The moment that sold you?

[Bob Karo]

As far as movies go:

I was 8 years old. I remember really enjoying the movie up to that point, but then "Holy Shit, it's a dinosaur..." And my eight year old mind exploded.

 

[Satyrquaze]

^ Jurassic Park?

I might get sodomized for this: but I was 4 when Empire Strikes Back came out in theatres, so anything having to do with Lightsabers pretty much just took up all of my attention for several years.

 

[bluedana]

I'd watched Dr. Who on and off for most of my life, way back to the Tom Baker and his striped scarf days. I could take it or leave it. Until:

Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, run.

I marathoned the rest of that season and half of this one.

 

[Satyrquaze]

^He didn't have you at fish fingers and custard?

and you could take or leave David Tennant?

 

[bluedana]

Both David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston were fine, but neither one really did anything special for me. And the whole first part, including the fish fingers and custard, was entertainingly goofy and all. But that is the moment when I got it and knew I had to see more.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Pirates of the Caribbean: Went into the first movie with LOW, low expectations (based on the ride?) but my sister-in-law had gotten it for my wife for her birthday, so we figured we'd watch it and probably sell it later. We were, however, PLEASANTLY surprised at how good it ended up being. I was eager to see DMC and was really floored by the end of Dead Man's Chest and looked forward to seeing how they would wrap things up in AWE

When Jack Sparrow 1st sails into Port Royal proudly standing on the mast of a sinking ship, I knew the movie was going to be at least a little more interesting than the premise would have you believe.

But what really sold me was "Why is the rum gone?!" Really, that whole sequence with Jack & Elizabeth marooned on the island is the best part of the whole series. I love Jack's subtle transformation in that sequence from enigmatic rogue to pathetic, washed-up addict. (It's like Captain Ron done as a period piece.)

The end of Dead Man's Chest is a better candidate for best cliffhangers of all time, right up with Back to the Future, Part II.

All this stuff about other people in the cinema has made me think of when me and my brother went to see the RDJ Sherlock Holmes. There was a group of 13/14 year old boys behind us who obviously didn't know much, if anything, about Sherlock. Me and brother where both pretty amused when we heard one of the boys say to his friend 'I think Watson's the bad guy'

I would seriously rebel at that notion but it does sound interesting. I kinda reminds me of the 1st episode of Sherlock.

Spoiler: A Study in Pink

You spend most of the episode thinking that the enigmatic manipulator played by Mark Gatiss is Professor Moriarty. Then, when he & Sherlock finally come face to face, you learn that he's really Mycroft Holmes.

I might get sodomized for this: but I was 4 when Empire Strikes Back came out in theatres, so anything having to do with Lightsabers pretty much just took up all of my attention for several years.

I can assure you that this fact will have absolutely no bearing on whether or not I decide to sodomize you!

^He didn't have you at fish fingers and custard?

and you could take or leave David Tennant?

I'm trying to think of my selling points for various Doctors.

Sylvester McCoy: "Remembrance of the Daleks."
GILMORE: "Nothing remotely human could have survived that."
DOCTOR: "That's the point, Group Captain. The Daleks aren't even rrrrremotely human."

Patrick Troughton: The scene in part 2 of "The Invasion" where the Doctor & Jamie are being chased by a group of very intimidating looking men. Once he realizes that he's got nowhere to run, he & Jamie just sit on the curb and start dealing cards as if they've been there for hours. The innocent expression on the Doctor's face as he offers to let them join the game is just priceless.

Paul McGann: Pretty much all of the audio story "Scherzo."

Christopher Eccleston: Much as I liked the new series, I was slow to warm up to his Doctor. The moment that sold me was in "Dalek" when he suddenly realizes that the alien in Van Stanton's vault is a Dalek. To see this normally unflappable hero screaming in terror, begging to be let out of the vault was a very interesting twist.

David Tennant: As disappointed as I was by Eccleston's departure, I warmed to Tennant very quickly. "New teeth, that's wierd," assured me that the role was in good hands. By the time he started inadvertantly quoting The Lion King, he had secured a (temporary) place as my favorite Doctor.

Matt Smith: I had grown pretty weary of Tennant's shouting schtick by the time he left the show. However, I was still very suspicious of his successor. Eccleston to Tennant seemed like a natural progression. But Tennant had taken his Tennant-ness to such extremes that there was really nowhere left for Smith to go except in a radically different direction. Honestly, there was nothing at all in Smith's 1st scene in "The End of Time" to wow me. But when we got to his 1st proper episode in "The Eleventh Hour," he quickly put all my fears to rest. Fish fingers & custard. "Beans are evil. Bad bad beans." "Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something." "Want to know what I think? Must be a helluva scary crack in your wall." "I'm the Doctor! I'm worse than everybody's aunt!"

 

[Satyrquaze]

I can assure you that this fact will have absolutely no bearing on whether or not I decide to sodomize you!

