Webmaster
We've all been there: one minute you're browsing the internet in the comfort of your bedroom and the next minute you've been downloaded into a world of illusion where you're recruited to help protect the world from figure-skating viruses. No? Well, that's just the cyber-adventure that awaits our young computer mastermind, when he logs on at the start of this fast-paced show.
Jason is on a quest to unlock his imagination, which takes him into Web World, where he encounters the Webmaster. With the help of the Cyber Crew, the Webmaster starts to train his prodigy in the ways of imagination, but they are soon interrupted by a virus attack, which sends them into hiding.
These viral soldiers were sent by the Virus of the Imagination, who wants to banish dreams from the world and until now has been thwarted by the Webmaster. After their hiding place is uncovered, they are taken before Mother Virus, who orders her soldiers to kill the Webmaster by deactivating him on a spike that leaves him hanging in midair.
All is not lost though and remembering the Webmaster's final lesson, that anything is possible if you imagine it, Jason uses his new-found imagination to bring the Webmaster back to life. Together, our heroes are then able to use Jason's coding skills to banish the virus. Their task complete and Jason's imagination in overdrive, the Webmaster returns his student back to his bedroom and real life.
The Life & Times
After eight years of Peter Rabbit, in 2002 the park decided to take their ice show in a bold new direction, investing not only in a new show but in replacing the entire big top. The new custom-built venue debuted with a show that was a far cry from the former storybook tale, instead taking guests into a much darker technological world filled with illusions by Wayne Dobson and other impressive effects.
The new show was visually impressive and displayed the quality that guests had come to expect of the Alton Towers Ice Shows but it had one fatal floor: it was not suitable for young children. There are not many shows in Alton Towers' history that have ever featured the death of a character, let alone the hero, but Webmaster went there, and the illusion used during the death sequence meant the show carried an advisory for parents.
For a show that replaced a children's classic and was housed in a children's area of the park, this oversight was a blow for the park's ambition for Webmaster, which closed after just a year and a half.
But the story didn't end there... The show was replaced in 2004 by The Circus of Illusion, which may have had some familiar effects for fans of Webmaster. Whilst the new show stripped out the story of Webmaster, many of the effects and illusions of the former show were carried over into its replacement, including the gruesome death illusion, which regained some of its magic without the accompanying storyline.