SteveJ

I don't think it needs a refurb to the extent of story lines and such being added. It is fun for what it is, it just needs to be made to look a little less like it is about to fall to pieces through neglect than it does at the moment.

There's something very relaxing about The Swarm. In fact, I think the B&M wingrider achieves the sense of open "flight" better than the B&M flying coaster! I really enjoy the sensation. Anybody expecting the intense destructive thrills that they advertise will be disappointed, though.

Just a simple theme that takes advantage of its lakeside setting. Nothing too over the top, it's not really that kind of ride.
As long as they abolish that torturous switchback queueline! There's plenty of room for a meandering lakeside path.

There are no full length POVs that I have stumbled across, but there was a partial video from 1997 or something (I think it has since been taken down).
There's this, but it is terribly edited. The video jumps all over the place, the actual ride was not as random as it makes out (also the audio also doesn't fit with what's on screen). Misleading and poor quality but it gives an idea of what it was like.
And this shows some shots on opening day. Most of the ride was drastically altered a few months after this video was taken, so very worth seeing.

8. Alton Towers Resort will endeavour to ensure that as many rides and attractions as possible are available for use by visitors. We may, however, without prior notice and without refund or compensation, change the operating hours of the Theme Park or attractions, close the Theme Park or any part of it temporarily, restrict the number of persons having access to the Theme Park, and/or suspend or cancel any attraction or entertainment programme, due to capacity, inclement weather or special events, to ensure safety, security or order, or if we consider that the circumstances so require.

http://www.altontowers.com/tandcs/

From what I saw the other day, the bridge and the boiler shack staircase were still all in place. Whether it will stay this way or not we'll see!
Will certainly be interesting to see what we end up with - and I have my fingers crossed it's ok...

Well I'm in love with it and I haven't ridden it yet

I'm not sure whats worse, the people who haven't ridden it and calling it rubbish or the people who are dismissing it because its a Gerstlauer. Enthusiasts, for people who are supposed to love theme parks and rides are the most fickle and narrow minded people of the lot sometimes.

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.

I've read 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'The Restaurant at The End of The Universe', and looking at the POV, it's so easy to agree that the 5th Dimension WAS indeed created by Douglas Adams himself! I mean, you get some quotes on the ride that remind you of THHGTTG, such as Zappomatic saying "Would you believe it? There's a Gorg in here! Horrible creatures, Gorgs! HORRIBLE!"
 
Also, the Gorg reminds me A LOT of the Vogons from THHGTTG. I actually would've praised the ride a lot if the ride had ended like the film: Marvin the Paranoid Android defeats the Vogons by zapping them with his ray gun. What happens next should've been the Gorg when he was defeated: The Vogons collapse to the ground moaning, "Ohhhhhh, I am depressed!"
 
Love the music as well! But it's a bit happy and jumpy for a ride based around a repair android in a battle with a robot-eating Gorg! Well, there IS a bit of adventure feel in that track!:

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.

TT seems to enjoy using the words "major" and "severe". What arse.
I'd love to know their source for this "foreseeable future" that The Smiler will close for. A valleyed train? Happens all the time in testing. And it's quite the coincidence it happens just after trim fins were added to both airtime hills. This "major incident" is basically over-trimming. Probably a bit gusty that day too. Still enough to throw half of TTF into a meltdown about the ride's opening possibly being delayed for another forty years.
Just because the wording of the closure alert on Towers' website changes from "The Smiler won't be open today" to "The Smiler is currently closed" doesn't mean The Smiler won't open soon. It's what the whinging "enthusiasts" at TTF have been wanting for ages - for Towers to stop updating them and the GP "only 20 hours in advance" of the next day that the ride won't be opening. To me it's a good sign. From photo updates we can see the amount of construction that's been going on in the last week and how close they are to finishing the ride queue; final touches like covering the substantial gap between the ground and the gate that blocks off the cherry picker access path and fiddling about with that support. They've also finished the disabled access fire escape round the back of the building and covered most of the queueline that required covering.
I'm hopeful the ride will open soon. It's not my business to speculate about management cock-ups. That's Towers' and Merlin's business and very little I or anyone else says will make much difference, regardless of how much it should.

I just wanna know who did these puns for the Bubbleworks. I mean, who could go wrong with "Hic-Cups" and "Recycled Empties"? (Professor Burp riding on a motorbike in the Bottling Dept.)

"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.

Amazing find, thank you.
But I can't agree with that, it was a proper little adventure.
It could have kept it's heart, soul and narrative and just evolved over time into something the same but more modern. In fact it is one of the only dark rides with a storyline in which hand held lasers would have made sense and actually worked well, it even had a pretend one in the shape of a button to beat the Gorg. So in a more imaginative and classier way than sticking green LEDs to every surface they could have introduced the 'fun' shooting eliminant around what they already had.
I am confident it is not just nostalgia, a modernised 5th Dimension would fit perfectly at Chessington.

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.

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...

I love those designs. If they just copied the first one completely it would be great. The second one, I love the gap in the rockwork with the bridge - it's got a Expedition Everest feel to it, if on a smaller scale. Not sure about the pagoda though - imagine it being big enough to cover the whole main drop - it would look seriously tacky at that size unless they spent and unfeasable amount of money on it.
The thing is, with all these designs, I'm almost certain the retheme will be crap, and expect to see that the elements taken from designs will amount to about one small thing that is painted onto a plywood board rather than a model.

As we know Chessington have stripped this right back ready for redevelopment and invited ideas to be submitted by visitors.
I don't like just linking out to other sites, but for those not on TS these have to be shared. Firstly my personal favourite from ElectricBill...
http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/merlin-parks-and-attractions/chessington-world-of-adventures-resort/msg70232/#msg70232
And another mighty impressive one from CGM...
http://www.towersstreet.com/talk/merlin-parks-and-attractions/chessington-world-of-adventures-resort/msg71609/#msg71609
I have pretty much no idea where you'd even start to come up designs of this quality, I do hope Chessington take these ideas at least a little seriously and incorporate elements into the final build.
Anyone here come up anything they'd like to share?

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.

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.

Hmmm I actually really liked the advert. I didn't want it to be too sinister as that's not what this ride's about, it's a sort of quirky fun sinister advert. I agree with Josh in the sense that they should have used the laughing version of the Towers theme, but I can see why they stuck with the original. Most people don't watch adverts and they're looking down at their phones etc, so continuously using a well known track for a brand is good marketing as people will hear that and think "OH ALTON TOWERS" and look up at the screen. Very good advert though!
One other little thing about this, us enthusiasts know it's all about the marmalisation etc but I wonder how many of the general public will get the story line? Let's just hope they go down the Oblivion route and use very very very good queue-line videos to get the story line out there!

That clip summed up by this comment underneath it...

For people concerned about the music - it may not necessarily be the whole thing even! Remember when they were testing the screens on The Marmaliser at first, and it had a few minute loop? Could be exactly the same here; so that the speakers get tested, sound levels tweaked, stir up more attention, etc. Admittedly I have some reservations about what has been heard so far, but I'll wait till I've actually visited before making any of them vocal.
Also, this was tweeted earlier by AT during the press event. It's a photo of a car coming into the station, and you can see staff as well (the uniform looks well suited inside the station). Put in spoilers just in case...

Also, The shop and entrance look a lot like a 'crap, we've run out of budget. What has to give?' conversation has happened, especially with the shop. As long as the ride is good I guess it is OK but it is a shame to see what looks like a bit of a 'that'll do' approach to something that in other areas is so spectacular. I also have concerns about how that yellow will age, I can see it looking really dirty really quickly without regular washing and painting, not one of our dear leaders strong points usually.