SCIFI starter kid?

[RobertScorpio]

When we're growing up, there is always that movie, or book I guess, where we see something, read something, that turns us on to scifi. For many of us it might even be Star Trek.

But not me. Oh, I loved Star Trek, but when I was a kid watching it, I was more into the ships..the sexy women..and I thought Shatner's acting was so strange I couldn't get enough...(But I love shatner, so this isn't a hit on him)...

But when I saw 2001, when I was eight years old, I remember coming out of that movie totally screwed up in the head. What the hell was that? That was my offical SCIFI starter kid.

Then I started reading scifi books and, as I grew older, I started watching the older scifi movies like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS, and even MONSTER ZERO..

But it was definately my WOW factor with 2001 that turned me on to scifi...what was yours?

Rob

 

[ParticleMan]

I can always remember watching Star Wars and classic Trek reruns with my dad, but the first sci-fi show I discovered on my own was repeats of Doctor Who on our local PBS channel. It was the first sci-fi program I went head over heels for without any outside guidance...

 

[Cicero]

I grew up with science fiction, from my earliest memories. (Indeed, my first memory is of Encounter at Farpoint, The Enpire Strikes Back, or The Voyage Home, though I don't know in what order I saw them when I was two-three.) Combined with the popularity of science fiction in the city I grew up in (we had a store that sold only Star Trek memorabilia), it never really occurred to me to not watch and read it.

Thus, I read Asimov and Star Trek novels alongside the usual American Girl, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, and watched almost exclusively sci-fi television - Law & Order was the only then-current drama I watched that wasn't sci-fi until JAG premiered.

 

[Mistral]

I can define the moment. I had read all of the biographys in the local library and was looking for something else. The kid's librarian knew I read above my age group(I was nine) and handed me 3 books that literally changed my life. I'd had an interest in Apollo as a very young child and watched Star Trek whenever I could but Foundation, R is for Rocket and Podkayne of Mars set me on a path I haven't deviated from. From that time on I looked at the world as a small thing in a much vaster universe where I used to see the world as a giant place.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Star Wars is the earliest space sci-fi I remember really taking an interest in. Then I saw lots of classics like Day the Earth Stood Still, and then Star Trek, which became my favorite.

If We are talking just any fantasy stuff, and not space sci-fi, I was HUGELY influenced by the fleischer superman cartoons. My grandmother has gotten me a few of those public domain tapes. I didn't have them all, and the quality was far from the recent remasters, but I watched them an uncountable number of times. I still think they perfect animated shorts, the artwork and movement is simply beautiful.

 

[Lt. Trull]

star trek in 1966 turned me on to sci fi.... however it was Pier Anthony's Spell for Chameleon that turned me on to fantasy fiction...

 

[RobertScorpio]

Some of these answers are quite interesting...

Rob

 

[The Comedian]

Book: Robert Heinlein's "Red Planet", read when I was six (and I still have it!)

Followed by those old Tom Swift books.

TV: War of the Worlds (movie) which scared the bejeebers out of me.

 

[JiNX-01]

I got my very first sci-fi book from Scholastic Books. It was called "The Forgotten Door." I think I was in third or fourth grade.
I had been getting astronomy books out of the children's section of the city library and watching Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.
Next up came "Lost in Space" and "Star Trek" (well, anytime my parents weren't in control of the TV -- this was the olden days when families only had one television in the house).

Aside: I just googled "The Forgotten Door" and it popped up on amazon.com. It was $4, so I bought it.

 

[Greg Cox]

Honestly, I can't remember any single precipitating event. I grew up steeped in pop culture, thanks to a dad who made sure I was familiar with Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Godzilla, Batman, classic fifties sci-fi flicks, Frankenstein, the Mummy, etc. Not to mention an aunt who exposed me to DARK SHADOWS at an impressionable age, and a grandfather who passed on his dog-eared copies of Edgar Rice Burroughs . . . .

