THE POLAR SPECIAL | Top Gear's Best Adventure

but there is still of course the possibility that well as much as a hundred yards from our goal we fall through the ice what did we decide would we freeze to death or drown first I think we will freeze to death in the act of drowning this date probably doesn't mean much to you and I mean why would it it was a long time ago George Bush was president umbrella was number one in the UK and Harry Potter 5 was the movie of the month but this innocuous date 16 years ago also saw the release of what I consider to be one of the greatest hours of television in history because that was the day the Top Gear polish special was released an epic 400 mile race between a pickup truck and a dog sled team to the North Pole a race that marked the first time a car had ever been driven there and when they set out there was no knowing whether or not it was even possible in this perilous race through all the dangers of the Arctic was not being done by Elite athletes or seasoned polar explorers but three of the most uncoordinated and unfit men on the planet foreign notes for the show The Top Gear producers noted that we felt it might be considered irresponsible to send our three pampered presenters into the most inhospitable environment on Earth completely unaided after all they combined pre-top Gear extreme cold weather experience consisted solely of Jeremy's biannual skiing holiday and James once building a really big snowman if they weren't lying May and Hammond had never even skied before as their training shows oh God sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry and as you watch that remember that Hammond was supposed to be racing the car by dog sled and skis which went well and on top of all of that may didn't even want to do this at all can I just make it absolutely clear now that I'm only here because the producer said I had to be I hate the idea that I've got to push my body to find the limit I hate the Zips and the toggles and all the pockets and that if we make it you will be the first person ever to go to the North Pole who didn't want to be there but the polar special is historic not just because of the achievement of driving a car to the North Pole for the first time but because it marked a turning point in the history of Top Gear the polar special is what firmly catapults it from just the Pokey motoring show on bbc2 into a Global TV Juggernaut a juggernaut that at its peak Drew up to 350 million viewers across almost every single territory and country in the world sorry in the world so before we look at what makes the polar special such an outstanding episode of TV let's go into reverse gear for a bit and put it in context Oh and before we go any further I should acknowledge that Jeremy Clarkson is not exactly a universally loved figure but I'm not going to get into all of this in this video because it's not the point but I will say that even if you are appalled by the things he has said you should still watch this video because the polar special sees Clarkson getting pushed into a frozen lake by a special forces instructor who got sick of his attitude [Music] anyway Top Gear was a small relatively factual car show that had been on the air since the late 1970s before being modernized and relaunched in 2002 with its hosts Jeremy Clarkson Richard Hammond and Jason door that's right Captain slow didn't even make it to hosting Top Gear in time he would come on board in season 2 replacing door from here the show steadily gained in popularity as the focus moved on from being a relatively factual car show to one that approached its subject matter more from an entertainment perspective these early Seasons saw the development of what would go on to become a Top Gear staple the Epic race starting in season 4 which saw Clarkson in the nest and Martin racing May and Hammond on the Eurostar to Monte Carlo each subsequent season saw at least one Epic usually International race between a car and some other mode of Transport by the Time season 9 Aid at the start of 2007 Top Gear's new format had launched the show into Prime Time territory in 2007 was a year that saw not one but two seasons of Top Gear air in the UK season 9 aired in January through March then at the end of the year the BBC released season 10 for a total of 16 episodes it was a massive show and it dominated every water cooler chat in Britain that year and in July right between those two seasons came the polar special CS Top Gear grew in popularity and therefore got a budget increase to match they began to produce special episodes one-off Adventures separate from the studio and the usual formula that instead focused on a single epic adventure these specials went on to become some of the more memorable episodes of the entire show like the Vietnam special where Clarkson can't ride a motorbike the Middle East special where they get dropped into a military Air Base in Iraq the Botswana special with the lovable Oliver or the Patagonia special that saw an angry mob chased the crew out of Argentina the specials for what came to Define Top Gear and set it apart from any other show it became a series that was constantly surprising us by going off the Beaten Track and placing the most unlikely hosts in the most unlikely of circumstances giving them challenges and seeing what happened how how don't say that but that all started with the polar special at the time this aired the only other specials had been the Winter Olympics one that saw May falling down a ski ramp and the U.S road trip special that saw an angry mob chased the crew out of Alabama the Americas are not kind to Top Gear but the polar special was something entirely different nothing like this had ever really been seen before