Top Gear
Top Gear is a British motoring show that airs on the BBC. Like Doctor Who, it is a hit in its second incarnation, as the current format, which was introduced in 2002 and is the format co-hosted/co-presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, is viewed by over 300 million people worldwide. It is also this new format that is of particular interest to Whovians for a variety of reasons.
The Doctor Who Race (Fastest Intergalactic Person)
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
Introduction
Top Gear also hosts a challenge almost every episode in which celebrity guests race around the Top Gear test track, designed by Lotus on the Dunsfold Aerodrome runways outside the hangar that houses the studio, 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 - plus companion Billie Piper have 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
Hijinks With The Major Stars
As it has turned out, Eccleston using a Liana with an automatic transmission during his 2005 lap (a 1:52.4, the slowest of any Doctor Who star) since he wasn't licensed to drive the regular manual-transmission Liana was the least of the hijinks that ensued when Doctor Who major stars took to the track. During her 2007 lap, Piper, who was in the Lacetti, cut across Hammerhead (a challenging left turn into a right-hand hairpin-like 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
| Place | Name (Doctor Who Role) | Car | Time | Original Air Date (M/D/Y) |
Official BBC YouTube Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor) |
Kia Cee'd | 1:43.7 | 2/26/2012 (S18 E5) |
http://youtu.be/doI8mhVErgs |
| 2nd | Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) |
Chevrolet Lacetti | 1:48.3* | 3/4/2007 (S9 E6) |
http://youtu.be/KzYJUUTEvgM |
| 3rd | David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) |
Chevrolet Lacetti | 1:48.8 | 12/23/2007 (S10 E10) |
http://youtu.be/GKmschnepXg |
| 4th | Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor) |
Suzuki Liana | 1:52.4* | 6/12/2005 (S6 E3) |
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.
- All laps were dry. Eccleston was also the only one to use a car with an automatic transmission since he wasn't licensed to drive one with a manual transmission.
"Star In A Reasonably Priced TARDIS"
In 2008, the BBC's Simon Catt inspired Matt Taylor of the network's Repeats and Reversioning team to combine Tennant's Top Gear lap with TARDIS clips from Doctor Who. The end product was a video that used the audio and studio clips of Tennant's lap with commentary from both Tennant and Clarkson and the Doctor Who opening theme in the background, but instead of showing the Lacetti and Tennant at the wheel, it featured clips of the TARDIS in flight and Tennant as the Tenth Doctor at the controls, with the footage including the highway chase in "The Runaway Bride" and the crash landing "across the line" in "The Christmas Invasion". It was dubbed "Star in a Reasonably Priced TARDIS" or "Doctor Who Meets Top Gear."
Catt and Taylor's boss Gill Holmes not only liked it, but was so impressed that he forwarded it to Mark Harrison, Head of the BBC’s Multiplatform Studio. From there, it went even further to Peter Salmon, Chief Creative Officer of the BBC Vision Studio - who was due to visit the Top Gear team soon. He showed the clip to Clarkson and Top Gear Executive Producer Andy Wilman - and they loved it and gave it their blessing to post online. A fan later did much the same thing with Eccleston's lap and uploaded it to YouTube.
