I know what you want to say: Discovery Mountain is right there standing in the middle of Discoveryland, just with a slightly changed name - Space Mountain! And yes, it is possibly the ride which “saved the day” at EuroDisney, when back in 1995 it was met with rave reviews by fans, the press and the whole world! And yes again, it stands as a symbol for all the great ideas, dreams and sacrifices Imagineering had to go through to deliver a mind blowing, nowadays world famous ride - it stands in the Disney universe on a par with such masterpieces as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion aka Phantom Manor, the Tower of Terror or The Indiana Jones - Temple of the Forbidden Eye - Adventure!
But Space Mountain / the Discovery Mountain project also holds many secrets and never befor told facts plus numerous stories of creative solutions and cutbacks that had to be realized in order for the attraction to make it off the drawing board. So Space Mountain - de la Terre à la Lune really has one of those back stories that deserve quite a few episodes of its own in the F-Files!

When back in the late 1980’s Tony Baxter and his Imagineering team where designing the Disneyland park for Paris they had all sorts of crazy ideas about what to put in the area of the park which was decided to be called “Discoveryland” emphasizing the concept of the “future which never was” as seen in through eyes' of great European visionaries. It was a sure home run to actually link most of the area’s themeing to France’s very own visionary “Jules Verne” … after all the man had played an important part in both, the world literature and the French literature so he could serve as the link between French visions and the world future as seen by guests from all over the world - he could provide the basic elements to serve as Discoveryland's main theme.
Verne’s books offered the Imagineers a wide range of themeing possibilities. In his books the French writer went form 20.000 leagues under the sea up to the moon, travelling in 80 days around the world to name just a few of the countless adventures. Imagineers were topping each others with tons of ideas about how and what elements fromt form Verne’s masterpieces to represent in EuroDisney’s Discoveryland. And the choices were incredible varied - what about dinosaurs, squids, volcano’s, caves, rockets and the moon... Especially the repeated mentioning of the later one kind of lead Tim Delaney to realize that the park anyway had to have some sort of equivalent to the US parks' “Space Mountain” roller coaster ride...

A pure copy was out of questions, so what about trying to create something more than a "simple" roller coaster? Instead what about using all the elements and sources in the Imagineers' hands and create some kind of “Jules Verne mini-land” within the confines of Discoveryland?
For one of those “everything but the kitchen sink” concepts (as Imagineer Bruce Gordon often jokingly referred to them) Tim Delaney created a rendering of some form of secret lair for Captain Nemo sitting right inside the very heart of a dormant volcano of what could be called "Mysterious Island" where all sorts of activities would be offered to the guests. This very scheme obviously later served as the basic concept for TokyoDisney Seas “Mysterious Island” port of call, which was not on the original plans for Long Beach’s proposed “Port Disney” (which served as a blueprint for TokoyDisney Sea in many other areas) but came as a centrepiece addition online only when the Oriental Land Company and WDI dropped the idea of having 70% of the TDS park *inside* giant glass bubbles.

But back in the concept phase of EuroDisney Tim Delaney and Tony Baxter were eagerly excited  being able to add this amazing show building in the form of a rocky volcano to EuroDisney's skyline - and understandably loved it most among all those pavilions proposed for Discoveryland. The only problem was that there were so many ideas, show elements, rides and structures to be constructed to form this “Discovery Mountain” show building that even the Imagineers working on it realized that there was no way to budget such a costly expansion within the budget phase 1 (aka the opening phase). Therefore they willingly reported to Robert Fitzpatrick (back then president of EuroDisney), Michael Eisner and Frank Wells that “if we build Discovery Mountain now we will have to redo the normal Space Mountain, but if we place it into Phase 2 we can effectively discover new ways to reduce cost, keep quality up and have a brand new more marketable attraction”!

The management obviously was very pleased with the idea of excluding this highly expensive area from the already completely out of hand budgets of Phase 1 - and wa even happier to know that in a matter of a few years they could not only open a brand new theme park next door (as the Disney MGM Studios Europe where tentatively scheduled for a 1995/96 opening) but also have a major thrill ride readily available to counterbalance that “cannibalisation effect" which the opening of any new “resort theme park” was supposed to have on the older park in the resort.
Therefore it was an obvious choice for them to move forward with the plan as proposed by Imagineering, and to set aside enough land for any “Jules Verne Mountain” the Glendale minds may want to build later on. Baxter and his team meanwhile were so sure Discovery Mountain would someday soon see the light of day in the originally proposed form of a rocky volcano housing several attractions that they didn’t even mind pacing it in the very model park guests could see on display in the Preview Center and drawing it in all its rocky glory in all the maps as a "future attraction” (yes I know ... just as with The Little Mermaid ride, the Beauty & the Beast AA-show and the Jungle EMV ride).

As the Imagineers continued fine tuning the "remaining" Discoveryland as it was supposed to be constructed in Phase 1 it became obvious that the land as originally designed - that is with the Discovery Mountain acting as a “roof” for most of the lands elements / attractions, even with the Hyperion’s “nose” popping into the inside of the mountain and tunnels / covered bridges leading to all the areas of Discoveryland outside the mountain - would not be possible to construct. Therefore all they did was to create the necessary connections for future covered bridges to link the Cáfe Hyperion / the Videopolis with the future 2nd floor of the mountain (where another restaurant and a show area was to be featured).
Don’t believe me? Well gang “the truth is out there” right before your very eyes! Next time you get a FastPass for Space Mountain and leave the area of the Space Mountain FastPass-machines (certainly only once you got your fastpass ticket) make a point to look up at the Videopolis' facade, especially at those two giant glass windows in the top level. Ok - saw them? Huge and round, right? Now keep your eyes on the same height but look approximately 25/30 meters to the right from there. Done it? OK so you for sure noticed that the glass windows at the Videopolis aren't that far away from the Mountain and coul easily be connected to the current FastPass entrance, the very entrance which originally was known as “La Voie Stellar” (the Star Way) and which in the original Discovery Mountain plans would have lead guests to the restaurant right in the very heart of the Mountain.

You want to know more? Well, in the next instalment of this series I’ll actually take you INSIDE the original plans for Discovery Mountain, and let you see, step by step, how close the Imagineers actually were to placing even a kitchen sink inside the mountain (guess it was the only thing missing!), and why Disney management refers to those “DM”’s on the ride vehicles as only “last minute name changes”…

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic