Top Gear and James May on the Moon – BBC Two

Series 13 and Captain Slow’s Doc about Voyages to Space

Jun 21, 2009

Series 13 of Top Gear starts with the identity of The Stig, sort of, and a race to Edinburgh. Meanwhile James May investigates the first manned trip to the Moon.

So it’s official, apparently for one time only, racing legend Michael Schumacher is The Stig. Just to get that admission out of the way early on as every man and his dog will be bogging about it.

Back to the bog standard intro. Top Gear is one of those enigmas that exist in the world of televised entertainment in that at its core it is a factual show based around cars. But over the years what was previously presented as a somewhat dry magazine about automotives has morphed, mainly under the guidance of overlord Jeremy Clarkson, into one of the funniest and enjoyable TV programmes watched by people from all ages and social backgrounds, even those who have no interest in driving.

Now in the thirteenth series since the re-launch in 2002, have the boys decided to stop “cocking about” and gone back to simple, constructive reviews and providing informative advice for consumers? Have they f***.

What better way to kick off a new series of Top Gear than with a nail-biting race between the presenters. This one put May in his element inside a Jaguar XK120, Hammond living his boyhood dream on a Vincent Black Shadow motorbike and Clarkson digging out his best overalls to shovel coal on a Tornado steam train. The route: London to Edinburgh. The point? Who cares?!

It featured the kind of japery and blokish humour Top Gear is now famous for as taunts were thrown, Clarkson had to run through the streets of Edinburgh covered in soot, Hammond broke down and had to fix the bike in the rain and May actually won. Now there’s something that doesn’t happen every day.

Michael Schumacher as The Stig

After the aforementioned “tamed racing driver” revelation came a brief interview with Schumacher, which considering English isn’t his first language was rather good although most people were unable to listen due to the shock of him being The Stig, well at least for that one time, and just him being there in general.

Like it or not (there's only so much right-wing hyperbole and elitist views a person can take) Top Gear is one of the most tightly edited and expertly filmed series on TV, and also one of the most fun. It is loud and obnoxious, and Jeremy Clarkson is a bigoted, curly haired nutcase but it is almost impossible to not find enjoyment in it. Well except if you’re looking for genuine guidance on which car to buy, then you are screwed.

Following on from their O-zone demolishing antics, it was the turn of Captain Slow to host his own off-cut adventure celebrating the 40th anniversary of the human race’s first successful manned trip to the Moon. This was more serious than his day job as it contained facts but presented with some wit, such as his line about astronauts not living “on Tracy Island and eat food out of toothpaste tubes”.

He experiences zero gravity, interviews a handful of the big players and has his face deformed in a centrifuge chamber before finally flying in a U2 spy plane at 70,000ft. The sights were simply breathtaking and worth this hour-long documentary. Those who still can’t feed their fix of a dreary middle-aged posh bloke with floppy hair banging on about stuff he liked could tune in to BBC Four for James May at the Edge of Space while everyone else gave the TV a much needed rest from mixed metaphors and smug opinion that bombarded it all night.

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