SteveJ

You shouldn't need to dress something in words to make it sound good! Do you think Merlin Studios actually considered whether riders would "still be reeling from the experience" when they put the doll on the shelf? Does the fact that riders are possibly still disorientated mean you can get away with the cheapest effects possible? Do you think the experience was analysed so much as to compensate for people who have or haven't seen the movies? If these things had been considered like you claim then Saw The Ride would be a lot more substantial than it is. You are basing your point on an imagined romanticised situation in which the rider is receptive to everything around them. Stand there, in person, and watch how many people actually notice the doll and see how their attention span lasts about 0.5 seconds looking at it. The last time I went on Saw, the "average riders" included a gang of drunk men, some bored-looking girls and a bunch of eager teenagers. Each one of them were just there to get on the ride and have a quick bit of fun, not to go around making sad excuses that "at least they did something when they could have done nothing". I am not saying people don't enjoy the ride - it has proven to be one of Thorpe Park's most popular rides ever and was a big success with the public, regardless of my personal opinion. But it's popularity is not to do with its effects and scenic design - it's because it's a rollercoaster coaster with the "Saw" name attached. Imagine how totally taken aback riders would be if it was genuinly frightening and grim on the inside.

There's an another world out there beyond the UK.

Well I would make the offload area quite a gloomy, claustrophobic area, but with a mood of reflection now that the ride is over. In 2 minutes I came up with this idea: A life-size animated Billy figure emerges from shadows in smoky silhouette, to congratulate the car as it re-enters the building, before ominously disappearing into pitch darkness again. The walls are dressed with more broken plumbing and ducts, etc, with another digital clock blinking 00:00 now that the games are over. There's also a shot I like in one film where the large shadow of an industrial fan slowly rotates overhead, an effect that could easily be achieved with some lighting and a gobo. Add some outro music and you have a much more memorable ending, before continuing to the offload platform. But nothing like that can really happen because they didn't install real walls, so light pollution prevents any real atmosphere. They also constructed the building leaving no space for anything interesting to happen, suggesting even the shelf with dummies was an afterthought. A lot of Saw's problems would be solved if they didn't squash so much into one relatively small cuboid (the inside queue in particular!). But... that is exactly what happens? You can't even hear the audio because it's too quiet. The audio and light aren't even timed properly when the car comes in, which should be simple. It's not effective at all, in fact it's pretty laughable. You must see the experience from the average guest's point of view. Also I didn't need John Wardley to explain about memorable endings to know what a finale is. The inversion into the brakerun provides a great snappy end to the rollercoaster, but Saw The Ride isn't finished until you leave the building as far as the guest is concerned.

Just about sums up every theme park enthusiast ever ever ever ever.

Such a shame when the 'memorable ending' of one of Thorpe Park's major rides is a static puppet with an little LED shining on its face. Of course they had to put something there, it's a theme park! It honestly would have taken 0 effort to place a puppet on a shelf. Guests don't find things like that memorable or entertaining, and it totally matters what they think because they have come specifically to be entertained. Saw's not rubbish at all, but it's annoyingly bland and unfulfilled. The pitch is so much better than the product, like every single ride Merlin ever made. Strange that.

You didn't but loads of others have, which isn't a bad thing, but... Thorpe Park is apparently a theme park and a team of people were employed specifically to create the scenic design for Saw, so I don't see how the "theming is a bonus" in any way at all. In fact, the vast majority of the ride's marketing and appeal is based on the theme, and a tonne of money was paid to acquire the IP, so you'd expect a lot more effort. Rides from almost 30 years ago with a quarter of the budget are better than Saw. I have ridden Saw both before and after seeing the movies. Before it felt pants for what is supposed to be a scary ride, yet fun to ride. Afterwards, I realised how vague and unrelated the ride actually is. Even something instantly recognisable like the Billy puppet is totally the wrong scale, looks pathetic and lacks any of the personality that makes him a memorable character in the film.

