Where's the Space in Space Mountain, Now?

[Opus1guy]

I remember when Space Mountain first opened - - and they had real astronauts do press comparing the experience to a genuine flight in space. Good showmanship to help us buy into the grand illusion.

Yep. They had all 7 of the original Mercury 7 astronauts represented there that day: Alan Shepard, Sen. John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper (who had been WED/WDI's Vice President of Research and Design - EPCOT for a few years), Donald "Deke" Slayton, Wally Schirra, and Betty Grissom (Virgil "Gus" Grissom's widow).

And don't forget the whole DASA (Disneyland Aeronautics and Space Administration) deal.





There was plenty of "Space" in Space Mountain back then. And it wasn't just fantasy space. It was visionary space.

[Professortango]

He said it about DCA.


The original didn't present a real story. The 2005 version, however, does. Why else do you see "Space Station 77" everywhere? You have entered the future, you are in Space Station 77, and you are blasting off into the depths of outerspace. It's public space travel of the future - available, easy, and exciting.



The normal music certainly fits in better with Space's themeing and mood better than the Rockin' soundtrack, and makes more sense than Dick Dale's SURF guitar.

Wow, he really said that about DCA??? If that is true, I lost much respect that imagineer.

Don't confuse theming with story. The Matterhorn has theming, as does Space Mountain, but things like Splash, Haunted Mansion, and Indy have story. Jones' recent discovery is being exploited for commercial gains and go to check it out, however, we look into the eyes of Mara and are sent to our doom, luckily we are saved by Indy who had dissapeared inside months earlier. That is a story. Space Mountain has you somehow walked aboard a Space Station in outerspace then fly around for a few minutes and return back to the space station. Stories are created from conflict. Gates of Doom or Brer Fox eating us, not the conflict of being in the dark. Space is a roller coaster with some wonderful theming, but I wouldn't say it has a story behind it. And taking an attraction with no story and giving it a thematic layover is no real crime. You can easily make up just as good as a rockin storyline as you can with space. Maybe Space Station 77 is throwing a rock concert and you are riding around in a service vehicle for whatever the station does (lets say its a mining station). So you are riding around on the mining equipment as the rock concert is underway for the employees of Space Station 77.

I never said the overlay music was better thematically than the normal music, just that the normal music doesnt make much sense either. Space Mountain is presented in a mysterious fashion. Dick Dales soundtrack reflected the mood of the mountain much better than the new track. The new track reflects something much more adventure-like and warm not SM open and cold mysterious design.

All in all, I'm not saying the overlay is great and should replace space or anything of the sort. I'm just saying that people are over reacting a tad. They took an attraction with little to no storyline and gave it a simple layoever to boost attendence temporarily. We didn't remove classic characters of a great story, we changed star lighting for rock lighting on a simple coaster. When they changed the lighting and the music for the refurb, the ride didn't change. Sure, the lighting was slightly better and the music was slightly worse, but the ride was still just as enjoyable. And is still is today with the current music/lighting change.

Now if they changed something like Paris' version where you actually have more story elements to the ride, things to see and experience, and the ride is more than just a coaster in the dark, then I would understand the hoopla. But our version is simple enough to withstand layovers.