Top Gear – Series 14 (An ending?)

NOTE: This article was originally posted before the last episode of Season 13. We now know that Season 14 is coming, and coming soon. Sunday 15 November to be exact—CLICK HERE for more.

UPDATE 16 November: Click here for a full rundown of what to expect in Series 14 (contains spoilers).

UPDATE 4 August: Okay, so I went off half-cocked on the Stig is dead theory (see below). However, perhaps the death in the family is much larger than that—is Top Gear dead, never to return to our screens again?

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage review, which closed Series 13, contains hidden messages about the show’s future. Well, if you are prepared to go looking for them. Even the soundtrack used in the V12 Vantage film was titled “An ending” (by Brian Eno). Clarkson’s commentary on the Aston centred around the death of the supercar due to, among other things, the financial crisis. Were his comments simply about the car in question, or did they form part of a bigger picture for the show itself?

The Top Gear-is-over-theory does have momentum, as this piece in The Guardian shows. And, as noted earlier, the banter at FinalGear contains plenty of discussion on the topic.

One thing is certain and that is Top Gear, as we know it, will end one day. Is that day sooner than we may have first thought? At this stage I am still prepared to accept the words of “The Mole” on the Top Gear Transmission blog, which states there will be “a little bit of time off for the crew and then we’re straight back into filming for series 14 later in the year.”

I formed an educated guess that Season 14 would be back on UK screens around Sunday 15 November [Ed: Zing!] I guess we will have to wait and see what transpires. Let the speculation continue…

(Oh, a reminder to Australian readers that SBS TV will start the seven episode run of Top Gear, Series 13 on Monday 31 August.)

UPDATE 30 September: Top Gear have recently been filming a segment for Series 14 on the Transfagarasan road in Romania.

First filed 1 August:

The final episode of Series 13 of Top Gear goes to air in the UK tomorrow night. After reading the preview of the final episode we’re left asking a few questions that may be answered when Season 14 goes to air, towards the end of this year presumably. To see the source of those questions we need to go back to the preview clip from the start of Series 13 as shown in Episode 1.

The first, and perhaps the biggest question to ask is this—will there be a new Stig?

When the identity of the Black Stig was revealed he was promptly killed off. That was way back in the first episode of Series 3. The true identity of the White Stig hasn’t been confirmed as such—and certainly not by Top Gear—however, there is a reasonably strong belief that it is Ben Collins. In fact, in January this year media speculation reached fever pitch when UK newspaper The Telegraph outed Collins after a builder claimed he got confirmation from Collins himself while at his house doing some work.

So, back to the preview clip from the start of Series 13. You can see, pictured above, a funeral ceremony in place where a scantily clad lass in a black bikini is one of the pall bearers. Cast your mind back to Series 10, Episode 10 when The Stig was lazing in a pool enjoying some rays. Poolside was a bikini-clad babe who the audience were to assume was Mrs Stig. Could The Telegraph‘s revelation be true and Mrs Stig has reappeared as a pall bearer at her husband’s funeral?

UPDATE 3 August: Follow the “Read the rest of this entry” link for more on Season 14.

Other items shown in the Series 13 teaser but not making it to air in the season proper are an Audi R8 V10 v Corvette ZR1 track duel and the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. It isn’t clear why they may not have made the cut for Series 13, but you would expect cars of such quality would not be left out altogether. So, it would seem safe, or at least reasonable, to expect they will make it to air in Season 14.

It is also believed that Lewis Hamilton will be given a second opportunity to lap the Top Gear track in the reasonably priced car, after his first attempt was completed on a wet track (10×08). Hamilton’s scheduling didn’t allow a return filming session for Series 13, so perhaps Lewis will be back for a post 2009 F1 season wrap in Series 14?

It is understood that Series 14 will feature another seven episodes, like the current series, and following previous Top Gear scheduling the second season for the year will finish on the last Sunday of the year (27 December). If we take that as gospel and work seven weeks back, then pencil in a Series 14 premiere date for Sunday 15 November.

UPDATE 3 August: The Aston Vantage V12 does indeed feature in the last episode of Series 13, and the way the episode ends has created plenty of speculation on FinalGear as to whether this may be the last episode of Top Gear ever.

If we take this recent post by “The Mole” on the Top Gear Transmission blog at face value then Series 14 has been confirmed as it states there will be “a little bit of time off for the crew and then we’re straight back into filming for series 14 later in the year.”