That's basically what they did. If you were to turn the lights on in there, you'll find an empty metal shed with a rollercoaster and some extremely simple effects in it. Mannequins dumped on the floor and a tiny bathroom set (that nobody can see) is not really the epitome of theme park entertainment, is it? The only memorable feature is the spinning blade on the outside, which is at least bold and animated enough to entice people in. Creating a great themed ride is dead easy and just requires a will to entertain. Saw had a huge budget (much greater than most projects built in the 90s) so it should have been easy, but they compromised massively on its scenic design in favour of marketing and branding. The ride is fun for what it is, but when people defend Saw as being "brilliantly themed" it just seems like they aren't using their own imagination. Also, "The Mill" was never a real concept, from what I know. I'm pretty sure the ride's theme was always Saw although this was only decided late on in the project. It was just the early marketing that mislead people. Shame, because it sounds much better!

I was wrong, the colours had been enhanced, here's the original photo:

I believe it was "What inspires you?".

Can I say thanks again for the great opportunity to all that helped organise this event. And I probably saw a lot of members on here without realising! It was a fantastic day out and an unexpectedly touching experience talking to John Wardley. I really enjoyed it and hope he had a good day too. He certainly took a lot of selfies at the end of the day.

Am I missing something? Both photos look the same to my eye, once you ignore the sunny reflections in the aerial photo. Plus cameras behave different however you use them so naturally colours appear more saturated in some cases. Anyway, this just proves that you can't judge anything with photos alone. The area will look even more different in person.

Well being a photographer and photo editor, I'm not talking rubbish

Except that Storybook Land was a 1996 project and the farm had been changed drastically since the 1980s anyway.

It definitely doesn't have a filter, although the photo may have been edited to brighten it overall. But it was taken at the same angle as the sun around midday judging from the lack of visible shadows, and it was taken from high up so more UV in the lens I guess? Otherwise, that's just what CBeebies land looks like.

Yes! The waterfall after the first bend. It was an old Thunder River effect that had been broken for a decade. One year they fancied turning it on again, and it looked fantastic for a few weeks before embarassingly collapsing into the channel due to years of rot. (Or so I remember hearing, I think there was a video of the aftermath on the internet at one point.)

Well at least they have spent money on it this year, so the station looks nice and fresh! (Anyway it's only Safari Skyway so no big loss to the park's lineup!)

In the incident last year, they were able to lower the ride after releasing the locks. Presumably it would not lower properly with less than 15 people. These are all just extra precautions to ensure such incidents can never happen again, nothing wrong with them.

They still refurbishing it, I believe.

How can you change the song?!? It's ghoulishly fantastic! Really dated of course, but amazing! Well anyway yes Tomb Blaster IS only what's left of Terror Tomb after the fun was removed, with the gaps plugged by a giant snake or just nothing at all. I've never been able to see Tomb Blaster as a ride in itself, it's always felt like a slither of what it was intended to be. All the strangeness and energy of the Terror Tomb (even if it was polarising) was stripped. It's a loss for all the people who have been through the tomb in the last 12 years havnt been getting the full experience!

Well then you're wrong

Because such cameras weren't easily commercially available in the late 80s. Also the culture of photographing everything and anything didn't exist then, since the internet didn't exist so there was no way of sharing videos with the public. It's very lucky that this video from 1996 exists to be honest.

We'll...... that's alright since that is the full unedited version by Graham Smart. Usually they play a shortened loop that cuts out the choir sections and has different SFX in the station. Both are great. I'd like to hear the full version used in the station for once (looped properly), unless they are just using a file downloaded from the internet.

How so? Have they got the original tracks back or still using edits of the internet version? Chessington are so great this year!

I only rode Forbidden Tomb once and it had one of the most long-lasting impacts on my imagination ever. It absolutely terrified me, and then the following year it was all changed. This is amazing to see, it's such a daft and fantastic ride! Chessington at its very best!

Huh? I think it looks funky! They have done an excellent job at dressing the ride and have surprisingly managed to capture the character of Calamity Canyon completely! I'm so glad they covered the metal railings with wooden character panelling and have been more liberal with their ideas. It's certainly come along a lot since I last saw it! The original ride was still better (mostly because it disguised the now-obvious simplicity of the layout and had an adventurous queueline) but... FINALLY A RIDE THAT CAN ENTERTAIN PEOPLE