Everyone's been moaning about it lately and I agree that it's gone a little stale. But I though tonight's was excellent. Even if they do pull the series it'd still be good to see one big annual adventure like this one in Bolivia. Anyone else agree?

No, it was rubbish. LETS OFF ROAD

Twas excellent!

Only concern was Clarkson with that chainsaw and sodding off up the 'road-of-death' alone. A lot of it I guess was pretty well 'set-up' but terrific entertainment nevertheless!

Yeah I really enjoyed it actually, though I still find most of their 'banter' pretty cringey.

Not been impressed with the current series, the Lancia episode in particular was a missed opertunity. However, this particular episode was indeed excellent, be nice to see a South American/North Pole/Botswanan/etc episode continue even if the series is axed.

Yes.I thought tonights was excellent,if a little bit 'staged' in places.
Having said that,though,I dont think that the part where Clarkson was squeezing past the white Landcruiser on the 'death road' was staged.He genuinely looked like he was sh1tting himself!

I dont think that the part where Clarkson was squeezing past the white Landcruiser on the 'death road' was staged.

Hmm I dunno – I wondered how come they happened to be able to film that bit from all sorts of different angles.

agreed griff, the close run-in was tense….however the 'whoops hamster forgot to put the handbrake on' was beyond blatant!

enjoyed that episode, would love to do it for real

It's good family entertainment, but they are definitely getting more puerile.

I suppose they made what was a rather dull format interesing, but it has become a bit samey.

Oh who cares.

By the sounds of these blogs http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/ they seem to be aware of the current opinion of TG.

Really enjoyed tonights episode though!

Much better than the rest of the series. The (absolutely not) 'hilarious' staged bits were unnecessary. The film didn't need it.

I dont think that the part where Clarkson was squeezing past the white Landcruiser on the 'death road' was staged

I suspect the white truck was one of their crew cars and the cameraman 'somehow' abseiled down the hill to film the gravel falling away from beneath the tyres just as it was all happening. Don't believe all you see on TV…..

Top Gear is one of Auntie's biggest money spinners; what makes anybody think that they're gonna dump something that brings in money from all over the world? Sure, the format may be tidied up a bit, but dropped? Hah, not a chance.

All the way to Bolivia and they didn't visit the salt flats? Tut tut

Brought back good memories of biking down the death road though
http://www.gravitybolivia.com

film the gravel falling away from beneath the tyres just as it was all happening.

I reckon they used a 'bullet cam' on an extension pole…

EDIT:

the 'whoops hamster forgot to put the handbrake on' was beyond blatant!

Indeed.Bad editing too.When the Toyota rolled down the hill,with all the bits falling off,(especially the four spotlights on the roll cage),in the shot they showed next,with the wheel ripped off,the undamaged lights were clearly still visible,in situ,atop the roll bar!!

Brought back good memories of biking down the death road though

Not trying to be an arse about this – but that really doesn't appeal to me. Looks really dangerous but not really in the right way. A mate of mine has done it to but I can think of many things I would rather do on a bike.

I enjoyed it for the incredible landscape and scenery, not the usual scripted contrived bollox.

Yeah nice staged squeezing of the cars with the crew jeep.

The (absolutely not) 'hilarious' staged bits were unnecessary.

The trouble is without them the show would only have been about 10 minutes long.

Proper South American off-roading in Range Rovers, helped by a Land Rover:
Blashford-Snell on the Hundered Days of Darien

ALthough it wasn't filmed for TV with 'hilarious' bits.

I've got an original hardback that my dad bought at the time -Looking at the second hand prices maybe I should sell it!

good eyes Griff!
just played back, your right 😀

They could have cut the boat bit and shown more of the area they were in and maybe shown them (or their mechanic) fixing the cars a bit rather than the miraculous recoveries from mechanical failure that appeared to be taking place.

in the shot they showed next,with the wheel ripped off,the undamaged lights were clearly still visible,in situ,atop the roll bar!!

The wheel had come off very neatly too…

The wheel had come off very neatly too…

Indeed.

Does no-one think its strange that the three cars were in the 'garage for a night',& then next morning they all came out with major modifications which would have took a day or two?

Or am I dissecting the programme too much,instead of enjoying what was for once,a cracking episode?

Yep, the editing is not as good as it could be. In a recent episode, they were shooting a car hammering round their circuit. Did anyone spot how the registration number completely changed while the car was still moving? 😆

I cant really blame them for staging the last bit with hammond, the guys a star of the show if he says hes not going to do something they cant really force him to, and could anyone blame hammond for not wanting to do it? after that thing with the jet car and a young family.