and to be honest hasn't really been seen since in 2007 if TV audiences had seen much of the Arctic it was probably either in a nature documentary or on the news see this was released only a year or so after An Inconvenient Truth bought climate change and the melting of the polar ice caps into the mainstream conversation but we'll come back to that so when the polar special aired it took us to one of the most desolate and hostile places on Earth and told us that we were about to watch these three Jokers make history or die trying and for once that's not a metaphor the episode features an extended segment of them joking about in their typical fashion while actual polar explorers are trying to tell them just how dangerous their Endeavor is and How likely they are to die there's all kinds of dangers waiting for you and you don't see that the ice is just a few centimeters thick if your whole body fell in and the car had gone in and your tent had gone in because you presumably stowed that in the back of the car you could probably survive for if there was no wind hours why is it called polar bear pass in my mind it's a pass full of polar bear that's exactly what it is all the Bears love to creep up on you when you're taking a crap and you've got your trousers down here that's not exactly sporting of them is it really this is when Clarkson gets pushed into the iceberg exactly by the way if you like the video and subscribe I promise to play that clip one more time in the video anyway preparation for the polar special began in December 2006 almost six months out from the Expedition itself Icelandic company Arctic trucks began modifying a Toyota Hilux pickup truck to survive the Arctic conditions the Hilux was of course well known to Top Gear audiences one of the most famous segments from the early seasons was the team attempting to destroy one and consistently failing even after it got demolished along with a block of flats this was always going to be the car Top Gear chose to take to the North Pole but the presenters of course were not going alone Clarkson amay in their car were accompanied by two other cars a second modified Hilux Towing the custom-built equipment trailer as well as a modified Land Cruiser between the mechanics film crew a doctor and security officer team Carr consisted of nine people in total over on team dog it was a much leaner operation with hemins teamed up with sled dog Legend Matty McNair and her team of 10 Huskies but this so I've just been weighed on do they have to weigh on me they were accompanied by a small film crew that traveled with the dogs on a Skidoo which also served to evacuate them if something went wrong while the vehicles were being prepped the presenters were given a crash course and Arctic travel and survival including by the legendary Serena finds and before you ask yes he is related to Ralph finds oh and because this is a Pentax video and I can't resist some Bond trivia Reynold finds was even shortlisted to replace Sean Connery as James Bond back in the 1970s but lost out to Roger Moore it's a big surprise out of 200 when I got in the last six and then you get in there there was broccoli small bloke with a cigar he took one look at guy and he said this bloke looks like a farmer look at his hands he didn't even talk to me and that was it anyway back to Top Gear after enduring the trio joking about it admitting they aren't really taking this seriously there's an astonishing moment where fines calmly but firmly calls them out on this and has typically understated fashion the problem we have is that we can't really get into our heads that this is a particularly dangerous place to go but you think it is no I don't think it is I know that it can be because of what's happened to me in that area over the last 36 years moments later the laughter completely vanishes from the faces of our hosts when he shows them his amputated fingers the result of a three-minute mistake during one of his visits to the Arctic three minutes of inattention in this environment saw him lose the fingers of his left hand to frostbite and he also warns them about this the fact that you will all start hating each other because of the extreme cold having an effect the hatred is very real and you don't want to laugh about it which I think you're not seem to be doing we see this warning become very rare later in the episode with May and Clarkson becoming increasingly and genuinely angry at each other as the incredibly harsh conditions and exhausting effort of their mission begin to take a physical and mental toll on the hosts put it in just please I'm so unspeakably outraged with you see one of the keys to Top Gear success as the dynamic between these three hosts the trio of Clarkson Hammond and may is absolutely perfectly balanced and no matter what Shenanigans they're up to it is always entertaining but why have you got an automatic of bust my arm that's why it took a long time to get out you're really broken you're wrong which arm have you broken sometimes their banter is played up for the cameras for a laugh Clarkson I know it's you you insufferable though if I'm on the bloody throne but what makes the polar special different is that it totally breaks the hosts look at May and Clarkson when they set off versus when they arrive at the pole just a week later the short tempers and arguments that we see in this episode are genuine but at the same time so is their relation when they succeed the emotions and exhaustion we see them go through is some of the most real things we have seen in Top Gear like take this scene when they're driving over thin ice that's threatening to crack beneath them this is genuine fear look at how may is clutching the ax in case they need to smash