Thanks for the... warning?

Matt Smith: ... But when we got to his 1st proper episode in "The Eleventh Hour," he quickly put all my fears to rest. Fish fingers & custard. "Beans are evil. Bad bad beans." "Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something." "Want to know what I think? Must be a helluva scary crack in your wall." "I'm the Doctor! I'm worse than everybody's aunt!"

I have to admit in retrospect that this is basically when Matt Smith had sold me on his Doctor. While I hadn't apparently grown as weary of Tennant's Doctor as you had, I did feel something was absent... (or perhaps "off" is a better word) about his final 'series'.

I fought the very idea of Smith's Doctor as a replacement for Tennant's tooth and nail. I resented the very idea that Tennant was at all replaceable. But alas, he was.

Smith may have sold me subconsciously during 'The Eleventh Hour', but I don't think I was aware of it until I watched 'Vincent and the Doctor' when the Doctor asks Mr. Black to describe what Vincent van Gogh means to him. It was simply a wonderful scene.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

While I hadn't apparently grown as weary of Tennant's Doctor as you had, I did feel something was absent... (or perhaps "off" is a better word) about his final 'series'.

I think it was a mistake not giving him a regular companion during those final 4 specials. I find I have a hard time investing in the Doctor without a companion for him to look after. (I like one person's suggestion that Lady Christina should have gone with him at the end of "Planet of the Dead," then gotten killed off in "Waters of Mars" to help raise the stakes in that story and more convincingly push the Doctor over the edge at the end.)

 

[Mysterion]

As far as movies go:

I was 8 years old. I remember really enjoying the movie up to that point, but then "Holy Shit, it's a dinosaur..." And my eight year old mind exploded.

Assume you mean Jurassic Park here?

I agree with you. I was kind of just cruising along with it until they give you that first shot from Laura Dern's POV of the dinosaurs at the watering hole. I was hooked at that point for wherever else Spielberg wanted to go the rest of the day.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Transformers films: Definitely Optimus Prime. He is the kind of onscreen hero I have always preferred. Unambiguously the good guy - incorruptible and forever honest. A white-hat if ever there was one. Not an antihero - just a HERO.

TV - I was attracted to Corner Gas by its utter lack of a laugh track. And I like Law & Order because it is solely a procedural. No soap-opera stuff, basically actor-proof. Entirely devoted to the case, and impersonal. Characterization not important. Just the way I like it!

 

[BoxWhatBox]

West Wing - "I am the Lord your God, you shall worship no other but me." Although CJ face planting on the treadmill got my attention.

TNG - "Resistance is futile, Number One." I caught every episode from that day forward.

Doctor Who - "Hi Rose. I'm the Doctor. Now run for your life."

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Not many people have heard of the brilliant Candian satire Made in Canada about unscrupulous TV producers. I was sold on the very 1st episode I stumbled on on PBS, before I even knew it was a regular series. It was an episode called "Diva" where Margot Kidder plays fading starlet Dian delArgo who agrees to do a gues role on one of the shows within the show. She throws a tantrum and walks off the set, locking herself in her trailer. The entire crew gathers around and takes turns on the bullhorn trying to coax her back out. Studio boss Alan thinks that this is all her revenge for some torrid, forgotten affair they had years earlier, and he tries to talk her out.
Dian: "There have been lots of men in lots of cabanas."
Victor: "She doesn't remember you, Alan."
Alan: "I filled the room with roses."
Dian: "Oh yeah. Weren't you the one with the small penis?"
Alan: (Pause. Panics.) "YOU'RE RIGHT, VICTOR, SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER ME!"

Lately, I've become a huge fan of the online webcomic "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire" ( http://www.dominic-deegan.com/ ). It's been going on for 9 years now. I only started reading it recently but it sold me in one of its earliest strips when a couple of incompetant thieves named Bumper & Stunt were introduced to the strip:

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-06-08

 

[Candlelight]

Babylon 5 - The entire Babylon 4 storyline (Babylon Squared)

Battlestar Galactica - "And then one day they decided to kill their masters" (Mini Series)

Blake's 7 - When the Liberator shows up, and subsequently starts kiling anyone who boards her (Space Fall)

 

[Satyrquaze]

Babylon 5 - The entire Babylon 4 storyline (Babylon Squared)

Agreed, though I saw 'Yesterday's Enterprise' well before this and felt that JMS was plagiarizing. Which is ironic considering his opinion of DS9.

 

[Deckerd]

Herc and Carver doing 'good cop, bad cop'. It was obvious they were the comic relief in The Wire but that scene made me laugh out loud and hooked me forever.

 

[bluedana]

Reminded by another thread: the "f*ckf*ckf*ck" scene from The Wire. I was just so impressed that the writers trusted the audience to follow the investigation without any dialogue explaining it. I was interested before but hooked after that scene.