Overall I think the Aussie producers have done a great job. I think the presenters are quite good, they just need to relax more. The visual style is 100% in top gear taste. I really look forward to future episodes.
Problems I noticed from the first viewing.
1) Scripting. What was the first story about? Was it a review of 4×4s? Was it a road test? Was it a challenge? Was it a race? There was no explanation of the supposed track around the dunes; no explanation that they had to navigate around the flags. They should let the audience know of the rules that they apparently are trying to follow. Of course I guess an Aussie thing would be not taking it seriously and winging it, but it defeats the purpose of the story.
2) Where was the introduction to the track?? What on earth does it look like? We at least need a description of what it is, what kind of corners, straights etc it has, otherwise the laps are meaningless. After the first timed lap, the little guy said something like ‘that’s pretty fast’, but from our point of view there is nothing to compare it to.
3) The filming of the stig’s laps don’t even warrant a 1 star rating. Some of the worst camera angles, camera work, in car shots, and sound I have ever heard. Why on earth didn’t they have a microphone on the track? We didn’t get to hear the exhaust note of any of the cars. The GTR sounded like a vacuum cleaner through the in-car camera’s microphone, whereas it sounds completely different in real life (personal experience). The editing was awful. They mixed in-car sounds with video of completely different parts of the track, eg braking for a corner with the sound of accelerating. This segment needs urgent improvement or else there is no reason to have a stig.
4) What car do the celebrities drive? Is it a barina? What is it’s spec? Again, bad scripting.
5) Who made the ‘Keep Left’ graphic just before the ad breaks? It’s ugly, two dimensional, and completely in the wrong style for the program. If it’s what SBS does for every tv show then I guess that’s excusable.
6) What were they thinking? Printing on paper and not card??? Cheeeeeeap.
7) Car review quality. I didn’t hear any specific specifications. I don’t want to hear ‘it has more power’. I want to hear how many horses it has. By stating facts, opinions are more founded, thus appearing more professional. As this is the first episode, we need more specifics in order to make comparisons. We want car information. As far as I know, the green shark car was only referred two on a few occasions, and twice as ‘this little car’. The least they could do is do a little research.
Choice of cars. Very good choice of relevant newsworthy cars, but did they review six 4×4’s in this episode? Or were the three from the first segment the ones used in the snow? Not enough information was given about the cars for me to understand if they were the same or different. If they were the same, there needed to be a link between the two segments. Was it part of a Top Gear Challenge? If so, what were the results? There should be a conclusion to each segment in the studio, whether it be a tally of times or final words.
Top Gear Australia had a good first episode, but serious flaws in segment introductions and execution need attention.