What was the first episode you have ever watched?

[Orphalesion]

Hey a discussion about Trek and whether it is accessible to children made me remember the first Star Trek episode I ever saw, how old I was and how I felt about it:

The first episode I ever saw was DS9's "the Quickening". It was the year before I entered school. Obviously the AIDs metaphor went straight over my head, but I loved the rubble-strewn, post-apocalyptic world of the Teplans. It was so different from everything I had seen before. The idea that a alien race can "curse" another with a sickness like that was terrifying to me, but also intriguing and I loved both Bashir and Jadzia (both are still favourites of mine).
I didn't watch much DS9 after that (I think it was at an inconvenient time-slot for little me) the only other episode I remember from that time was a rerun of "Move Along Home" which utterly terrified me, but gave me a lifelong appreciation for creepy themes like the scary little girl with her nursery rhyme and the game itself.

Needless to say "The Quickening" is still one of my favourite episodes in all of Star Trek and so, to an extent is "Move Along Home"

What was the first ST episode ever, how did you feel about it back then, how do you feel about it now?

 

[MacLeod]

I couldn't tell you which episode it was other than it was an episode of TOS during a re-run in the 70's.

 

[HIjol]

I watched the first episode ever aired, "The Man Trap" on September 8th, 1966. Saw the Original Pilot on its original air date of October 15th, 1988.

Life Changed

Game Over

 

[Iamnotspock]

"The Man Trap", but on a BBC2 rerun in the early '90s. The first TNG I saw was "The Drumhead" at some friends' house, as they had Sky TV and I was still at BBC pace. I watched the rest from the start.

 

[Kevman7987]

Much like @MacLoud, I cannot remember exactly the episode or date. I can tell you it was a TOS rerun in syndication in the early 90's.

 

[urbandefault]

I couldn't tell you which episode it was other than it was an episode of TOS during a re-run in the 70's.

Same here.

I do remember hurrying home from a friend's house sometime in the mid-60s because Trek was coming on, but when I got home the TV was already on something else, and when Dad was home he controlled the TV.

(This was a time when young kids could play outside unsupervised until dark or whenever Mom told us to be home, without panic in the streets. )

There was almost no way for me to see it until it hit reruns in the afternoon.

 

[Melakon]

First glimpse I got (other than commercials) was switching over for a few minutes during a station break in 1966. Some guy runs around in a cave which didn't impress me because it looked fake. A big scary looking guy hunts for him, and I thought he looked pretty good. Then the big guy says "Captain Kirk! Where are you?" in a woman's voice. That made me think WTF is this. It was "What are Little Girls Made Of". Then the first guy breaks the phallic rock and holds it at waist level, there's a fight, and he's left hanging on a cliff for the act fade-out. I switched to another station.

So I wasn't impressed, but decided I needed to see an episode from the beginning, and watched again. But the episode after that was "Miri", and Michael J. Pollard at 27 did not look like someone 12 or 13 to me (I was 15). So I had trouble with that episode too. I stayed with the series though, and it won me over before Christmas that year.

The series did get me to researching visual effects articles (hard to find back then), because I didn't know about blue screen and optical printing, and couldn't figure out how they did the space scenes.

 

[Mojochi]

My first memory of Star Trek, at a very early age was Spock playing his lute accompaniment to Uhura's singing in Charlie X, Circa 1975 maybe

 

[BillJ]

I couldn't tell you which episode it was other than it was an episode of TOS during a re-run in the 70's.

Same here.

 

[CorporalClegg]

My first exposure to Trek was TVH. I was five when it came out. It was also my first time ever seeing a movie in a theatre.

I can't tell you what the first episode of Star Trek I saw exactly. But my first memory is of "Shore Leave." But that wasn't until at least a year later because my local station would air TOS reruns right before TNG every Saturday. And I remember seeing it along side "The Battle."

 

[MacLeod]

Some of us are showing our age, by saying either orignal run or re-runs in the 70's.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

I vaguely remember seeing part of "Who Mourns for Adonis?" when I was six years old while watching TV with my dad (who's not a Star Trek fan); I didn't know what Star Trek was at that point but remember asking my father several questions he didn't know the answers to. He subsequently told my mother, who rented TMP a few days later so that I could learn about the series.

I eventually saw each of the films over the next several months (this was Spring/Summer 1989) before seeing TFF in theaters. That fall, I saw my first episode of TNG, which I think was "The Big Goodbye."

--Sran

 

[Count]

I can't remember the first episode i actually watched, but the first episode I _remember_ watching is Datalore when it first came out for rental in Australia. I think i was 4 at the time. I have vague memories of the TOS movies before that, particularly Voyage home though.

 

[Nerys Myk]

No idea, I was like seven years old and it was way back in 1966. Might have missed a few as the family also watched the competition. (My Three Sons and Bewitched)

 

[Greg Cox]

Probably "The Mantrap" back during its original run on NBC. I would've been around eight years old at the time, but my dad sometimes let me stay up past my bedtime to watch STAR TREK with him.

I can't swear that "Mantrap" was the first one I saw, but I remember the Salt Vampire scaring me when I was a kid.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I have memories of the Salt Vampire, but that could be from reruns.

 

[Melakon]

Some of us are showing our age, by saying either orignal run or re-runs in the 70's.

That just means we're old enough to know what we're talking about.

 

[WHF]

When I was 9 they would show reruns of Star Trek at 4PM. The first episode I watched was For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky. 9 year old me found it so boring I didn't watch another episode.

By the time I was ready for Star Trek the episodes were no longer shown on the local chanels so I read all the Blish adaptations. I would have to wait until high school before I was able to watch the episodes.

 

[HIjol]

Some of us are showing our age, by saying either orignal run or re-runs in the 70's.

Oh, man, I feel such an Old Fogy! Funny how one judges age sometimes. Thought there were more Oldsters. Not that there is ANYthing wrong with that!

No idea, I was like seven years old and it was way back in 1966. Might have missed a few as the family also watched the competition. (My Three Sons and Bewitched)

Ahh, "Bewitched". Old Derwood, of course! And, "My Three Sons"! Old Uncle Charlie, to be sure! Who didn't love William Frawley?

Probably "The Mantrap" back during its original run on NBC. I would've been around eight years old at the time, but my dad sometimes let me stay up past my bedtime to watch STAR TREK with him.

I can't swear that "Mantrap" was the first one I saw, but I remember the Salt Vampire scaring me when I was a kid.

Good Dad you had there! Bonding time over Star Trek!

Some of us are showing our age, by saying either orignal run or re-runs in the 70's.

That just means we're old enough to know what we're talking about.

Rock on, Ho Ho !!! Darn Tootin'

I was thinking of you as I discovered Skippy was a cross-over actor between Star Trek and Fantasy Island, in another thread discussion.

 

[Melakon]

Skip's in Don Knotts' The Ghost and Mr. Chicken too, as a bad guy. It looks like he retired from acting in the 80s, after he hit 50. No idea what he did after, but he'd been working professionally since he was 13 or so. He's 84 now.