When did you become a Star Trek Fan?

[Joshua Howard]

I thought it would be interesting to explore the foundation of each person's fandom; ranging from the new folk recruited by Star Trek XI to the person who grew up with TOS running on TV.

My dedication to the series began casually when I bought my first Star Trek movie (TMP) at Fred Meyer just a little over two years ago, and has been growing exponentially ever since.

I am 21 years old, (born in 1988), and was never exposed to Star Trek on broadcast TV, (or in theaters until the release of XI.) As a child, I saw TMP once, but was too young to really understand the plot; and I remember (in retrospect) flipping by TOS reruns on TV, but for some reason never actually stopped to watch them.

How did it begin for you?

 

[SG-17]

I became a fan after watching a few episodes of TOS on Sci-Fi back in around 2002 or so. Back when I was ten.
So technically I became a fan in the ENT era but by watching TOS.

 

[RyuRoots]

Saw TOS reruns on TV for years growing up, but it was never interesting to me, and I associated the cheesiness/ham-handedness of TOS as BEING Trek, so I just kinda dismissed it for the longest time. But I started watching TNG at a friend's insistence, and I was pretty much hooked after Q, Who?, now having seen all 3 of the 24th-century shows and all 11 movies.

I suppose time-wise it'd be "ENT Era/More Recently", but it was TNG that really sucked me in and fascinated me.

 

[nx1701g]

Believe it or not: Voyager's Caretaker was the first episode of Star Trek I ever saw.

 

[Myasishchev]

I watched TNG when I was a kid, but have only vague memories of it. The first I can really recall watching then was "Best of Both Worlds Part I." I guess I was ten or so.

 

[DevilEyes]

What do you mean by "era"? What if you became a fan in 2001, by watching DS9 on your local TV channel? What era is that? Or if you became a fan 2 or 3 years ago, by watching TOS, which you've downloaded or borrowed from a friend? Or a year ago, by watching reruns of TNG? etc. etc.

In other words, is the poll about how old people are, or which show got them hooked?

In my case, the first Trek I watched was TNG when I was about 13-14, but the one that got me hooked was DS9, years later.

 

[The Wormhole]

During TNG's run. I was 8 at the time.

 

[Canuck69]

I used to watch TNG as a little kid with my uncle, but I do not remember much more than that. I picked it up later when I was 12. A friends father stuck in the TNG VHS "The Naked Now" We watched and giggled through the whole ep (I mean we were 12...) and that was when I really started watching TNG. Have been a fan ever since and even more so now that I have my DVD set and have been able to rewatch it all and grasp everything that is going on.

 

[Kelso]

in utero


Actually, I grew up in the 80's with the original movies and TNG and discovered my uncle's TOS videocassette collection around 1989/1990.

I didn't vote in the poll, however, because my "era" isn't really represented.

 

[apenpaap]

My father watched Voyager when I was a kid, and sometimes I would watch an episode with him (I remember thinking the Doctor was really cool, and the Borg scared me shitless). 3 years ago they were showing the TNG movies on TV, so I watched First Contact, and really loved it. Then I watched Insurrection and Nemesis, and then gave Enterprise (Which was being reshown at the time) a try. Luckily, they were at the beginning of Season 3 when I started watching, so it had me hooked very quickly. So January 2007.

 

[Joshua Howard]

After creating the poll, I realized that regardless of wording, the message conveyed by the options would be somewhat narrow. The importance here isn't really how old everyone is as much as the origin of fandom; but then again, I didn't want it to turn into a debate over which show is the best either, and a big part of the whole ST fan scene is defined by how the saga has been integrated into our lives.

Even though I started off watching TOS, I imagine that the way I see Star Trek - diving in when 6 TV Incarnations and ten films are already on the shelf - in some way pales when compared to the fan that actually saw them premering gradually over a longer period and had an opportunity to engage in the fan culture over many years.

 

[RandyS]

I was always a fan. I was born a year after TOS left NBC and, according to my mom, who was a fan since day one, I watched the reruns with her when I was little. She liked to tell the story that whenever I was playing with my toys on the floor in front of the TV and the TOS reruns came on, I would stop what I was doing, and sit quitely and watch the entire episode, without moving.

 

[Star Wolf]

As a small child I saw Man Trap and was scared off of the show. Then came The Animated Series and those long years of syndication as I became a fan. A big enough fan to buy some novels and make the opening night of the first four movies.

 

[Chrisisall]

I would stop what I was doing, and sit quitely and watch the entire episode, without moving.

That's so funny.
Me too. But in first-run.

 

[Cafcow]

I was born and raised with Star Trek, my parents being fans of TOS. I was raised on it during TNG/DS9/VOY era.

 

[Danny99]

Well I was born in 1987 and watched TNG with my Mom, but the first series I have full recollection of is VOY.

 

[RichMerk]

One of my earliest childhood memories is Kirk fighting the Gorn. My very first adult book was Star Trek Log One.

 

[Kaziarl]

I was born that way.

Ok, no, serious now. I watched TNG and TOS with my mom when I was very young, so I don't really remember a time before I watched it. I vaguely remember season 2 of TNG back then, but since I was watching TOS in reruns, and watching TNG, I can't really remember specifically how old I was.

I remember the first trek book I read though. It was a DS9 book called Valhalla. One of the very first DS9 books actually. Since then, as of about 2005, I owned about 80-90% of all the trek books. Haven't had the money since then to get more.

 

[Trek Survivor]

1989, we rented out "Encounter At Farpoint". The following year, the BBC finally started showing TNG in September 1990. I was instantly a fan.

Wednesday nights were never the same again!

 

[C.E. Evans]

I grew up watching TOS in second-run syndication during the '70s, so my earliest memories are of Star Trek. I even remember once my elementary school actually showed "Space Seed" in our gymnasium on an old-fashioned movie projector during a rainy day once (I never did discover why though).