Or am I dissecting the programme too much,instead of enjoying what was for once,a cracking episode?

Possibly, but they need to drop the pretence that it was a 'challenge'.
It was a drive around some woodland with some good bits, then over the Andes, mostly on a bus route. The dune part looked fun, although we used to ride down steeper slag heaps on cr*p mtbs as kids!

Me and the wife did much of the kind of thing that they were doing (apart from the jungle log bridge/winching stuff) in a Ford Ecosport mini SUV whilst on holiday last year. It was great, but we weren't pushing back the frontiers of expeditioning.

Not trying to be an arse about this – but that really doesn't appeal to me. Looks really dangerous but not really in the right way. A mate of mine has done it to but I can think of many things I would rather do on a bike.

Each to their own, it was a great experience for me – going from a snowy La Cumbre all the way down to a subtropical, rainy Coroico. Enjoyed it so much that when in Chile I decided to head back to La Paz to do it again, this time in hot sunny conditions.

There are many better mountain bike routes to do, but for the scenery and an edge this one is worth doing 🙂

Some good music in this episode also – Ludovico Einaudi's Nightbook got my head and foot going.

Jolsa – good call

given up on Top Gear, but enjoyed tonigh's as a bit of 'light entertainment'

Each to their own, it was a great experience for me – going from a snowy La Cumbre all the way down to a subtropical, rainy Coroico.

Yeah I can see that aspect of it but it kind of mostly just looks like a fire road, but with a huge drop and a load of trucks and cars driving like idiots. 😛

Great episode.

Does no-one think its strange that the three cars were in the 'garage for a night',& then next morning they all came out with major modifications which would have took a day or two?

They were not major mods, pretty standard well-known mods that could be done in a night if they needed by a good team and having the right parts in already. However it's pretty obvious that they're largely staged, doesn't really matter much.

So what if it's got the pretence of a challenge, regardless of it being staged I'm sure it still is challenging. And it doesnt really matter if they called it a "blue whales last wishes", it was still entertaining, to complain about it's title is really rather pedantic.

It's good family entertainment, but they are definitely getting more puerile.

For what it's worth, I don't agree. For one thing its full of lies and unnecessary waste, which is not a good example for kids or petrolheads in general, the most recent of which for me was putting a classic 6 series in a ditch, it certainly didn't look like it had been crashed into it.

The Lancia episode was a joke I read this link after it appeared on CGTI VW forum;

http://www.stratossupersite.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7683

Do we have to have the same thread every week?

It was rubbish/it was great.

If you like it, watch it.

If you don't, don't. And don't feel the need to share that you don't.

Totally agree with ScottChegg. Why can't people understand it's an "entertainment" programme? It's all about ratings and the current format with all the humour and stupidity gets far far more viewers than a programmes dedicated to "anorak" petrol heads!
If you take the programmes shown on the Discovery Turbo channel for car enthusiasts, when they were first shown I bet the ratings were all very very low compared to Top Gear even though they are dedicated to real petrol heads purely because they are not watchable for all family members – Top Gear as it is now is as my kids bloody love it! Enjoy it for what it is and you always have the option of using the remote anyway!

Do we have to have the same thread every week?

It was rubbish/it was great.

If you like it, watch it.

If you don't, don't. And don't feel the need to share that you don't.

And yet you felt the need to open the thread and make the same comment that someone always makes. This is a chat forum, where people discuss things they feel like discussing.

If you like it, discuss it.

If you don't, don't.

Hammond's Land Cruiser only had 2 wheel drive by the time they reached the dunes so they had to come up with a cop out. I'm sure if it had 4 wheel drive Hammond would have driven down the dune.

Pembo, it hsd no locking diff either

i think a fair amount of it is staged, i agree with Pembo about hammonds loss of the land crusher, but i dont really care.
Its funny, its entertaining, its a bit of a boys own adventure!
a modern Hardy boys, (or that one with the wild life explorer brothers i used to read)

On that 2000 foot dune, i noticed there were LOADS of tyre tracks.
i reckon the locals might play on it for fun?

anyhoo, i enjoyed it, and the naam one. would love to do a mongol rally style adventure some time.
naam would be nice.

It was entertaining and the photography was as good as always but yes, it's a bit staged. Anyone notice in some of the panning shots there was a hoard of film crew/producers etc in the background a couple of times.

They undoubtedly had the full support/back up helicopter etc, but it was light-hearted enjoyable TV anyway.

grumm- I must be an optimist who hopes for something new.

Just watched this on iplayer and noticed the volume control goes up to 11. Spinal Tap tastic.