SteveJ

I love the Fifth Dimension music, it's so extraordinarily naive and silly! Like the theme tune to a children's cartoon in the 80s or something. By the way, sorry to burst the metaphorical bubble but Douglas Adams didn't actually have that much influence on the final script. There's an email somewhere with him talking about it His initial ideas were deemed too ambitious to achieve in a prototype dark ride, so he left the project fairly early on. The final script was not his. But whether Zappomatic and the Gorg were his creations who knows? Those characters certainly have a Douglas Adams feel to them!

Yes. The whole ride is 21 years old now.

I'm pretty sure people would notice if any of those effects stopped working. They are extremely simple effects and very easy to fix, plus they are only 4 years old and ought to last this long anyway. I also heard a lot about the contract deal, but so many stories like that have turned out to be false marketing/promotion in the past, so I am suspicious. It sounds false anyway: it's not like Lionsgate are going to take legal action against Thorpe Park just because a very fake swinging axe is broken or some spinning blades are turned off.

That's quite funny! Although the joke was actually "Cream Soda" extracted from a cow bloated with carbon dioxide - making it float.

It would certainly fit somewhere in the UK, but I feel the ride became an anomaly at Chessington and was doomed to close sooner or later. There's the whole "world of adventures" concept that didn't fit the ride, plus an offbeat sic-fi adventure story didn't seem to fit with the public conscious/attention span. It's such a shame it had to go. A ride like that, with so much creativity and originality, should never last just 7 years. I think it was worth getting Terror Tomb, but it's sad that the Fifth Dimension had to be sacrificed in the process. Of course, I never went on the ride, so I'm only basing my thoughts on research and various imaginings... I think people could still enjoy it today, but it would have to be extensively modified. Part of the appeal to me is that quintessential 80s culture vibe, I'm glad its personality got immortalised and not ruined with lasers or whatever horrible stuff they could have done to it!

At last some on ride footage has surfaced of the Fifth Dimension. Totally unrecognisable. This ride would never have a place at Chessington now, it's almost like it was built at the wrong park. Such a shame it only lasted seven years. The comparatively dull and boring Tomb Blaster has almost outlived it by twice its lifetime already. Also note that the Gorg shown here is not the original Gorg. They must have revised the finale sequence at some point.

That Lionsgate contract thing about the effects must be a myth... surely? It makes no sense to 'force' a park to maintain the small number of effects on a ride, especially since Lionsgate had no involvement in their design. I mean... If Lionsgate wanted to ensure the ride's longevity as an immersive Saw experience, then why did they agree to open the ride at a British theme park in the first place? As it is - it's just a few axes and blades, there's no point having a clause in a contract about them. Seems strange to me.

"Merlin" is a huge multinational company based in Poole, I doubt they have much responsibility to maintain a few motors and misters at Thorpe Park. All Merlin can do is give Thorpe Park enough money to fix it themselves. Of course if there was a department dedicated to park upkeep it would help, or just a better attitude towards maintenance in general. I've never heard of the blades on Saw's outdoor drop stopping before, though. In fact Saw's effects have been some of the most reliable since they are so simple.

No, because they still want the public to know about it. They would be wasting £1000s spent on marketing if they cancelled the advert now. The date has been removed from the advert anyway, since the 23rd of May is now in the past.

Yes, but it's worth noting that no one person ever designs anything. John Wardley was project manager of the early 90s developments at Alton Towers and Chessington in the early 90s. He was head of Tussaudes Attraction Development (along those lines) until his retirement in 2002, but by that time the industry had expanded and his job role changed slightly. Whereas rides like BubbleWorks and Vampire were practically his ideas, later projects such as Oblivion and Air were influenced more by marketing. After Merlin rehired him in 2008, he was given the title of Ride Consultant which seems similar to his role in the late 90s/early 00s, however by this point he had no creative input (apart from consulting with marketing what tone the theme should have, to target certain audiences). He still has input on the basic layouts and profiles, but whether you can call that "designing the layout" I'm not sure. Candy Holland doesn't actually design the rollercoasters herself, but she is involved in the creative studios - I think. Nobody really knows about her. There are also these Brad and Ben people who have popped up recently...

Covering up the building in anything would make it look worse. They should have given it better dimensions or a proper facade. Apparently they are looking into how they can improve the station already, but it will probably be more low budget additions like paint details.

Queueline videos are way overused these days. The good thing about the Smiler is, it visually speaks for itself without the need for much laborious 'theme exposition', but I'm sure they have a preshow planned inside the interior queue that will introduce the concept, while starting the ride off very nicely! The advert is really great, like a more colourful version of Oblivion's advert. But would you believe that some enthusiasts are actually moaning about it!? Shock! There will be another version as well, but longer or shorter I don't know.

