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Talbot Street Lock In

That would have been a much better location for Sub Terra with a different theme. A thrilling techno dark ride thing in that location would have been brilliant, rather than another area of just coasters crammed in.

Although I do love the Smiler layout for what it is, in the big picture it just seems like the best of a bad idea (cram in as many loops as possible in a totally unsuitable space)

Sub Terra should never have been built in that location and the budget should have been moved to a proper refurbishment of Duel, a far bigger dark ride with a lot more potential right next door. Sub Terra made no sense to make.

Instead we got a run down Duel limping on these last 10 years instead, an expensive closed failure, and a disasterous (though flukey fun) cheap Gerstlauer
 
I imagine it would have been a lot different.

I believe sub terra would have also gone in the Black Hole tent (in some shape or form) originally in 2012, with the next SW planned to be in the Valley. Of course plans changed which meant sub terra went in the valley as they needed the black hole site for The Smiler.
I’m assuming that they would have gone with the Area 51 theme for Sub Terra, as I’ve seen early concept art suggested with this theme. Alternatively, I suppose they could also have built that Dueling Deadstars flat ride concept (I’m not sure what ride type it was?) in the Black Hole tent too.

I wonder where they would have put SW7 had this happened, though; I’m going to guess that it could have been the Flume site, what with those alleged posters that said about “Captain Black’s weapon from Switzerland” that would have “destroyed the ducks” that was apparently seen in around 2011... not to mention that the LTDP submitted in 2010 (I think?) that identified The Flume as a ride they wanted to remove during the 2010s (which did actually happen, to be fair).
 
That would have been a much better location for Sub Terra with a different theme. A thrilling techno dark ride thing in that location would have been brilliant, rather than another area of just coasters crammed in.

Although I do love the Smiler layout for what it is, in the big picture it just seems like the best of a bad idea (cram in as many loops as possible in a totally unsuitable space)

Sub Terra should never have been built in that location and the budget should have been moved to a proper refurbishment of Duel, a far bigger dark ride with a lot more potential right next door. Sub Terra made no sense to make.

Instead we got a run down Duel limping on these last 10 years instead, an expensive closed failure, and a disasterous (though flukey fun) cheap Gerstlauer
I'd love to see a proper refurbishment of Duel now with no guns, effects that can't be seen and that work. I'm not going to go on because there's too much to name so I don't know why I bothered going in their once last year.
 
Talking of a Duel refurbishment, I once had a dream that the park had refurbished it and renamed it to The Haunted House once again, but the sad news was... they had replaced the guns with VR headsets. And the zombie animatronic out the front that currently holds a gun was now wearing a VR headset over its eyes...

I woke up before we got onto the ride, but relievingly, that was only a dream. I think Galactica was enough VR for the park to have at once!
 
Talking of a Duel refurbishment, I once had a dream that the park had refurbished it and renamed it to The Haunted House once again, but the sad news was... they had replaced the guns with VR headsets. And the zombie animatronic out the front that currently holds a gun was now wearing a VR headset over its eyes...

I woke up before we got onto the ride, but relievingly, that was only a dream. I think Galactica was enough VR for the park to have at once!
The park won't go back to VR again. Also let's try and stay on topic as we left Duel behind back in 2003. I tell you what, we can talk about it when we start remembering TLC and how Duel got a good new soundtrack (IMO).
 
This Wednesday we're taking a look at the park's most elaborate April Fools gag, when the park announced they were were planning to add a 'wet-knuckle' coaster that would dive through lake in front of the Towers.

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The Archive Film Studio have uploaded some brilliant footage of the Live and Kicking segment from April 1st 1995, which went into great detail about Great White, a project that would have seen the boating lake cleared of ducks and instead filled with sharks.

Were you fooled when the park made the announcement? Or do you still pine for Great White to this day?

 
The Archive Film Studio have uploaded some brilliant footage of the Live and Kicking segment from April 1st 1995, which went into great detail about Great White, a project that would have seen the boating lake cleared of ducks and instead filled with sharks.
I'm sorry to say I've had enormous problems with the man who runs this channel, who has sent me a number of abusive messages, harassed people who commented on my videos, and made fake copyright claims over a video (which he thought he owned just because he also taped it off the TV years ago) to try get my channel deleted, accusing me of downloading his videos etc.

It's a shame because otherwise he has a good collection of TV broadcasts. He recently started this new channel (wonder where he got the name 'archive' from) after his last one seemed to be suspended for the fake claims. To be honest I wouldnt get involved.
 
It's by no means unusual for the park to run promotions over Summer, but one of our favourites occurred in 2011, when the park's coaster vied to become the park's All Time Great.

Each of the park's big five coasters 'campaigned' to win the prize, with manifestos on the park's website and placards at the entrance to each ride.

After a summer of campaigning, eventually Nemesis was crowned as the victor of the competition, but did you agree with the outcome? And how do you think it would fare now against The Smiler and Wicker Man?
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I really liked the all time greats campaign, certainly better than the Big Six and very much better then the power of the towers.

