When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watching?

[Captain Al]

And this question is for any Star Trek series.

I grew up in a family that loved science fiction. I believe my parents watched Star Trek in the late 1960s when it was new. I came along in 1970 and Star Trek reruns were always on. I "discovered" Star Trek when I was very little, maybe at 5 or 6, and didn't get the show.

For one thing, it was on for an hour, which seemed too long for me.

Secondly, I didn't understand what was happening when they went into that little room off the Bridge (the turbolift). I didn't get the fact that it was an elevator. I always thought they were going into a separate room.

Finally, I didn't understand where the Bridge was. For some reason, I thought maybe the Bridge was the big saucer thing in the front. Does that make any sense? I suppose it doesn't, but hey--I was 5.

Since the show was sooooo long, it was difficult for me to get into it. Oh, I watched it, but without any serious interest. As I grew older, I started to appreciate it and grew into the Trekker, or Trekkie, that I am today. I didn't really get into the show until 1980 or so when one of our local UHF stations ran three-hour Star Trek marathons every Saturday.

Others?

 

[Kirby]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I first saw Trek in the mid 70s. I was in either 3rd or 4th grade, and I'm pretty sure that the first ep I saw was Tomorrow is Yesterday. I was completely baffled by the time travel and beaming guys around and stuff.
I figured it all out pretty quick because we found out that between two channels on this new fangled cable tv thing you could watch two episodes back to back everyday so after a couple of days I had already seen quite a bit. But yeah, I was confused at first.

 

[KimMH]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

the first epi I recall watching in the 70s as a 10 year old was the one with MIRI and the children afraid to grow up. It felt like watching a surreal Peter Pan. The one seared into my tween mind was Amok Time. My brothers tease me to this day about having wanted to be T'Pring. Until we saw what she did. Evil thing!

I felt like I did "Get It" then of course, but of course have found that subsequent rewatching of every epi nearly every time brings another thought to my mind that wasn't there before. It's not religion or high art but I still find it compelling. My impressions of the first series was the brotherly love between the big three. Thank goodness I didn't meet the idea of slash for many more years to come! I was just impressd by the bond of friendship. It still moves me.

 

[SFRabid]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I didn't get the morality plays. I got the monsters.

 

[Emher]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

First saw it in the mid 90s and by then I was old enough to both get it and stay trough it. Was pretty much the first sci-fi I saw.

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I didn't understand where the Bridge was. For some reason, I thought maybe the Bridge was the big saucer thing in the front.

LOL! I thought that too!
I was six when I first saw TOS, and it took a few eps until I *got* it- The Immunity Syndrome was the first ep I fully grasped, but I loved it even before that. But I was, like, 10 when I saw The Menagerie the second time & figured out that that zoom in to the top of the ship was literally where the bridge was.

 

[Aurian]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I managed to catch TNG on its first run in Sweden. Just the first seasons though.. after that my most active teenage-partying went on and I was not brave enough yet to choose ST over my friends.

 

[Anticitizen]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I also didn't get what the bridge was. I was young enough that I conflated Star Trek and Star Wars in my mind and always pictured that big pit in Star Wars with the bridge over it in the Death Star (when Obi-Wan disables the tractor beam).

I remember pestering my dad with questions about why Kirk was in charge sometimes and 'that bald guy' other times. This was when TOS was in reruns playing right after I got home from school and TNG was in its first run.

 

[Shaw]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

Actually, Star Trek was the only thing that would pacify me as a baby. I was born in 1967 and all my earliest memories revolve around Star Trek. My earliest drawings were of the Enterprise (still trying to get it right today), I recall my step brother making me the AMT kit of the Enterprise in 1971 (it didn't last long... I didn't understand it wasn't a toy), in preschool I became quite envious of a kid whose mother put an insignia on his shirt (I tried to sew one I made on my shirt... didn't look right), my parents bought me the Booklet of General Plans of the Enterprise when first released (1975) and my friends and I would lay out all the plans on the lunch tables at recess studying them, I also got the first release of the Technical Manual (1975/76) and didn't travel anywhere without it for the next 10 years. I had most of the Mego toys (including the action figures and bridge playset) and had all of the AMT model kits. I was one of the first people in line for the first showing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, saw it twice that day, and had seen it 7 times before the end of the month (including watching the midnight showing on New Years Eve).

Star Trek has always been a massive part of my life.

I would say I was odd except that I had tons of friends throughout my life that felt the same way about Star Trek as I did (like I said, in the second grade my friends were just as interested in the Booklet of General Plans as I was).

