Top Gear
Top Gear is a British motoring show that airs on the BBC.
Doctor Who
There was a segment on Top Gear in which they tried to find the fastest intergalactic person around the track. There were three Doctor Who characters, a Dalek, Cyberman and the Sixth Doctor. The Dalek couldn't get in the car and as a result, went around exterminating everyone. The Cyberman went on to win with the fastest time.
Star in a Reasonably Priced Car
Top Gear also hosts a challenge in which celebrity guests race around the Top Gear test track, designed by Lotus on the Dunsfold Aerodrome runways, in, as the name suggests, a "reasonably priced car" such as a Suzuki Liana, Chevrolet Lacetti or Kia Cee'd in a bid to post the fastest possible lap, with each lap being preceded and accompanied by an interview with Clarkson. This has given Doctor Who stars the chance to race not only other famous faces but also each other.
Currently all three modern Doctors, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith, and companion Billie Piper have all taken part, as well as a number of Doctor Who television and voice actors:
- Rowan Atkinson
- Bill Bailey
- Sanjeev Bhaskar
- Martin Clunes
- James Corden
- Brian Cox
- Stephen Fry
- Michael Gambon
- Hugh Grant
- Simon Pegg
- Anne Robinson
- David Walliams
- Trinny Woodall & Susannah Constantine
- Joanna Lumley
During her 2007 lap, Piper, who was in the Lacetti, cut out Hammerhead (the track's big left-then-right turn) and was also on the wrong side of Chicago's line, prompting the Stig (the show's mute and stoic "tame racing driver") to recommend a 3-second penalty - but Clarkson couldn't bring himself to enforce it when he saw that Piper had arrived for the interview in a see-through top, and her time of 1:48.3 stood.
Tennant, who appeared that December, was not pleased at Clarkson being lenient, claiming she had done her lap "on a track that she made up", only for Clarkson to explain that the see-through-top had stayed his hand and later joking that had he worn a see-through top himself, he would have been "faster than Simon Cowell." As it turned out, Tennant posted a time of 1:48.8 - which would have beaten Piper's time had the penalty been enforced! Piper's time, however, stood as the best time by a Doctor Who major star until Smith's appearance in 2012. Armed with the knowledge of what his predecessors had posted, he dropped Piper's time by 4.6 seconds to 1:43.7 in the Cee'd.
The Doctor Who Top Gear Leaderboard
| Position | Name (Doctor Who Role) | Car | Transmission | Time | Interview/Lap Air Date | Interview/Lap Official BBC YouTube Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor) |
Kia Cee'd | Manual | 1:43.7 | February 26, 2012 (Series 18, Episode 5) |
http://youtu.be/doI8mhVErgs |
| 2nd | Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) |
Chevrolet Lacetti | Manual | 1:48.3* | March 4, 2007 (Series 9, Episode 6) |
http://youtu.be/KzYJUUTEvgM |
| 3rd | David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) |
Chevrolet Lacetti | Manual | 1:48.8 | December 23, 2007 (Series 10, Episode 10) |
http://youtu.be/GKmschnepXg |
| 4th | Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor) |
Suzuki Liana | Automatic | 1:52.4 | June 12, 2005 (Series 6, Episode 3) |
http://youtu.be/Cy-9U0S08WY |
- Note: The Stig recommended a three-second penalty for Piper for cutting out Hammerhead and being on the wrong side of the line in Chicago, but Clarkson did not enforce it.
In 2008, the BBC created a video (circulated on the Doctor Who website and YouTube) that overlaid the audio and some of the clips (though only of the Top Gear studio) of Tennant's lap with commentary from both Tennant and Clarkson, plus with clips of the TARDIS in flight and Tennant's Tenth Doctor using the TARDIS controls, including in "The Christmas Invasion" and the highway chase in "The Runaway Bride", dubbing it 'Star in a Reasonably Priced TARDIS'. A fan later did much the same thing with Christopher Eccleston's lap and uploaded it to YouTube.