Loved the advert as well.
 
On a more on-topic note, I just found some concept art of what Sub Terra could have been in the Black Hole tent:
https://towersstreet.com/gallery/index.php?album=history/plans-and-concepts/nemesis-sub-terra
Very interesting! The ride would also have been named Area 51: A New Species of Terror, very much in keeping with the X-Sector theme!

I sort of expect it would have been along the lines of Mystery Castle at Phantasialand or the drop towers at the Dungeons, to some extent a drop/bungee tower in the dark is always going to be similar-ish.
 
I sort of expect it would have been along the lines of Mystery Castle at Phantasialand or the drop towers at the Dungeons, to some extent a drop/bungee tower in the dark is always going to be similar-ish.
Mystery Castle was built by Intamin whereas Sub Terra was built by ABC Rides I think?
 
The Phalanx returned to Forbidden Valley in 2012, inviting guests to explore their subterranean compound when the park opened Nemesis: Sub Terra. In fact, they opened it twice: once in March and then again in May after the attraction had been modified, following negative reviews, to improve the storyline and add a climactic live maze section.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park the characters from Ice Age arrived in the new 4D Cinema, as Cloud Cuckoo Land experienced a cold snap.
2012.jpg
 
I'm sorry to say I've had enormous problems with the man who runs this channel, who has sent me a number of abusive messages, harassed people who commented on my videos, and made fake copyright claims over a video (which he thought he owned just because he also taped it off the TV years ago) to try get my channel deleted, accusing me of downloading his videos etc.

It's a shame because otherwise he has a good collection of TV broadcasts. He recently started this new channel (wonder where he got the name 'archive' from) after his last one seemed to be suspended for the fake claims. To be honest I wouldnt get involved.

That is a shame. I've never really understood why folk get like that, it's always been my philosophy that if you have something you may as well share it freely. Especially when it comes to official media both past and present, since without fail the media actually belongs to the park, or failing that the original broadcaster.
 
The Phalanx returned to Forbidden Valley in 2012, inviting guests to explore their subterranean compound when the park opened Nemesis: Sub Terra. In fact, they opened it twice: once in March and then again in May after the attraction had been modified, following negative reviews, to improve the storyline and add a climactic live maze section.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park the characters from Ice Age arrived in the new 4D Cinema, as Cloud Cuckoo Land experienced a cold snap.
2012.jpg
Ice Age wasn't the right move for Merlin to make at both Gardaland and Alton Towers. At least with Gardaland they've managed to get a show running again. I liked Nemesis Sub-Terra. I thought it was a good dark ride and it was a shame to see it axed!
 
I quite liked Sub-Terra for what it was. The only problem I think really let it down was the whole 'something has gone wrong' storyline. Okay, so I don't like the Nemesis story about the track actually pinning down the monster but you do have the cultists and Phalanx in the original story. If it were the case that guests were tricked into going down there and then were about to be sacrificed and somehow got out alive, I think it would have worked better. This is assuming there was no budget for an animatronic like from The Thing. Keeping all the hardware the same, cultists vs Phalanx would've made a better experience, I think.
 
I quite liked Sub-Terra for what it was. The only problem I think really let it down was the whole 'something has gone wrong' storyline. Okay, so I don't like the Nemesis story about the track actually pinning down the monster but you do have the cultists and Phalanx in the original story. If it were the case that guests were tricked into going down there and then were about to be sacrificed and somehow got out alive, I think it would have worked better. This is assuming there was no budget for an animatronic like from The Thing. Keeping all the hardware the same, cultists vs Phalanx would've made a better experience, I think.
There were so many ways it could have been more entertaining, they went down the most unimaginative route with teenage actors shouting at you, TV screens and some geeky 'backstory'. I don't think it even suited Nemesis rusty cool theme either with all that techno advanced stuff (boring).

I enjoyed the best moments, but I think the appeal was just flawed so it didn't satisfy. It was a throwaway distraction but trying to be an intense horror experience, so just too short, in the wrong location, wrong hook. More money spent on the huge excavation than actually creating something entertaining.

Very strange that they would so blatantly rip off Alien Encounter, an attraction which notoriously failed anyway, there were so many better projects that Alton Towers really needed
 
These days Sub Terra may be best known for the issues that plagued the attraction during its short operating life, but today we're going to take a step back to a better time and remember its marketing campaign.

Throughout the 2011 closed season the Phalanx communicated with guest's through the Phalanx Control Twitter account, which gradually revealed Sub Terra's backstory as well as supplying mission and construction updates from on site.

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The Ministry of Joy sought willing advocates to join them in 2013 and experience their latest experiment - The Smiler. And like they always say, 14 inversions should put a smile on your face. The ministry were particularly busy that year, as their original correctional facility, The Sanctuary, also opened for the first part of the season.

But as the MoJ moved in, a certain farmer retired as we said a fond farewell to Old MacDonald's Farmyard and neighbouring Storybook Land.
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