their way out for all of the support crew and the safety nets in this moment it is just these two TV presenters sitting in a car with nothing but a thin sheet of ice separating them from certain death just a few weeks earlier before the Expedition they'd be making jokes like this he's been practicing his face he's going to the ball when he dies that's one of them try another he's about death out here is that once you're dead you freeze I want my body to be found wearing the appropriate expression the Brilliance of Top Gear is that it sets that sort of joking banter against the reality that they still have to actually do the thing in these moments May and Clarkson had to confront the reality that they might actually fall through the ice and die go in here we're dead I mean dead and that's the sort of tension you simply cannot script of course Clarkson did fall through the ice earlier in the episode foreign but if you thought this journey took a toll on Clarkson in May then spare a thought for the hamster here arrived in the Arctic a week earlier than the other two to have a crash course on dog sledding but despite being the youngest and the fittest of the bunch and having the whitest teeth Hammond began to break down from exhaustion even faster than May and Clarkson several times throughout the episode he filmed small little personal Vlogs showing us the ice on her sleeping bag or around his face in these moments he's not a TV presenter with a film crew looking at him but a broken exhausted man alone in his tent with a camera it had a little weep done that for years and out here the tears cause moisture in your ski goals and it froze on the inside so I couldn't see Top Gear doesn't normally do this style of self-filming presentation it's a bit more polished than that but the complexities are filming in the polar environment with the small crew accompanying Hammond meant it was the only way for him to share his thoughts with the audience and whether because of the privacy or the exhaust thread or both he shares his thoughts far more candidly than they think he would if the crew was shooting this it's genuine and sincere and it sets the polar special apart from every other Top Gear episode but it wasn't all doom and gloom and that's not just because the sun doesn't ever set during the polar summer see besides the chemistry between the three hosts the other thing that Top Gear specials excel at is pacing a narrative flow now that might sound strange for a factual show factual but it really is important see while fictionalized TV can control the flow of a story how it wants the art of a good factual show or documentary is taking the real life events as they happened and crafting them into a compelling narrative the polar special like all of the great Top Gear episodes follows a classic three-act structure there is the first act that establishes the status quo the dangers Our Heroes will face and an inciting incident in this case the start of the race then there is the ascending action where everything seems to be going great it lulls us into the fun and joy of the adventure the beautiful scenery and the larking about between May and Clarkson as they bust out some wine in the tent or when Mayu prepares gin and tonics in the car [Music] by the way this segment famously Drew complaints to the BBC because it was seen to be glamorizing drink driving despite Clarkson saying this [Music] safe but just as the fun reaches the point where they break out a snowboard we get to the midpoint when it all comes Crashing Down The Crew gets stuck the presenters get stuck and progress is blisteringly slow as our heroes become more and more exhausted in the Boulder Field they cover less than one mile an hour as all three cars are constantly getting stuck in the near impassable Labyrinth of solid polar ice it gets so bad that Clarkson loses his patience and drives characteristically recklessly resulting in massive damage to the vehicle and another bollocking from May Thanks James you have to move fast and that was sometimes Jeremy you have to move slowly for example going over the soft snow where we've been told time and again there are huge lumps of immobile lives which is exactly what's caused that and running parallel to this of course is the drama of the race this gives the level of personal competition between the hosts as an additional layer over the tension of the adventure itself in the other specials the trio tend to work together as a team to complete challenges laid down by the producers in the poll is special it's just a race and the race like a great great action scene employs the concept of reversals to maintain the tension throughout the episode A reversal is when a character gains some sort of Advantage only for it to be immediately taken away again are you reversing the fortunes of the protagonist it's a way to keep action scenes balanced there's no tension if one character is winning all the time there has to be the possibility of defeat the polar special is edited to deliver tension in exactly this way at the start the car is steaming ahead of the dogs and it seems hopeless for Hammond but then they reach the boulder ice field and the cars get bogged down allowing Hammonds to power through and close the lead then Hammond starts to feel the toll of the race while Clarkson amay enjoyed bars of chocolate in the comfort of the car but then they almost plunged through the ice while team dog deploys a kite to gain ground while in reality the sleet was never really close enough to the car for it to be a real competition the show is still presented in a way that creates dramatic tension between the two teams that makes for good TV and this is the sort of Storytelling Liberty that a show