Sometimes the biggest problem with the release of the single season of a television series to DVD is that there simply isn't enough there. The show, as is the case with Top Gear, is both great fun and well put together, but with a mere six episodes on two DVDs and no special features, the fun runs out all too soon.
The 11th season of the show that is purportedly about cars but in actuality so much more still features presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond, and The Stig is still present to set power lap times and show up the presenters whenever he possibly can. It is a solid formula, and one that needs no alteration. As this reviewer has repeatedly noted, Top Gear's combination of wit and wisdom, laughs and lug nuts, mechanics and mayhem makes what otherwise could be a niche show into something that truly everyone can enjoy.
For those unfamiliar with the series, episodes feature reviews of super (and less than super) cars, challenges laid out by the producers for the presenters, news segments, and celebrities trying their luck in a reasonably priced car on the test track. The biggest change for this 11th season is that for five of the six episodes, there is not one but two stars who get timed going around the track. It's a small change – and on that wasn't carried through to the show's 12th season – but as the stars who come on together both appear in support of the same show it is one that works.
One of the best moments in the season comes in the final episode, when Clarkson, Hammond, and May take on the hosts of the German car show, D Motor, in a battle to decide which is the best motoring country. The segment features some incredibly creative challenges which the hosts of both shows deal with in fine fashion.
The highlight of the 11th season however is not the dual (and sometimes dueling) stars in reasonably priced cars, but rather Top Gear's trip to Japan. Clarkson in a Nissan GT-R races against Hammond and May who take a combination of various forms of public transit to go from Hakui to the top of Mount Nokogiri. The episode is filled with the humor that is so pervasive on the show, and once more the sense that these are incredibly smart men who could do manage to do sensible things if only they wanted to be sensible. It is, of course, far better for the audience that they opt not to focus on sensible pursuits.
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