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Air or Galactica?

Air or Galactica?

  • Total voters
    114
Matt N said:
Would people really care if Air returned, though? It would literally just mean a new name and different music; there wouldn’t really be any material change to the ride itself whatsoever. I dare say that it could be construed as a downgrade, as this would also see the portal removed.

Controversially, I much prefer the Galactica theme and would like it to stay. I love the soundtrack, I love the portal, and I feel like the changes made gave the ride more spectacle and a greater sense of theme than it ever had as Air. Air… didn’t really have a theme. Or not from the spectator’s eye, at least; I’m aware that Wardley originally intended for it to be themed to an oasis of calm within FV, but I’m not sure that was ever overly clear to the spectator. Had the ride not suffered from a lack of time and budget due to the flying coaster technology’s issues, I can imagine it could have been a really good theme, but I’m not sure it was executed in a way that conveyed that theme clearly.

With Galactica, on the other hand; I think the space theme is clearer and more strongly conveyed, and I personally much prefer the vibe the ride has as Galactica.

However, I think Air/Galactica has always had little enough theming that whatever identity it carries is neither here nor there, really.
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You're absolutely right that Galactica has much better theming, but it doesn't feel right in the area. It's supposed to be a "Forbidden Valley" not a space agency. I think that Airs theme was more suitable as, well to me, Airs theme always gave off the feeling of a powerful, unknown force of good, flight, fighting nemesis, which had a feeling of pure evil and power. Like 2 ancient rivals. Air had that sleek theming and calm soundtrack when compared to Nemesis jagged, rusty look and bombastic theme. Galactica doesn't really have a force of good, nor evil, its just a standard sci fi theme around a company transporting you to space, which is totally the English countryside :/, that doesn't sound so Forbidden now does it.

I mean, if they were to retheme it back to air, they could easily keep the amazing portal, and just paint it grey, and add some rockwork at the bottom of it, making it look like it's embedded within the Earth.
 
Matt N said:
Controversially, I much prefer the Galactica theme and would like it to stay. I love the soundtrack, I love the portal, and I feel like the changes made gave the ride more spectacle and a greater sense of theme than it ever had as Air.
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Glad I'm not the only one who prefers the Galactica Soundtrack Matt! 🙂
I like the soundtrack more than the actual ride lol.
 
It's the age old Merlin problem, any vaguely notable expenditure requires a marketable aspect. That something being better would just contribute to people having a better day and so make them more likely to return doesn't really come into it.

Galactica makes absolutely no sense now. It's hard to imagine you are flying through space when your only view is of a green field. Coming away from the failed VR themed nonsense it's hard to see what that marketable impact would be when it doesn't need a gimmick, it just needs significantly tarting up with a theme that makes at least some sense. Whether that is back to air or something completely new doesn't really matter.
 
Danscott22 said:
“The theme is strongly conveyed” because of a portal and space sounding name? Strongly conveyed is such an overstretch imo
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Perhaps “strongly conveyed” was a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but I do feel that the conveyance of a space theme by Galactica is stronger in relative terms than the conveyance of whatever Air’s theme was when the ride was Air.

And from my standpoint, Galactica has a somewhat clear theme to the spectator; I don’t think you’d really know Air was supposed to have a theme unless you watched interviews with John Wardley and the like. Whereas I think it could be inferred that Galactica has a space theme from what’s actually there; the portal, the tunnel, the interior queue and the soundtrack do link at least loosely to the kind of theme being conveyed. I won’t try and pretend that Galactica has an overly strong theme by any stretch (a heavily themed ride it is not), but what it has is at least something theming-wise that attempts to convey the overarching theme of the ride, which is more than Air ever had.

I’ll digress that Galactica doesn’t make a huge amount of sense within Forbidden Valley, but I don’t personally think Air did either, so Galactica didn’t really change much; from a spectator standpoint, Air clashed with Forbidden Valley, and I don’t think Galactica really solved that. I don’t think it exacerbated the issue either, though; it just sort of maintained the status quo. So I am looking at the two themes in isolation rather than within the context of Forbidden Valley, as I think they both clash with the area in a pretty similar way.

I guess it depends what sort of thing you’re looking for, though.
 
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Matt N said:
Perhaps “strongly conveyed” was a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but I do feel that the conveyance of a space theme by Galactica is stronger in relative terms than the conveyance of whatever Air’s theme was when the ride was Air.
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Air was marketed as the "hero", as Nemesis and Oblivion had both been marketed as villains.
 
Skyscraper said:
Air was marketed as the "hero", as Nemesis and Oblivion had both been marketed as villains.
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I’m aware of that, and I understand why they did it (you don’t want too many dark themes in a park like Alton), but in terms of an actual theme; I’m not sure the average spectator would have known what Air’s theme was supposed to be without doing some sort of research, which I wouldn’t say about other rides.

With Nemesis, for example, I’d say you can make a fair inference about what its theme is supposed to be if you go in with a totally uninformed eye. I’d also say that about Oblivion to a degree (although perhaps to a lesser extent). But could you say that about Air? I’m not so sure.
 