 

[fek'lhr1]

I think it was pokemon... Because that lead to fantasy and fantasy brought me into sci fi. I can't really say for sure though.

 

[Greg Cox]

I got my very first sci-fi book from Scholastic Books. It was called "The Forgotten Door." I think I was in third or fourth grade.

I remember that book! I checked it out from the library numerous times myself!

 

[JiNX-01]

Welcome to the club. I'm looking forward to reading it again.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Well, when I was a kid, it was all about the sci-fi cartoons, like Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters, & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was also a huge fan of the Back to the Future movies.

I also, I remember many nights sitting next to my father, waiting for my mother to get home, and he would put on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was a casual fan. Little did he know how much of a hardcore fan he was setting me up to be.

I kinda remember seeing "The Best of Both Worlds" & "Relics." But in some ways, the 1st episode that I have very clear memories of is "Face of the Enemy." There was something about the idea of Troi infiltrating a Romulan ship that I thought was very exciting.

 

[Tyjos Azari]

I was hooked on Star Trek The Next Generation when I was young...didn't understand it when I was little it just looked cool.

During my teens and early years you could find me buried in a Star Trek Book.....babylon 5 came out and that hooked me easy too....then Deep Space Nine....course I did see the original Star Trek when it was on tv as re runs in the 90's too I thought it was cheesy back then compared to TNG.

But the first exposure to Sci-Fi for me was in fact TNG....and SeaQuest was great too back then.

When my life always was going crappy, there always was Star Trek to cheer me up......so I was a big Trekkie geek back then.....

But's TNG for me all the way....and then DS9 of course.

 

[CorporalClegg]

My aunt took my mom to see Trek IV for her birthday. I was five and had a thing for whales, so they brought me along.

Suffice to say I loved it and not because of the whales. We got our first VCR that Christmas--along with Treks I, II, & III.

I had pretty much worn-out TWOK by summertime. (Which is probably a big part of the reason I have such disdain for it now. )

About the same time I started watching TOS every Sunday morning.

I didn't get into TNG until it was well into season 3 because is had been on later (Past my bedtime!) during the first two years. I think "The Defector" was the first episode I saw. However, I have a vague memory of seeing TNZ before that, so I might have suck out one night to catch a glimpse.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Ghostbusters was a big deal as well. I had some of the action figures and even a water gun proton pack. The water pressure was intense, and I've since wondered if it was an official product.

 

[RobertScorpio]

One of my nephew's scifi starter kit was Ghostbusters...but I admit..when I took him to see GHOSTBUSTERS 2, I fell asleep half way in...I hope he didn't notice! Could have scarred him for life!

Rob

 

[auntiehill]

Way back in the dark ages, when I was a kid, the only SciFi that was on TV was old reruns of Lost in Space. I remember watching it as a kid, but not really liking it. However, I liked that it was in space, so I endured it's many flaws. It was so cheesy and cheap, and like most shows back then, very sexist. Not very encouraging for a young girl. But then I discovered The Twilight Zone. I thought it was the most amazing, and for a little kid, often frightening, thing on TV. Then there were Star Trek reruns, which I enjoyed but wasn't passionate about. Then came Star Wars. I hadn't even turned 8, I think. I loved it beyond belief. Then, Battlestar Galactica (had a total crush on Dirk Benedict) came on TV, and I started reading science fiction and fantasy: like Tolkien and CS Lewis, and the Tripod series. By the time I was 10, I was seriously hooked.

They started airing Dr. Who on PBS, and I was fanatical about it. Then, I stumbled upon Space: 1999, The Prisoner, Blake's 7. It all just started layering on, one after the other.

Looking back, I think it was seeing The Twilight Zone, and realizing that fantasy stories could be absolutely ANYTHING, that really grabbed my imagination. "Star Wars" of course, just sealed the deal.

 

[The Comedian]

Anyone here remember "The Space Eagle" books?