The Fifth Dimension
The Fifth Dimension was the original dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures With a ride system by Roland Mack, a design by John Wardley, and a script by Douglas Adams, it was pretty much the perfect dark ride.
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Ride Experience and Plot
The trains kept a constant speed throughout the ride, And would rotate to face the action, in a similar way to The Haunted Mansion, although the mechanism was different. (The Fifth Dimension was powered by a heard of trained Degu running in wheels beneath each car). At two points along it's course the train would stop, while a scene was played out. These stopping points remained through all the later incarnations of the ride, and are now pointless.
All this remains today in Tomb Blaster, but back then it went something like this:
The basic plot was that a video game had "malfunctioned", and a robot called Zappomatic (who wore Fisher Price roller skates) was sent into the game to fix it. However, he got stuck somehow and you, as a member of the 'Robot Rescue Service', had to go into the game to save him.
The first turn after leaving the station was the "miniaturizing device" to make you tiny. Then you passed some giant books and things, before entering a huge TV screen as you went up the hill.
What is now the 'snake pit' was a frozen wasteland, with guys in space suits carrying bazookas. Don't ask why.
Then you stopped and Zappomatic talked for a very long time. He is building a gun and for some reason only you can actually fire it. This is the room with the spikes and the mummy shooting at you now.
I forget exactly what happens next, but there was a jungle scene in there somewhere.
It all came to a head in the room which now plays host to a rather unconvincing giant snake. This was a cave at the time, with 'post-apocalyptic' robot punks standing guard. How very 80's Some story happened, and then The Gorg hinged up from the floor in the same way that living creatures don't. This was your cue to leap into action!
...By pressing a small button in front of you. This button was connected to a lightbulb inside it. And when you pressed it, it blinked slightly. If it was working.
While you were wasting your time with this, Zappomatic defeated The Gorg, who fell backwards along the same pivot point by which he arrived. Funny that.
And that was it. I'm sure there was some kind of pay off from the Zapman, but it escapes me right now.
Closure and rethemes
It would seem that the story was too complicated for the park guests to understand, as after only a few years it was gutted and turned into Terror Tomb. This later became known as Forbidden Tomb. Then this, in turn, was rethemed to become Tomb Blaster. What next? The Fifth Forbidden Tomb Terror Dimension?
Still, at least it's not Laser Raiders.
Zappomatic's Fate
No one knows what happened to Zappomatic. Some say he escaped the game and went home to his wife and kids. Recently, there have been sightings of a tombstone belonging to "Zappomatic". Whether this is the final resting place of our Fisher Price friend or some poor man who would have got severly bullied at school, nobody will ever know. However, there are strong rumours that he is on the run from The Gorg (who somehow managed to escape the wrath of your blinking button?!), and is hiding on a TSTer's YouTube page.