Well, since it hasn't been completed yet, The Smiler is what it is. Not what people think it is "supposed to be". The more bombastic, bassy and discordant the music is... the better! I love it!

I doubt the general public care for the age of a ride. If it is good - they will want to ride it. Nemesis is arguably the most popular ride at the park, but I doubt it will get 3+ hour queues these days. Obviously The Smiler will have exceptional queues in its opening year, but in time that will normalise. There would be absolutely no need for a 7 hour queue line.

It's not true, Alton Towers would probably hit capacity before there were that many people queuing for one ride - considering how large the park is. The original Nemesis queue was about twice the length when it opened. It wouldn't get such long queues now because there is a much wider selection of rides now.

YES INDEED BubbleWorks used to fit in perfectly, from the outside at least. On the ride, however, it was completely bonkers and the 'European brewery' idea flew out the window.

Transylvania was not supposed to be evil. It was a bright, slightly odd Bavarian town square. The Vampire's castle was 'on the outskirts' if you like. But since the late 90s, Chessington have tried their best to turn the whole area into an evil spooky land of purple doom. With showers.

I'd much rather they have the whole year to refurbish ALL the old rides properly, rather than rushing them in time for opening day. In a way this is what I always wanted to happen: every old ride receiving investment they deserve, refurbishing the decaying facades, and un-doing the mistakes of last decade. But the deconstruction process is still very jarring, and I can't really trust the management will do a good job.

It was actually the radio show host who called it "Candy Holland's baby", but John replied saying that he "taught her the craft over the years" (along those lines).Candy Holland has been involved as far back as Nemesis, I believe, but became more of a leading figure after John Wardley's [initial] retirement. I find most of the recent projects to have very stale, formulaic or sober themes; not the kind of imaginative, exciting ideas from the John Wardley era. Despite that, everything in the last 5 years has been a big improvement from the rubbish era of tacked-on themes and half-hearted rides, like Rita for example. Thirteen seemed to be a change for the better. It actually had an atmospheric, emotionally rooted concept that suited the history of Alton Towers, but it was executed so badly (scaffolding + dummies = possessed forest?). The Smiler may finally be the moment one of Candy Holland's team's concepts really breaks through - it's original, characteristic and very enjoyable (for me at least). And so far, the concept is actually there in front of you, not hidden behind a fence or displayed on a queueline tv.

Quite brilliant if those plans come to fruition! Is it the station track they are playing at the entrance, or the version with overdubbed sound effects (screams, laughs, murmurs) that they used to play at the entrance?

Interesting! So do the trains coast right through with momentum, or get driven through by the tyres? Do the brake runs still slow down the pace of the ride?

This is crazy! Terror Tomb's fibreglass themework has also been condemned, it seems. These photos are from ThemeUK: This is going too far really. It shows just how poorly kept Chessington was over the last decade. At least money is being spent at last! But if they don't plan to restore all those details then the life could be sucked out of Chessington even more. That truncated obelisk... looks ridiculous. Wouldn't it be great if rides actually got better after refurbishments? I really hope that will be the case with this 'upgrade'.

Wow, what a difference audio and lighting makes. I wish they would restore the sound effects for the various characters that remain in Tomb Blaster. The mummy with the axe, for example, just stands there in silence these days and is unconvincing. The caged jackal is obviously much better if you don't hear him start up 10 seconds before you even see him!

Well as I said before, Nemesis Inferno is not trying to be any of those things. Posting a load of pictures from Google Images means nothing, hence I did it to prove that Nemesis Inferno bears no relation to real volcanoes. You can't really argue than an obviously fake, orange fibreglass rockface structure looks more realistic now that it has moss growing on it and damp damage. To the vast majority of people it will look ugly and dirty, not real. It's like the argument that Colossus is supposed to look filthy because "it fits the theme" or that Rita's scaffolding is an improvement because it "fits the theme". If theme is about illusion, then this damaged facade is breaking the illusion. It will go the way of Nemesis' station at Alton Towers if they don't maintain it properly. Or worse, Dragon Falls... To be pedantic Nemesis Inferno is supposed to be an active volcano, hence the red lights and "smoke" in the tunnel, and all the original adverts depicting red rivers of lava. But obviously Thorpe Park didn't plan to build real rivers of lava..

Well... Volcanoes look like this: Not like this: I doubt it is Nemesis Inferno's ambition to be a well themed ride, the volcano is just a fun 'setting' for the rollercoaster. But it certainly shouldn't be turning mossy and rotty either. For a quick comparison, here it is in 2003.