When did you first become a fan? (Poll)

[dupersuper]

I was born in 1977, and at some point in the late 70s/early 80s a local channel started airing TOS reruns on Saturday afternoons, in order, repeating for years. I was a kid of my era: waking up before dawn in my pj's and sitting down to watch my Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of Pac-Man cereal or such. Come 12 or 1 the cartoons started thinning out and I was eager to keep the fun going. At an age too young to remember the first time now, I happened on a TOS rerun, and must've thought "This is not a cartoon, but it's a space adventure show with heroes in colourful outfits zipping through space saving the day: close enough". When my father saw me watching Star Trek reruns as usual one Saturday afternoon in late 86/early 87, he mentioned that he'd read somewhere that they were making a new Star Trek show. He had taken me and a friend to Voyage Home by then (or as he called it: the one with the whales). Then from 1987 - 2005, while I went from 10 - 28, there were one to two new episodes of Star Trek every broadcast week plus a movie every few years. During that timeframe (2000) I also got my own computer for the first time and finally watched the animated series online. I was of course reading Star Trek novels and comics and playing the odd Star trek video game the whole time. I grew up on Star Trek. Good times.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I got into TNG when I was 19, in 2002. My then-bf kept telling me to watch an episode and I had no interest in it because it was sci-fi, which was (and still is) not a genre I care for very much. But he kept on nagging and one day I had enough and sat down and watched an episode. I was hooked almost immediately and fell in love with the show (and later its captain but that’s a topic for another day). So yeah. TNG changed a lot of things for me, most of them for the better. I’m not really much of a Trekkie as a whole, TNG remains pretty much the only Trek series I’m interested in although I have been known to enjoy an ENT episode every now and then, and I’m definitely intrigued by the upcoming Strange New Worlds because I’ve always been a fan of Captain Pike.

 

[at Quark's]

I'm too young to have caught the original run of TOS, being born in 1973. The first of Star Trek I saw was TNG during its first broadcast in our country. (Which I presume would be about a year behind in schedule compared to its original run). Hooked ever since, but definitely before DS9 or VOY became a thing, so I'm voting the 3rd option (TOS films, TNG) here.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Around Oktober 1990, when TNG was broadcasted for the first time in german television.

I was directly hooked with "Encounter at Farpoint".

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I discovered TOS when WAAY in Huntsville, AL, began showing it in syndication in the mid-70s. I would always rush to get my homework done every afternoon in time to watch Star Trek. I've watched all the other series and own all the Blu-rays that are available (TOS, TNG, ENT, DSC, LDS), but TOS will always be my favorite.

 

[shapeshifter]

70's syndication on the first (B&W) TV I was allowed to have in my bedroom.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Mid run TNG is when I first really became aware of it and it was syndicated every evening after school.

 

[Orphalesion]

I don't really feel like answering that pool, mainly because I don't want to tick "00s" and then have people think it was because of Enterprise of all things *shudder*
Because it really wasn't. It was because of reruns of TNG.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Star Trek: TOS movies are what started me to look at the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek: TNG is what got me to stay.

All on Syndicated TV back in the day.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

During all day TNG re-runs on the Sci-fi Channel.

From there, I watched all of TOS, the original movies, saw the first Kelvin movie in theaters and made my way through DS9, VOY and ENT.

 

[NCC-73515]

Around 92 or so, TNG Conspiracy

 

[GulBahana]

It doesn't have to match up exactly with the show at the time. I'd like to meet people who started with DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise as the first one they watched.

 

[Lucky]

Late 80s and early 90s with TOS reruns and TNG.

 

[publiusr]

I discovered TOS when WAAY in Huntsville, AL, began showing it in syndication in the mid-70s. I would always rush to get my homework done every afternoon in time to watch Star Trek. I've watched all the other series and own all the Blu-rays that are available (TOS, TNG, ENT, DSC, LDS), but TOS will always be my favorite.

The gift shop at the Space and Rocket Center was at its coolest then.

 

[Brennyren]

I was vaguely aware of Star Trek in its original run, as my dad was a regular viewer. When it came into syndication in the early-mid 70s, I was curious to see what Dad had liked about it, so I started watching. I also had a vague memory of a weird western-style episode ("Spectre of the Gun," though I didn't know the name then), and wanted to see it again so I could see what the heck was supposed to be going on in it. As luck would have it, I saw almost all of TOS before I saw the one I was looking for -- and by that time, I was hooked.

I had a brief but enthusiastic flirtation (one con, one house party, and a bunch of fanzines) with fandom before I went off to college and was too busy and too broke. While I never missed a movie (still haven't!), I didn't get back into fandom until I joined a local club and a few actor fan clubs in 1989, spurred by my love of TNG. My fannish involvements have waxed and waned since, but never tapered off entirely -- I've belonged to a half-dozen different clubs, written a ton of fanfic and edited a dozen or so fanzines, and gone to more conventions than I can recall.

I am sure Dad wondered more than once just what he had started!

 

[Turd Ferguson]

One of my friends stayed all night and brought over Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I really dug it.

Then, I started wearing out the first six movies.

Shortly after, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered and I recorded the first episode and watched it repeatedly (we got a HUGE snowstorm the night it aired, so I had a LOT of free time).

Then, I watched Star Trek Generations in theaters and started Voyager. About that time, I started watching the original Star Trek. Then Enterprise started.

Up until a few years ago, I'd never seen the entirety of Next Generation, except the random episode (Time Squared really freaked me out the first time I watched it with the space vortex), and the Next Gen movies, but I finally watched the whole series on Blu-Ray.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I watched a few episodes as a kid in the 60s. Not every week or anything like that. I was only seven in '66 and my parents were into other shows. Really became a fan in the 70s when I was older and the syndicated reruns started. Plus my best friend was into Star Trek and clued me into stuff like The Making of Star Trek, the Blish novels and the blueprints.

 

[Tosk]

Taken to see Treks 3 and 4 in the cinema by my father, enjoyed very much but didn't become a full-time Trekkie 'til TNG started up.

 

[Kilana2]

In the 90ies with TNG, together with the TOS movies.

 

[DonIago]

It was 1980 or so, as I was about five years old. We were visiting my grandparents and I was bored and channel-surfing (yes, remote controls existed in 1980), and flipped past "The Naked Time" and I think my mom said, "Oh, dad and I used to watch that..." so I started watching and got hooked.

I'm not saying there's correlation between the fact that I'm gay and the fact that the episode features Shirtless Sweaty Sulu(tm), but I'm not saying there's not...