OH wow!!!

[Lapis Exilis]

I don't really recall it, but I know I was put down in front of Star Trek when it went into syndication in 1973 (I was 3 years old). I remember going to see Star Wars, but mostly because of other people's reactions to it. I thought it was a decent enough movie, but it didn't really blow my mind. I also remember seeing Logan's Run, but I think it mostly went over my head at the time.

Then I was 12, visiting at my grandmother's house and waiting for my mom and step-dad to arrive when we found out they were spending the night in a storm cellar at his parent's house due to a tornado. We stayed up to keep an eye on the weather, but since the only 2 tv stations both went off at midnight (who's feeling old now??), the one we were watching was pulling out all sorts of old reruns so they could stay on and broadcast weather reports. I fell asleep and woke up at about 2 am to the strains to the Star Trek theme. The episode was The Apple - and by the time it was finished I was well and truly obsessed with the ideas and universe therein.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

can you remember the first scifi movie your parents, or anyone, brought you to?

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I remember being seven years old and standing outside with my dad, in the cold, for over an hour, then they announced it was sold out.

 

[Mistral]

According to my parents, I saw Back to the Future part III on tv when I was two.
The first scifi movie I remember seeing was Star Wars, on VHS when I was five.
As far as I can remember, the first scifi movie I saw in the theatre was Star Wars Special Edition.

I feel so very, very old.

Eh, what's that, sonny?

We were poor and the ONLY movie I went to see prior to 1976 was Disney's Cinderella. But then came this ad on tv(I was ten or so) that showed this teenager and an old man standing behind a cowboy and a ... what the heck is That??!!?? And they were flying through SPACE!

I bugged my parents to go see this thing before it even came out and they finally relented. We waited 2 1/2 hours in line with tickets my cousin had bought the night before and when the opening credits rolled across the screen my eyes glazed over. I never recovered.

 

[mirandafave]

Jungle Book! talking bears! sure that was mind-blowing crazy sci-fi really.

Don't remember it being an original showing because it was a local fairly rubbish cinema showing movies five years later.

Apart from that earliest sci-fi moments were watching Dr Who [Sylvester McCoy as the doc ] on the telly rather than any movies. Alas a very sheltered life.

 

[Spocktapus]

According to my parents, I saw Back to the Future part III on tv when I was two.
The first scifi movie I remember seeing was Star Wars, on VHS when I was five.
As far as I can remember, the first scifi movie I saw in the theatre was Star Wars Special Edition.

I feel so very, very old.

Eh, what's that, sonny?

We were poor and the ONLY movie I went to see prior to 1976 was Disney's Cinderella. But then came this ad on tv(I was ten or so) that showed this teenager and an old man standing behind a cowboy and a ... what the heck is That??!!?? And they were flying through SPACE!

I bugged my parents to go see this thing before it even came out and they finally relented. We waited 2 1/2 hours in line with tickets my cousin had bought the night before and when the opening credits rolled across the screen my eyes glazed over. I never recovered.

Back when I first saw it, I loved playing with my toy trains and watching Thomas the Tank Engine. My parents tell me that they told me at the time that at the end, the train was going to crash into the ravine. Apparently I was horrified at the idea and started crying when it happened.
I can remember none of this myself, however.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

2001 for me, too. It came around to some rep theater as a "rerun." I was bored out of my mind.

 

[OmahaStar]

Well, I have two.

In the late 70s, I remember going to see one of the Apes movies at the theater in town. It was a one-screen theater, and it had to have happened between between 77 and 78, because we moved out of the town in 78. I remember seeing one of the Planet of the Apes sequels, but I don't remember which one. I'm also not sure how it's possible, as the last Apes movie came out in 73, and I hadn't been born yet. They must have done some kind of double feature, or done a re-release or something. It's very fuzzy. But then I was only 2 or 3 years old.

The other is one I remember very well. It was seeing the second Star Trek movie at a drive-in with my mom, step-dad, and little brother. The only thing I remember about it was being so freaked out by those things sliding across the Russian dude's face. Now I look back and laugh at the memory, but then it was scary stuff.

