Through the latter half of 1992, "Secret Weapon 3" was officially in production. Working off of the existing canyons bored and blasted into the site, Wardley drew up an initial sketch of a possible layout – one that would see the coaster's height contained to the tree level, instead diving and twisting through the park's artificial fractures in the bedrock. From there, the concept was handed to iconic coaster designer Werner Stengel, who crafted it into a refined, realistic project.

With manufacturing underway, Wardley turned to the park's then-marketing director Nick Varney to develop a personality and campaign around the ride. Together, they "realized that it would be fun to conceive the site as an excavated area where this hideous monster had been lurking for millennia." Wardley told The Guardian. By the way – as he tells it, he and Varney then came up with the ride's final name – Nemesis – while sharing a bottle of Southern Comfort whiskey.

Working backwards from the idea of a subterranean alien creature having been inadvertently unearthed, the duo conceived of the area within the park that the new ride would inhabit: a dystopian, post-apocolyptic space sealed away by the mysterious, militaristic Phalanx Operation, apparently at war with the alien creature's poisonous spread.

Littered with the rusting remnants of a long-lost war, the Forbidden Valley would turn Alton Towers' forested southeast corner into a land filled with the brain-like, fungal tentacles of the Nemesis creature, slowly decomposing the metallic remnants of humanity's outposts. And all of the decay would be entered on the roller coaster itself – or, as it would appear to be, the calcified tentacles and talons of the massive, carnivorous creature.

Holland added, "We turned the central loading and unloading station into the creature's body, with structures coming out of it like legs that disappear into the rock. This gives the sense that there's more creature down there somewhere, hidden."

As the (very, very '90s) promotional video above explores, Nemesis wasn't just a roller coaster; it was an experience. An elaborate backstory introduced the lore behind the creature – an insectoid, crustacean alien with a calcified exoskeleton, spider-like legs, and subterranean tentacles that have taken root throughout the park, strangling nearby fixtures with its pulsating, dripping, brain-like fungal touch. The result is that it's difficult to classify Nemesis as "just" a "bare, steel roller coaster." Maybe it was something new entirely.

"What we're doing in twisted steel is what a scriptwriter does with words," Wardley told the Guardian. "We're entertainers – in the business of creating thrills and mystery. Like a good writer, a good designer won't let people know what's coming: it should be a succession of steadily building surprises." Speaking of which... Ready to go for a ride? Let's tackle Nemesis... 

NEMESIS

The experience begins as we first reach the boundaries of the Forbidden Valley. We've clearly entered a place hostile to our presence. There's something ominous about the way nature has flourished here – great, billowing trees; jagged, pointed stones that have burst through pathways; and a layer of rust that's grown over the decaying remnants of what appears to be a war zone where we – humanity – lost.

At the area's entrance, a great cannon points deeper into the valley, clearly having failed to neutralize whatever target it was aimed at. Instead, the rusted weapon is overtaken not just with age and rust, but with something supernatural... an almost-pulsating, brain-like fungus that's burst forth from the ground like root-like appendages, swallowing the cannon with webs of tentacles.

The path continues on past corrugated steel sheds and into the woods, where we gain our first sight of Nemesis itself – serpentine steel tracks weaving in and out of the ground, rising and falling into great canyons whose once-rocky walls are covered in creeping vines and ivy. All's quiet... until, with a muffled, gravely roar, it tears past – a roller coaster vehicle like none you're likely to have seen before... Like a pulse of blood through the tangled tracks of its form, the train careens down into a cavern and disappears.

If you think you've got what it takes, the path to the left leads to the aged research and containment outposts of the Phalanx. There, catwalks will lead you over and under the rusted white tentacles of Nemesis. Descending into the pits of the creature's winding path, you'll cross a flimsy metal bridge suspended beneath the ride's towering vertical loop, tucked into a narrow canyon. It's a thing of beauty.

And yet, it's grotesque. The queue ends at the creature's core... the calcified, boney, fleshy body that's supported by pincers and claws dug deep into the caverns surrounding. It looks as if Nemesis stood up, shook off centuries of rock, and then anchored itself above ground.

The creature looks partly of the earth and partly of space; like something pressurized in the deep ocean, or from another dimension entirely. It's part biological and part mechanical. It can't be determined in the track itself is part of its body, or some sort of structure meant to staple it down. Still, the rusted white steel weaves around it and – somehow like the fungus we know spreads underground – seems to strangle the surrounding hillsides. 

Anyway, the only way to experience Nemesis is to step aboard... To hop up into that second-in-the-world inverted coaster train, dangling from the track with nothing below... to leave the station and align with the lift hill. The climb on Nemesis leaves riders just 42.7 feet over the English countryside (below the imposed "treeline" limitation) – just 18 inches higher than Magic Kingdom's Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Yet what follows is regarded not just as one of the most intense, but one of the best roller coasters on Earth, period. 

A play-by-play of the ride could never beat the element-by-element description offered by one of the best coaster reviewers in the business, Jeremy Thompson of Roller Coaster Philosophy. 

Suffice it to say, Nemesis is doubtlessly one of the world's most clever, unique, and captivating rides. Its first drop is... well... it doesn't really have one.

Instead, the ride dips off of the hillside its lift is built into – riders' feet dangling inches over a gushing red river – and immediately twists into a wingover (B&M invert speak for a corkscrew). It levels out only long enough to bank into an intense helix, curling down into the ride's iconic blasted quarries – toes at the rocky edge – before rising up and twisting overtop of the creature's hulking body.

Then it's gone again, disappearing into the pit, rising up for a hammerhead turn before descending. Nearly every other B&M inverted coaster places its inevitable vertical loop as the first element at the bottom of the first drop. Not Nemesis. Instead, it happens here, halfway through the layout. It bottoms out deep in a pit, loops skyward, then plummets back into the caverns.

Where most rides would meander through their last turns and twists, burning what's left in their engines, Nemesis isn't over yet. It rises up into the air, then droops back into the tunnels. It pops out again, only long enough for an in-line twist, with the coaster's spine practically resting on the ground.  "I put the end station not at the bottom, but halfway up," Wardley told the Guardian. "This means that you swing way below the station in a big finishing dip, then come back up to the end."

When it's all said and done, Nemesis is only 2,349 feet long... but it's one of the most relentless, action-packed, astounding thrill rides on Earth. Totally custom. Packed with personality. Jaw-droppingly unique. Absolutely effortless. It never slows – even for a second...

... That is, until the entire ride was demolished in 2023. On the last page, we'll explore two high-profile "sequels" to the story of Nemesis, as well as the Phalanx's mysterious closure of the Nemesis site and the surprise re-emergence of this alien thrill ride. Read on...