardsMember · 19-02-2014 05:14PM

You can do it on my version of the UPC box too, select how many minutes overrun you want it.

colm_mcm · 19-02-2014 10:19PM

bogmanfan wrote: »

My UPC box always does this. Problem is although Top Gear is listed as 60 minutes, it's always at least 61, sometimes up to 64 minutes. So the box always misses the ending

Which box do you have?

Top Gear S21 Episode 3 (16th February)

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