 

[Frontier]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Saw it on VHS when it came out in 1991. I was 7. My dad let me stay up to the unbelievable late hour of 1 AM to watch it with him. All the other kids in school where quite jealous I'd seen it. Some friends and I even had a terminator club of some sort -- memory is hazy, this was so long ago for my mind, lol. It's the first sci-fi I remember, though I didn't know what "sci-fi" was at the time and didn't get "into it" until years later.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Saw it on VHS when it came out in 1991. I was 7. My dad let me stay up to the unbelievable late hour of 1 AM to watch it with him. All the other kids in school where quite jealous I'd seen it. Some friends and I even had a terminator club of some sort -- memory is hazy, this was so long ago for my mind, lol. It's the first sci-fi I remember, though I didn't know what "sci-fi" was at the time and didn't get "into it" until years later.

Great story, Frontier. And it still amazed how YOUNG some of the people on this board are. Great movie, and I would have been one of your friends..envious as hell!!!

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Hyperspace05]

Yeah Terminator 2 for me as well - first SCiFi flick I saw in theaters, and it certainly blew me away at the time...

 

[Darth_Pinche]

1977, I was six and my family and I went to see Star Wars. I remember everything from the experience even what I was wearing (blue OP shirt, tan corduroy shorts, flip flops). We saw it the "The BIG Newport" theater in Newport beach CA which at the time was the largest screen on the west coast. Let's just say the opening scene of the star destroyer screaming overhead blew my mind and still gives me goose bumps.

 

[FalTorPan]

Star Wars got the ball rolling for me.

 

[Nociod]

When I was around three or four, and both my parents had to work double shifts, I basically was babysitted by the original Star Wars movies , I seriously loved those movies, and used to hymn the theme song that plays when the text crawl comes on.

My dad also tried to introduce me to Star Trek, but I guess it was too boring for a three year old

Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Saw it on VHS when it came out in 1991. I was 7. My dad let me stay up to the unbelievable late hour of 1 AM to watch it with him. All the other kids in school where quite jealous I'd seen it. Some friends and I even had a terminator club of some sort -- memory is hazy, this was so long ago for my mind, lol. It's the first sci-fi I remember, though I didn't know what "sci-fi" was at the time and didn't get "into it" until years later.

At the age of seven I was allowed to watch the Terminator as well. I remember that the teacher in the class had to bring up the subject in class, because some of the kids were going around claiming they had seen it. It went something along like this: "There's nothing wrong with not having seen that movie, it's a film for grown ups, and many that claims to have seen it are surely lying", When I raised up my hands to say that I most certainly wasn't lying the teacher responded "Yes, I know that you are allowed to watch that movie, but I'm talking about the rest of the class.."

Apparantly that movie had been brought up previously on a parents / teacher meeting, and my dad had argued to the teacher and other parents that as long as they, the parents watched it together with the child and had a talk about the movie with the child about nothing of it is real, and instructing when they have to close their eyes, then there was nothing wrong with watching movies like that.

My dad also allowed me to watch Robocop, but he had edited out some of the scenes like the brain surgery etc..

Ah, good times and good memories

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

2001 for me, too. It came around to some rep theater as a "rerun." I was bored out of my mind.

I have no way of explaining this, but 2001 and Transformers are my two favorite movies of all time. Figure that one out.

Oh, and in case anyone's interested: 2010 will make it to Blu-Ray on April 4.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

what was the first one where you asked your dad coming out of the theatre "Dad, what was that about?"

Star Trek VI. At the time, I was only familiar with The Next Generation. Thus, I spent the 1st half of the movie trying to figure out who Kirk & Spock were and the 2nd half trying to decipher all of these allegorical references to a Cold War that I honestly knew next to nothing about.

But if we're talking more about joyful awe, nothing can beat my glee at seeing Captain Picard & co. on the big screen in Star Trek: Generations & Star Trek: First Contact.

 

[Cicero]

My first memory is probably of watching Star Trek IV or Star Wars V during a sci-fi film festival which celebrated the opening of a new theater in my hometown. It might otherwise be of watching Encounter At Farpoint, so sci-fi has been ever-present and very normal-seeming to me.

I've never really been overawed by it, largely because it's always been an assumed fact of life.

 

[mswood]

Star Wars. My family hardly ever went to the movie theatre, but that was one of the 2nd film I saw on the big screen (After a reissue of Mary Poppins, go figure).
But Trek was always a much, much bigger wow factor me. My whole family watched it when it originally came out (though I was to young to have memories of it), and when it got stripped we watched it as a family consistently until we all grew old enough to movie out. Family is still huge trekkies.