Top Gear - The Challenges Vol.1 (DVD)

TOP GEAR DVDs are like Christmas - they come once a year, and it's always a surprise whether or not the contents are shiny and good (TOP GEAR: WINTER OLYMPICS), or a lump of coal with a sticky bow on it (TOP GEAR: REVVED UP).

Sadly, I have to report that TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES delivers another lump of coal - minus the sticky bow.

-- CONTENTS --

ROBIN RELIANT SPACE SHUTTLE

BUILDING AMPHIBIOUS ...
...one disk, it's not really TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES; it's more TOP GEAR: SOME OF THE CHALLENGES AND A FEW OTHER THINGS THAT AREN'T. Their first mistake? Picking a theme and not keeping to it.

As a 'best of' seasons eight and nine it's a fairly good disk that picks some of the great things from both series - as did TOP GEAR: BACK IN THE FAST LANE - but as a disk that's being promoted and sold as 'THE CHALLENGES' it comes up short.
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TOP GEAR DVDs are like Christmas - they come once a year, and it's always a surprise whether or not the contents are shiny and good (TOP GEAR: WINTER OLYMPICS), or a lump of coal with a sticky bow on it (TOP GEAR: REVVED UP).

Sadly, I have to report that TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES delivers another lump of coal - minus the sticky bow.

-- CONTENTS --

ROBIN RELIANT SPACE SHUTTLE

BUILDING AMPHIBIOUS CARS

BUILDING A LIMO

BUILDING A CONVERTIBLE PEOPLE CARRIER

PARKOUR VERSUS PEUGEOT 207

SKYDIVER VERSUS PORSCHE CAYENNE TURBO S

VEYRON VERSUS PLANE

£10,000 70s SUPERCARS

It's the contents that are part of the problem. Though they've managed to squeeze some great things from the TV show on to one disk, it's not really TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES; it's more TOP GEAR: SOME OF THE CHALLENGES AND A FEW OTHER THINGS THAT AREN'T. Their first mistake? Picking a theme and not keeping to it.

As a 'best of' seasons eight and nine it's a fairly good disk that picks some of the great things from both series - as did TOP GEAR: BACK IN THE FAST LANE - but as a disk that's being promoted and sold as 'THE CHALLENGES' it comes up short.

Their second mistake? Some of the segments have had a fight in the editing room and come out with minutes of run time missing. Notably the Veyron vs Plane Race has lost CLARKSON's in-car insurance company quote spree. And the How Hard Can It Be: Building a Limo segment is missing the presenters' workshop time; entering with their day of track tasks.

That's not the worst of this edited-for-DVD presentation, the worst is typified by the main body of RICHARD HAMMOND's review of the PORSCHE CAYENNE TURBO S being cut to the Skydiver vs Cayenne chase that closed the review. This is an awful precident for fans of the show as yes, we do like the unspeakably crackers things the presenters do to save us from programme time being filled with Ssang Yong and Kia reviews. But, paring a review down to its one moment of genius-level craziness is counter-productive, it sticks the knife in on the show's purpose so obviously, it'll set any long-term fan's teeth on edge.

If TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES was scheduled as an entertainment release, it could have remained one by including more of the random How Hard Can It Be segments from the past two seasons - the presenters' disastrous caravan holiday; road resurfacing mission and growing biofuel experiment, all of which are nowhere to be found - and leaving the car reviews out of the mix.

The other problem with the content is its actual disk presentation. All of the segments are interleaved into one BEST OF TOP GEAR programme with studio introduction inserts from the original programmes, and the total run time for this one programme? 164mins. That's 2hrs 44mins with no option to watch 'just one' segment - as you can with TOP GEAR: REVVED UP - in viewing terms it's Gone With The Brake Fluid!

I've lost a fair few dozen weekends to UK G2 and UKTV People when they've been running back-to-back episodes of TOP GEAR. In fact, it's something I do regularly. All I have to do is hear the theme music while I'm changing channels and I stop, wonder if I've got time to put the kettle on and mark the rest of the day down as a write-off because I know I'm going to be in a happy, semi-hypnotic state for the next six hours or more.

