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NEMESIS: SUB-TERRA [Alton 2012]

maybe one day Merlin will get a publicity stunt right...
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The Merlin attractions are the most popular in the country and I don't think it's purely based on past reputation. They've managed to get the word of new attractions out there. When Thirteen opened everyone I knew (bare in mind, this is in Liverpool) knew about it! And that's down to having a good marketing team! Yes all us enthusiasts may not approve of the PR stunts, but I think it's ignorant to assume they don't work. They're the ones with the figures, they're the ones with the research, they're the only ones who know whether or not whatever they have done has raised awareness. And if they don't work, why do we keep seeing them!?

You also have the realise it's a combination of these stunts, AND advertising and the viral stuff as an entire package. Think about it, someone may read this story..maybe just trace through it, but they've subconciencely put that "Alton Towers..sub-terra...new ride" in their head. Then when the season starts and the adverts roll up they'll think "oh it's that ride i read about.." then maybe some viral stuff makes it's way round facebook etc etc. The more the name is pushed into peoples heads the more they'll think on some boring summer day "there's a new ride at Alton..shall we go?" then BAM! attendance figures.
 
^Sorry about that. I just find them very cheesy. I guess they get peoples attention, but they are usually quite annoying. E.g. Thorpe Park ghost, Thorpe Park exorsism ect.

^^I just meant that they are completely different to each other. In my opinion, PR and advertising should be similar. So a dangerous lift is very different to a comic book alien. But that's just my opinion.
 
There's no denying Merlin are very good at this sort of thing, but look at the different parks' approach to their new attractions. Legoland have it easiest as they can just wheel out loads of Star Wars stuff, then Thorpe have that scary new roller-coaster in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Will people arriving at Alton actually know what the new attraction is about...? I'm not sure. Heck, there's probably some people who think they enter a lift for Ice Age 4-D!
 
I had a look yesterday at the area and the crinkly tin shed looks exceptionally naff. It's just going to look cheap, nasty and hastily put up - which it is. I guess there'll be some bits of card put up to try and take the naff-edges off it. If it wasn't hidden in the trees, it'd be an eye-sore.
 
I went to the Sea-life Centre in London yesterday and that's owned by Merlin.
The amount of effort they put in to ambience, lighting and scenery I would be surprised if they don't make the cargo containers pretty/make sense.
 
Nah, it'll still look fugly, just mildly disguised but not very much. You can see the building on the walk from Gloomy Wood and it's nasty. Looks like a vehicle maintenance shed, which is essentially what any unthemed dark ride building looks like.
 
Shrug. Ah well.

I must admit, I somewhat could agree with you if you mean the same thing as I am.

How can they build a role-play PR story fabrication thing about Phalanx when the ride itself looks like a construction site for a theme park ride opposed to secrete army facility. The un-themed contains destroys any suspension of disbelief. Doesn't help that the ride opens in a month. It seems to be an unfortunate oversight. You might as well have the twitter account say things like "Ordered 500KG of polystyrene to theme the inside. Using 500 ltr of red paint. Safety running the ride. Yadder yadder. Technical engineering stuff that people wouldn't want to be spammed on their twitter feed." etc.
 
Something awesome might happen. On the website, the ride is listed as 1.4m height restriction. And now Phalanx have said this:
· Close Open Details Unfortunately not - you need to be at least 1.4 metres tall to visit the facility.
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Tom G said:
Nah, they just want to keep very young kids out from panicking.
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No, the reasoning for Height Restrictions is due to the safety requirements of said ride. It's got nothing to do with stopping the age of a certain sector of your clientele.

If they didn't want younger Children from riding and being terrified, they'd add an AGE RESTRICTION just like they do during Scarefest with their Scare/Horror Attractions.
 
I've had this discussion/argument here and elsewhere before.

You can't effectively and efficiently check people's ages in a busy queue, so height is used to eliminate youngsters more effectively.

Note the height restrictions for Saw: The Ride and X:\ No Way Out in comparison to other examples of the same ride type.

A 0.9m child could easily safely be restrained on an S&S shot tower, but would you want to subject someone of that height's likely age to something that traumatic?

It can also be used to make an attraction appear more extreme than what it really is.
 
Height is used for both rider safety (usually coasters/more "extreme" rides) and age (majority of Log Flumes/Rapids etc)

It's likely here to be for age. You can't ID everyone under 12 and a 10 year old would certainly ignore it, so height is more effective.