 

[Pegaritaville]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

the first epi I recall watching in the 70s as a 10 year old was the one with MIRI and the children afraid to grow up. It felt like watching a surreal Peter Pan. The one seared into my tween mind was Amok Time. My brothers tease me to this day about having wanted to be T'Pring. Until we saw what she did. Evil thing!

"Miri" is the first episode I can recall watching as well (during the original run). I probably saw earlier season 1 episodes, but that's the episode that's seared into my mind. For some reason it really scared the crap out of me.

I started watching Star Trek when I was five (had a brother that was a big scifi fan). As a little kid, I looked at it mainly as an action show. It wasn't until later that I realized that much of the substance went way over my head.

 

[Spocktapus]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

The first Trek I saw was The Motion Picture, when I was five. I had just seen Star Wars (the original original trilogy) for the first time about a month or so before. We had the first 6 Trek movies on VHS at the time, and I was convinced for some reason that they were some sort of prequel to Star Wars.

Anyway, I don't think I understood anything that was going on in TMP. It took five years, a dozen more viewings, some background on TOS, reading the Trek Encyclopedia entry on V'Ger, and the Director's Edition before I really got what was going on in that movie.

It was just so different than anything I had seen before (or since then for that matter) that I was mesmerized by it all, even if I didn't realize that Kirk and Decker were two different people or kept wondering when Darth Vader would show up.

I think what really made me want to see more were the weird cloud visuals, the odd sort of blue light that everything seemed to be bathed in, and Jerry Goldsmith's FANTASTIC score.

 

[BillJ]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

When I first watched I thought the bridge took up the entire saucer section. To be a kid again!

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

When I first watched I thought the bridge took up the entire saucer section. To be a kid again!

At 8 I drew a cutaway view showing that very thing- if my own son had drawn it, I'd be impressed that he thought enough of it to attempt it, but really, for ME, I find it embarrassing.

 

[Desert Kris]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I didn't get it. The story details were above my head, but I liked the visuals, the pioneering adventurism, anything that looked or sounded really weird. Yes, I thought the bridge was contained in the entire saucer section. For the movie version of the Enterprise, I was captivated by the blue glow of the deflector dish, it was mysterious to me. I thought it was a window that showed a blazing furnace of blue fire that powered the ship and made it go fast. I was puzzled by how the blue fire didn't burn the ship up from the inside.

I seem to recall being very confused about The Search For Spock when I saw it in the theater. I didn't know how what the beaming process was all about, all I registered was the lead characters being saturated with a column of light and energy, and then the Klingons were there in their place. When the Klingon commander speculates they were hiding, I imagined that they really were hiding somewhere else on the ship somehow...naturally I was puzzled by how they were then on the planet.

Yeah, I definitely didn't get it.

 

[BillJ]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

When I first watched I thought the bridge took up the entire saucer section. To be a kid again!

At 8 I drew a cutaway view showing that very thing- if my own son had drawn it, I'd be impressed that he thought enough of it to attempt it, but really, for ME, I find it embarrassing.

You should look back on those memories fondly! You'll never get to be a kid again.

 

[Chrisisall]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

You'll never get to be a kid again.

Since the new movie came out, I've gotten the Diamond Select OS phaser, and the new Playmates Enterprise; I beg to differ.

 

[BillJ]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

You'll never get to be a kid again.

Since the new movie came out, I've gotten the Diamond Select OS phaser, and the new Playmates Enterprise; I beg to differ.

I got the new Enterprise along with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scott. Still looking for the bridge playset in my area.

 

[Commander Rabbit]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

Interesting thread. I never watched Star Trek until someone introduced me to Next Gen, when I was 42, and I fell in love w/ it. NOT being a child, I enjoyed the length of the shows and how complicated some of them were.

 

[Manisphere]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

The first episode of Trek I ever saw was, The Immunity Sydrome. I was 5. It blew my mind. Of course it took a couple more years before I "got" that episode but it remains a favorite to this day.

I saw ST: The Motion Picture 3 times in the theatre. I must've been 6. I have no idea why I loved the movie. My father hated the thing. What blew my mind about ST were the really big science plots. The one's that illicit the philosophical debates that Star Wars just can't.

And I of course really haven't changed much since I was six.

 

[Lindley]

Re: When you were young, did you "get" Star Trek the first time watchi

I have no idea what my first episode was. TNG I think. What I recall most was wondering why they didn't go back to Earth at the end.

I saw a few other random episodes here and there without really "getting it".....the thing only clicked when I ran into a dry spell on Star Wars novels and decided to pick up one of the Trek ones (TOS: The Rings of Tautee). I must have liked it.....