When you can do that and still think the DVD run time is far too long. I'm sorry, but the DVD runtime is FAR TOO LONG! One programme; no breaks; 164mins and you have to play the end credits back a couple of times to make sure they didn't get Gore Verbinski in to edit this one!

In terms of content and how that content is delivered it won't suit the casual fan. The epic length and inability to navigate between segments will annoy. Also, it fails to satisfy hardcore fans with the exception of the Veyron vs Plane and £10,000 70s Supercar segments TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES is running low on beautifully filmed, gorgeous vehicles.

If you're a hardcore fan of the presenters themselves you'll enjoy it if you can go the single-sitting three-hour distance. However, if you're a hardcore fan of the presenters because of what they contribute to car journalism, by making the driving experience of a vehicle you'll never be able to afford live outside of a list of statistics in a car magazine - you are going to hate TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES. By piling all of the fun, dessert-like goodies TOP GEAR chucks out week-on-week into one place and cutting out the main course car reviews, they've managed to make a DVD of little substance and over-riding egomania. That's not just a black mark, it's practically a tragedy.

-- EXTRAS --

There aren't any.

After TOP GEAR: REVVED UP's inclusion of the Renault F1 car's test track time in Stig-Cam and the stunning selection of Stig Tests and short out-take reel on the TOP GEAR: WINTER OLYMPICS disk - I was expecting something! A little something would have done! A Maxed Veyron May-Cam? The TOP GEAR theme music played on engines with an interactive slider? More out-takes (you can never have enough of those)? But no - nothing. All innovation in the extras-line has gone by the wall.

-- COVER ART --

Lacks the inspiration of TOP GEAR: WINTER OLYMPICS; the HAMMOND-overload of TOP GEAR:REVVED UP and the cog-stencils of TOP GEAR: BACK IN THE FASTLANE. In short, it is a mess.

I didn't spend too long looking at it - I never do at DVD covers, as I find giving critical of appraisal on packaging being on a level with comparing a chocolate wrapper to a piece of fine art when what you want to get at are the contents. But, as the contents are so badly put together, I figured the cover needed a second look.

Yes, the outside is just as bad as the inside.

The front cover is a badly composited collection of stills from the Robin Reliant Rocket, CLARKSON promo shot and TOP GEAR graphic on a black background with yellow, stencil-effect, THE CHALLENGES text.

The back cover is equally uninspiring with a few random stills from various segments, framed in white on a black background.

I think this is the killer in the bad news department as, if some kind, considerate soul gives you TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES as a gift - it's not even going to look nice when you use it to prop up a wobbly table!

-- CONCLUSION --

TOP GEAR DVDs continue to be a hit-and-miss business with TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES being the worst of the bunch.

TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES takes a great programme, boils it down to light entertainment, leadens the load with a TITANIC-scale runtime and weakens the appeal of the source material in the process.

Segments are presented in an interleaving format - as they are on the programme and 'Best of' broadcasts - which doesn't work with the excessive runtime as you can be waiting for an hour or more for the following (or concluding) part of a segment.

Some segments are also edited from their original broadcast format, so you're not even getting an unedited product. For a programme that has such high quality source material and non-DVD merchandise, TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES is an afterthought of a product that doesn't live up to the show or expectation.

After the whole episode release of TOP GEAR: WINTER OLYMPICS the BBC had the opportunity to make something interesting out of their obsession with releasing DVD clipshows of TOP GEAR. But, TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES feels as badly selected and composited to watch as its cover is to look at.

TOP GEAR should not, rightly, be a brand in decline. However, as the show and magazine are at the core of its perpetuated existence bad releases like this can only do it harm in the long run. Redemption could come easily by the BBC getting their collective fingers out and putting out some two-disk complete season editions. As it is, if they keep throwing out releases like TOP GEAR: THE CHALLENGES - hold on to your episodes that you've taped off the telly as this is neither replacement nor compliment to your collection.

And if you get it for Christmas - keep it. If only as a reminder that Santa Clarkson thinks you've been very naughty this year. 

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