Come on Lofthouse, you know rides and walkthroughs work in different ways <//3
 
Well the ride's story has something to do with eggs.
mehfr.jpg
There seems to be some sort of Egg hunt in London.
Has Nemesis spawned? I know some promotional art had an eggy thing in it, but this is reinforcing it.
I wonder if the Catacombs are some sort of incubator for the species.
 
Just in case no one has noticed before... N:ST, replace the : with E... NEST, the ride is going to be about Nemesis' little beasts.
 
I still don't get how tentacles feature in the Nemesis Mythology. I thought Nemesis was a fleshy crab thing. Tentacle-free.
 
It had kinda octopus tentacley things as well, note the suckers on the rollercoaster's station building.
 
scw55 said:
I still don't get how tentacles feature in the Nemesis Mythology. I thought Nemesis was a fleshy crab thing. Tentacle-free.
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Now that you mention it, it got me thinking. I am 100% sure that I either read or heard somewhere that the track is it's tentacles. Periodically the Nemesis sends out pods along its tentacles collecting energy. (Thats the bit we ride :) ). Part of me thought it was in the original story that Tom Baker narrated so I did some searching on google. I tried to find a transcript of the narration but no luck - all I could find was greatly edited versions. Since I could find no transcript I did one; for everyones enjoyment :p (Apologies if the grammar is a bit off, tbh, its written as it is said and so in script form).

Original Nemesis Back Story - as narrated by Tom Baker said:
Nobody knows where it came from, nobody knows what it wants. There are theories and then there is the legend. Nemesis comes from another dimension, a dimension beyond our imagination. Its tragedy is that it has no home. It has suffered rejection throughout the solar system. It could not communicate or make itself understood. No civilisation anywhere in any galaxy would come to terms with its awesome power, its brooding unpredictability, its mind.

Bewildered and afraid, mentally tortured by not knowing its origins people turned against it, they fought it, they used everything against it but Nemesis has no fear. They were mere irritants to Nemesis to be swatted away like flies. It left to seek sanctuary but it searched in vain. Unwanted, it was jettisoned towards earth 2 million years ago. It has remained here ever since, drawing its energy from the earths core. For centuries people were drawn to the mysterious place where it was thought to lay buried. They paid homage to the power, they brought gifts, they gave their souls! Its resting place became a mystical place, a place of worship. Few pilgrims returned to lead a normal life, such was their disturbance, such was the gravity of what they felt. Often these meddlers met mysterious ends, crazed by their findings driven mad by the force. Some simply disappeared leaving only their fear. Nemesis was too disturbing, it defied scientific explanation, it was left to brood in peace. Unexplained, its existence denied. Sanctuary at last, until today!

Nemesis was discovered during routine maintenance work in the Forbidden Valley at Alton Towers. A group of workmen complained of dizzy spells, of an uncontrollable force drawing them towards a place where the shadows of two giant oak trees met. The force was overpowering, they were compelled to dig, to seek the source. What they discovered, defies description. The Nemesis had been disturbed, the sanctuary it sought for so many millions of years broken. It was awake. It thrashed crazily in the earth, removing all before it, like a giant excavator it sent trees and small buildings hurtling skywards. Dementedly it released its anger at being discovered. Crazy, it formed the pit that you see today.

A security silence fell over AT while archaeologists and historians nervously investigated. Eventually, they described their worst fears. This WAS Nemesis. Nemesis had to be controlled; it took 250 tonnes of steel and 200 men, not ordinary men, not ordinary steel. Pinned down by this massive structure, it tries to escape, steaming anger. We, merely irritants now ride it, fuelling its annoyance. It is controlled, but not tamed. When you ride Nemesis, remember its history. It is awesome, there is no comparison. This is the legend, but don’t try to understand, don’t try to come to terms with it, don’t even try to think about it. Nemesis at Alton Towers. Sit back, its fright time.
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(Side note, I just edited the Wikipedia page for Nemesis to include the full storyline as the shortened version was bugging the heck of me)

So, no mention of tentacles there. BUT it does mention the fact that it once drew energy from the Earths core.

So I went back to an old promotional video to see if that had any reference. Most of you have probably seen it, but I thought I would share it anyways because I still find it fun to watch. (The Nemesis bit starts around 1.12)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dMZcXJGWeI[/youtube]

Still nothing. I will keep looking, but I am very sure that somewhere there is a reference to the fact the track is the tentacles and that the supports are the 'not ordinary steel' used to pin down the Nemesis.

EDIT - There is a very small reference to the track tentacle thing HERE
 
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