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Talbot Street Lock In

Squiggs said:
The new millennium saw the park tell 'a tale with a twist' with the addition of Hex in the Towers ruins, bringing a slice of local legend to the park.

After a successful summer run the previous season, Barney the Dinosaur moved into Cred Street full time in 2000, taking over the Theatre and Playground. The double-decker Cred Street Carousel also arrived in the area, having previously operated at Thorpe Park, which had been acquired by Tussauds in the late 90s.
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It's got to be one of the best dark rides in the UK. Try and compare something to it. The Haunting has got better at Drayton Manor but it will always be Hex in my opinion!
 
Perhaps controversial, but I feel 2000 was the last true glory year of the park's golden age. Perhaps appropriate, at the tip of a new decade.

Two years and much buzz later, and Air was impressive, but the atmosphere and branding of the park had become something very different a bit more visibly corporate by then. It's a difficult thing to put your finger on.
 
At the turn of the millennium, Alton Towers teamed up with the Royal Marines to produce a pair of stunt-filled Summer Spectaculars.

After a successful run in 1999, the Summer Spectacular returned in 2000 with The Pirates of the Apocalypse, which saw a giant post-apocalyptic pirate ship take to the main lake.

Who'd like to see a stunt show return to Alton Towers one day?

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It looked pretty bad but I've always been regretful I didn't get to go on this campy version of Hex. Amazing how a new video and audio changes can drastically change the tone. From the audio mix that was released by British Theme Park Archive I found it bizarre that the Octagon pre-show seemed to go on way longer but with less happening. It just seemed to give the effect of a storm occurring for 2 mins, must have been an odd experience.
 
In 2001, the park submitted guests to new thrills, with the addition of Submission in X-Sector.

In an otherwise rather quiet year for the park, this new addition also saw the relocation of the Energizer, which became the much-missed Boneshaker in Ug Land.
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Aaah 2001 was my first visit to Alton Towers, good year too for a newbie to the magical park, I remember I had two park maps to begin and to know what's what; I can remember the local newspaper showing the 2000 map. Later onwards in May myself,my dad,sister,step-sister and step-mother then all went and had a good time. I found my youthful rides and attractions such as the Squirrel Nutty, Vintage Cars, Toyland Tours, Riverbank Eye-spy. I braced and conquered the Black Hole, and then I did other rides by getting really wet on the Rapids and then easily terrified on the Haunted House.

Wow this began my interest in going there a few more years; however I was still tall enough for Nemesis and the other 1.4m attractions I just didn't fancy them I did watch them in interest. I enjoyed the music and soundtracks though as they were easily tune-able as you'd walk up or down of Towers St and hearing the Toyland Tours segment.
 
LordOfDarkness said:
Does anyone know what year Submissions second arm got buggered? I can only remember it running on one arm.
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Both arms in use in 2002, 2003... I have a feeling it might have been 2004 that they stopped using both regularly.

In fairness the queue was never particularly long as I recall it, it did look a lot less cool though, and after Black Hole closed the area felt very unloved for a number of years.
 
Both arms worked until it's demise IIRC, I went on the back arm a few times when the front one wasn't in use but the control of both required 2 ops and I think something linking the op of both at once was knackered? (part of me wants to say gearbox?)
 
I must admit, Submission looked like an interesting attraction! What was it like, for those who rode?

Also, I must admit that I’m a little sad they didn’t pick that lovely Port Discovery concept for X-Sector’s theme; as good as X-Sector is, I would have loved to have seen steampunk Oblivion!
 
Matt N said:
I must admit, Submission looked like an interesting attraction! What was it like, for those who rode?
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Rubbish

The original concepts for X Sector are beautiful. Although I like the 'idea' of Oblivion's final theme it's a bit of a cop out for a great park like Alton Towers, which up to that point was becoming really fantastical and themed. X Sector never really suited Alton Towers (but it's not so obvious these days because the whole park has become a patchwork anyway), that minimal type theme would have suited somewhere like present day Thorpe Park instead
 
Submission was lumbering and crap. It was a weird installation. In its first year of operation, it utilised Oblivion's old VQ system, so on busy days, one arm was always dedicated to Fastrackers.
 
I rode Submission once in 2001, not sure if I ever did it again after that, I don't recall doing so.

I am not a huge fan of anything that spins, so I thought that the slow and graceful movements might work well for me, but it was somewhat dull, if being polite.
 
OilyWater said:
The original concepts for X Sector are beautiful. Although I like the 'idea' of Oblivion's final theme it's a bit of a cop out for a great park like Alton Towers, which up to that point was becoming really fantastical and themed. X Sector never really suited Alton Towers (but it's not so obvious these days because the whole park has become a patchwork anyway), that minimal type theme would have suited somewhere like present day Thorpe Park instead
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I'd also say that the steampunk theme was arguably more aligned with Alton Towers' brand image at the time and the other areas in the park. I also think it would have been more timeless than X-Sector ultimately ended up being; some of the tech in the Oblivion queue, for example, now looks a little retro in 2020! Although to be fair, I think that's more down to the futuristic theming style in general not being particularly timeless; even some Disney themes, like Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the Tomorrowland areas, arguably suffer from this.

But don't get me wrong, I still think X-Sector is a nice area, and I think The Smiler revitalised it somewhat; I love its huge presence within the area!
Plastic Person said:
Submission was lumbering and crap. It was a weird installation. In its first year of operation, it utilised Oblivion's old VQ system, so on busy days, one arm was always dedicated to Fastrackers.
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When did Oblivion use a virtual queue, and how did it work, out of interest?
 
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Matt N said:
I'd also say that the steampunk theme was arguably more aligned with Alton Towers' brand image at the time and the other areas in the park. I also think it would have been more timeless than X-Sector ultimately ended up being; some of the tech in the Oblivion queue, for example, now looks a little retro in 2020! Although to be fair, I think that's more down to the futuristic theming style in general not being particularly timeless; even some Disney themes, like Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the Tomorrowland areas, arguably suffer from this.
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Exactly, it seems like a lost area of the park that would have really finished it off, along with Toyland Tours, Haunted House, Hex, Nemesis, the gardens and ruins.

I dont think X Sector was meant to be that futuristic, it was just meant to be super cool and contemporary "millenium", the theme is quite minimal really, probably also because Tussauds was about to get sold.

I like Oblivion's theme on its own, what there is of it, but it just came at the cost of having a much better theme park overall in my opinion
 
Matt N said:
When did Oblivion use a virtual queue, and how did it work, out of interest?
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1999 and 2000, and not dissimilarly to how it does today. The distribution machines were beside the Black Hole. My initial memory was that one lane of the queue was used for the Virtual Queue, the other for Standby/Normal. But I'm incorrect! Unbelievably, on busy days in 1999 and 2000, the only way to get on Oblivion was with a Virtual Queue ticket! Same goes for Nemesis. Perhaps they opened it up to everyone in the final hour? Either way, in 2001, the VQ/Standby split arrived.

Oblivion's queue has always been split throughout, even in 1998. You chose a lane and then followed it through to either of the loading platforms. Breakdowns aside, it is amazing how many guests Oblivion used to shift through in its first few seasons, and testimony to how big the park dreamed in the nineties.

Agreed that the Jules Verne theme would have been preferable, but the black paint and paranoia aesthetic of the area still works reasonably effectively.
 
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