like Top Gear can take because it is into entertainment first and foremost they can use the metric of editing to build a compelling narrative even if there is a slightly different reality but the reality or you might say the Inconvenient Truth of the Top Gear polar special is that they did not go to the True North Pole they went to the Magnetic North Pole if you don't know the difference watch the CVP gray video but basically when someone says the North Pole you probably think of either this or more seriously this the Magnetic North Pole is where your compass needle points and it's not aligned with the so-called True North Pole the Top Gear crew were aiming for and made it to the position of the Magnetic North Pole as recorded in 1996 not the True North Pole at the very top of the Earth but you know what it doesn't matter while the episode itself never makes it explicit which poll they are aiming for the BBC has never attempted to hide the fact that they went to the magnetic not true north pole they even show the coordinates in the episode some people might feel let down by this Revelation but I for one am not the difficulty of this journey across the Arctic to the Magnetic North Pole is clearly shown in the polar special and distinguishing between the two versions of the North Pole feels a bit academic for those of us sitting at our computers having never come close to either anyway once they arrived to the pole and may enjoyed his celebratory turn of spam the presenters were airlifted to safety leaving the remaining crew to make the same perilous 400 mile journey home with the vehicles and Equipment Hammond sadly never reached the North Pole it's a crushing moment actually when the gleeful May in Clarkson call him to confirm their Victory see for their myth just like any other epic race where the winners get gloating rights over the others who sportingly congratulate them but here hamidus to exhausted to react you can just see in his eyes the realization that all of that effort and exhaustion had been for nothing it's devastating I don't know if he ever wanted to reach the North Pole or not but I wish he had continued and made it there but then again seeing how completely destroyed he was from the journey perhaps all he wanted to do was head home to a warm bed and a couple of pints hi we would like two pints of bitter one rose wide large a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and built on the polar special firmly established the popularity of the special Adventure episode format for Top Gear from then on almost every season began or ended with such an episode starting later that very same year where the Botswana special a personal favorite of mine but the magic and adventure of the Polar special was never to be repeated and sadly it may never be again since satellite records began Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 50 percent and in the latest assessment report the ipcc expected will drop below 1 million square kilometers before 2050. if this continues there might not be much of an Arctic left to drive on but at least there won't be any polar bears Left Alive to eat you either so perhaps that makes it marginally safer the closest the polar special comes to addressing the impact of climate change on Polar Ice is a quip about An Inconvenient Truth and this brief exchange about polar bears the polar bear issue is I can't get whipped over there because every single night on even George Bush is now saying the Renault polar bears left but let me be clear that I do not expect or even want Top Gear to talk about the melting polar ice caps and I'm not criticizing them for omitting any discussion of climate change from the episode especially considering the time it was made it's not the point of the show just like it's not the point of this video and other BBC Productions like the Frozen Planet series have done remarkable job jobs that are showcasing the impact of climate change on these environments in a far more effective way than Top Gear could or should but I think that shows how far the conversation has come in the last 16 years I don't think you can make a show or a video about the Arctic today and not at least acknowledge the sad reality of its decline it'd be like making a video essay about Kevin Spacey and not addressing any of this it doesn't need to be the main focus but you can't just totally ignore it either but all that aside I still give credit to the polar special because what it does do exceptionally well is document the astonishing unique beauty of this epic deserted landscape and the ecosystem it supports watching it should be enough to convince anyone that the Arctic is worth protecting it certainly did that for me and much like the Arctic sea ice itself Top Gear is sadly past its prime since the main Trio left the show is just never able to recapture the chemistry of those original Three hosts meanwhile The Grand Tour was unacceptable but underwhelming follow-up that was only saved by our pre-existing affinity for the hosts even they seem to realize this and now the grand tour is exclusively doing one-off feature-length Epic Adventures the best of which managed to recapture some of that classic Top Gear Spirit but although at times they came close no other episode of Top Gear or of The Grand Tour Ever quite Rose to the heights of ambition entertainment danger and sheer adventure of the Polar special it was a journey like no other before or since and we got to go along for the ride look at that it's not bad absolutely astonishing

Channel: Pentex Productions

Views: 391,802

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Id: ZIvlIzOHPE0

Length: 21min 40sec (1300 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 04 2023