Matt N said:
I’m aware of that, and I understand why they did it (you don’t want too many dark themes in a park like Alton), but in terms of an actual theme; I’m not sure the average spectator would have known what Air’s theme was supposed to be without doing some sort of research, which I wouldn’t say about other rides.

With Nemesis, for example, I’d say you can make a fair inference about what its theme is supposed to be if you go in with a totally uninformed eye. I’d also say that about Oblivion to a degree (although perhaps to a lesser extent). But could you say that about Air? I’m not so sure.
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That was the point of calling it air, it was vague and intriguing to Guests, which made them want to ride it to know more about the attraction and its theme. And that's why the slogan "prepare for Air, you can fly" was played before you went off, satisfying the guests and making them excited to feel the sensation of flight.
 
Trooper Looper said:
That was the point of calling it air, it was vague and intriguing to Guests, which made them want to ride it to know more about the attraction and its theme. And that's why the slogan "prepare for Air, you can fly" was played before you went off, satisfying the guests and making them excited to feel the sensation of flight.
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Yeah in JWs on words (from his book), "It enabled you to do something that you'd always wanted to do: Fly".
 
Fair enough; I guess I just never really understood the love for Air’s old theming (or lack of it), and I did feel that Galactica was an improvement.

I guess Air was pretty inoffensive, in fairness.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Don't you mean innovative?
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No, I meant inoffensive. I meant that as a compliment; even though it did clash with Forbidden Valley, I don’t think it did it in an overly brash way. You didn’t think “oh my god, this is so unfitting of Forbidden Valley!”, and the ride wasn’t overly in-your-face in terms of how it clashed, if you get what I mean.

I was talking about the theme rather than the ride; I’ll agree that the ride was very innovative, and with all the technology involved in it, I do understand why they weren’t able to do any theming!

I do also appreciate that maintaining full area continuity all the time isn’t always possible, and not doing this doesn’t necessarily have an overly detrimental effect on the guest experience.
 
Matt N said:
No, I meant inoffensive. I meant that as a compliment; even though it did clash with Forbidden Valley, I don’t think it did it in an overly brash way. You didn’t think “oh my god, this is so unfitting of Forbidden Valley!”, and the ride wasn’t overly in-your-face in terms of how it clashed, if you get what I mean.

I was talking about the theme rather than the ride; I’ll agree that the ride was very innovative, and with all the technology involved in it, I do understand why they weren’t able to do any theming!

I do also appreciate that maintaining full area continuity all the time isn’t always possible, and not doing this doesn’t necessarily have an overly detrimental effect on the guest experience.
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Ah, sorry, I'm just a dumb 16 year old who doesn't know much, lol.

I think we'd all rather have air as it was when it opened rather than some well made landscape lacking a coaster.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Ah, sorry, I'm just a dumb 16 year old who doesn't know much, lol.

I think we'd all rather have air as it was when it opened rather than some well made landscape lacking a coaster.
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No need to apologise; I can understand why that might have been unclear!

Oh absolutely; as someone who highly values coasters, I definitely prefer that they built Air than just left the land desolate after the Beast went!
 
Matt N said:
Perhaps “strongly conveyed” was a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but I do feel that the conveyance of a space theme by Galactica is stronger in relative terms than the conveyance of whatever Air’s theme was when the ride was Air.

And from my standpoint, Galactica has a somewhat clear theme to the spectator; I don’t think you’d really know Air was supposed to have a theme unless you watched interviews with John Wardley and the like. Whereas I think it could be inferred that Galactica has a space theme from what’s actually there; the portal, the tunnel, the interior queue and the soundtrack do link at least loosely to the kind of theme being conveyed. I won’t try and pretend that Galactica has an overly strong theme by any stretch (a heavily themed ride it is not), but what it has is at least something theming-wise that attempts to convey the overarching theme of the ride, which is more than Air ever had.

I’ll digress that Galactica doesn’t make a huge amount of sense within Forbidden Valley, but I don’t personally think Air did either, so Galactica didn’t really change much; from a spectator standpoint, Air clashed with Forbidden Valley, and I don’t think Galactica really solved that. I don’t think it exacerbated the issue either, though; it just sort of maintained the status quo. So I am looking at the two themes in isolation rather than within the context of Forbidden Valley, as I think they both clash with the area in a pretty similar way.

I guess it depends what sort of thing you’re looking for, though.
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I see the point you’re making, as Air wasn’t themed at all. I did prefer Air personally though!
 
Jb85 said:
AIR when it first came out made sense and was a great ride

Now it’s lost. And tatty.

A spruce up is needed in either form. Personally I think it’s easier to add to the AIR theme to make it coherent then it is Galactica.

May finally theme that tunnel as well, you never know
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Talk about its theming, what Happened to Airs logo by the entrance? Was it scrapped or is it just encased inside Galacticas logo.
 
Matt N said:
I’m aware of that, and I understand why they did it (you don’t want too many dark themes in a park like Alton), but in terms of an actual theme; I’m not sure the average spectator would have known what Air’s theme was supposed to be without doing some sort of research, which I wouldn’t say about other rides.
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Air didn't have a theme, there was nothing to research. You are about to fly, that is it. Probably one of the simplest concepts so didn't need anything more.
 
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