How did you get into Trek and what was your first episode/movie?

[Redfern]

I have a fleeting memory of being terrified by the approach of the Doomsday Machine. Assuming it was the original airdate of Oct. 20, 1967, I was just a month shay of being 5 years old.

Fast forward to September 1972. My dad and I had just moved into an apartment complex which was still expanding. As he drove into our "nook", my father spotted two kids roughly my age playing at the edge of a construction pit. Upon entering the apartment, he told me what he saw and suggested I go "make friends".

So, I went and introduced myself as they played with their Tonka trucks in the sand. We talked for a bit and finally, one of the pair, Kyle, asked if I watched Star Trek. I admitted I did not. (At the time, "my" show was "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".) He gave me a brief summary of the concept and mentioned he liked to "play" the role of Kirk. As I was a couple of inches taller than Kyle and having "black" Hair (actually a deep, deep brunette), he thought I might serve well as Spock.

So, once I discovered what channel broadcast the reruns and when, I started to watch so I could learn how I should handle this "role" and thus play with Kyle.

So, in effect, I first watched to "win over" a new friend, but eventually it became a passion unto itself.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Use of Time]

Stayed over with a friend and was pretty much forced to watch DS9 S3 finale. Decided to watch a few TNG episodes over the summer and I was hooked fast. Summer of 1995 if I remember correctly.

 

[J.T.B.]

For me Star Trek was first a cartoon I watched on Saturday mornings in the early '70s, then I was aware of the toys and their commercials (the bridge set with the revolving "transporter," the communicator walkie talkies) and finally the original episodes in reruns. But I was so young I can't remember specifics.

Justin

 

[RB_Kandy]

I think it is really wonderful to read all these tales of our first Trek experience.

 

[Kirkman1987]

I happened upon Star Trek IV on television in the evening around age 11. I thought it was a great adventure and the characters grew on me instantly from what I recall, even though I didn't really have much reference for the film. The very next day I made sure to start catching re-runs of TOS.

 

[Stoek]

My mom was not terribly maternal. To make matters even less fun she was very very possessive of her husband, my father. As a result she tended to do her level best to make certain that she was the center of my father's attention at all times. So any time I got to spend with my father, just he and I was very precious to me. Now I'm not a big sports guy so there was never really that to share. But there was Star Trek. In the late seventies early eighties TAS was on one of the local network affiliates at Oh My God It's Early O'Clock on Saturdays. My dad worked half a day at the local mill sawing shakes and shingles. He'd get up at like four in the morning and leave around six. Often I'd manage to get up and we'd sit and watch animated Trek. I only really remember one episode clearly, Yesteryear. Later when I got to see re-runs of the live action TOS I was hooked and have been ever since.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I was in junior high in the early 70s and remember reading about ST in Junior Scholastic magazine. I tried watching TAS, but I wasn't impressed. Then TOS began airing in syndication in the afternoon Monday-Friday; the first episode I saw was "The City on the Edge of Forever". Originally my favorite character was Spock, but I eventually fell in love with Kirk. The good captain is still my favorite Trek character.

 

[T'Preea]

My old man is a Star Trek sort of fan. When I was a wee-un, I would watch the old video tape-overs he'd made. Of course, the film that really got me into it was First Contact. Love me my Spock, yes; but I've always been a Data-girl at heart.

 

[RyanKCR]

For about the first 5 or 6 years, befor my father left, he used to watch reruns of it. I didn't really pay attention it was just on in the background. A year or two later I was taken to see (I believe my first movie) Star Wars and I became a big fan. For me everything was Star Wars. Then in about another two years I was taken to see Star Trek the Motion Picture and I loved it. I was still really into Star Wars but I remember that other space film and wanted to see more like that one.
Later I was take to see Wrath of Khan and by this point I was really into sci-fi. It was sometime between TWOK and TSFS that I put it together with the TV show and the three movies. By TVH I was a fan.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

In 1992, I stopped by my neighbor's house a couple times when he happened to be watching TNG, and I was intrigued. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected myself to end up a Trekkie! I was 42 years old, had never watched any sci-fi in my life, and rarely watched tv at all. But here I am.

 

[Kirby]

My best friend in 4th grade, Jim Caylor, lived on the other side of the neighborhood, where the cable company started laying cable, so he was the first one I knew to get cable. This was 1976.
We'd go to his house after school and we were switching around the cable channels, and on one of them we found Star Trek. He knew it, and his dad was a fan so we watched it. The episode was Tomorrow is Yesterday with the time travel element, I had no idea what this show really was.
After a while we started watching them every day, and discovered that the local Denver station played Star Trek right after the showing on cable.
By the time TMP came on the scene, I had seen most of the episodes, but I was hooked from that very first episode.
I've seen the first run on every series, although I missed a few here and there, and have seen every movie in the theater, most of them on opening night, and all of them except TMP, on opening weekend.

 

[T'Girl]

My mother says that my first movie was Star Trek: The Voyage Home, because she went to see it while pregnant with me. My parents are the biggest trekkies you'll ever met, my childhood was filled with Star Trek dolls and toys.

 

[Kira Nerys]

I really got into Trek when I watched TNG when it originally aired on TV and loved it .Believe or not I missed DS9 during it's original run and only caught it ,in reruns.

 

[ixfd64]

I only became a "Trekkie" recently. I had seen three movies (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek Nemesis and the 2009 Star Trek) and a couple of episodes before, but I never really thought much about them.

A few months ago, I was looking for good movies at my local library when I looked at the collection of Star Trek DVDs. I thought, "Wow, I've watched many movies in my life, yet I've never seen most of the Star Trek movies." So I decided to do that.

The movies (despite being so old) were pretty awesome, so I decided to watch the TV series afterwards, starting with TAS. And that's my story.

 

[Genesis]

I'm another who was too young to remember my first episode. I was only 1 year old when TNG started and my mother watched every episode religiously. Some of my best childhood memories are of watching TNG with her (the first time I saw Best of Both Worlds, WOW) and of attending Star Trek conventions with her.

Though I came back to Star Trek in my 20s not for nostalgia but because I needed something to remind me of the potential good in humanity. If there's something better than Star Trek for that, I haven't found it.

 

[kolibri]

I honestly remember being maybe about five and playing in the living room with my sister while my dad was watching TNG and wondering how anybody could possibly watch anything so hideously boring.

I think the episode I remember is Ensign Ro, but maybe it's just wishful thinking. All I really remember for sure is Picard and his gleaming pate(this was, incidentally, before my dad starting shaving his head...).

I got into Voyager when I was about 16 because I was looking for femslashable TV and thought J/7 was intriguing. It was, but I also fell in love with the whole feel and concept of it. So the first full episode I remember watching is Caretaker.

 

[norse_sage]

My first REAL encounter with Star Trek was movies 3 and 4 over the course of twoo consecutive weeks on Swedish TV in very early nineties. I loved them, and they stuck with me, but they were one offs. There was no other Trek to find.

I first got into Trek for real when TNG started airing in Norway in 1996.
"Encounter at Farpoint" was my first encounter with Trek that got me hooked.