Go on Thot F. Guy, you’re really Merlin, aren’t you?
(Betcha can’t wait to see your beloved Archimedes rise from the dead and grow into his egg.)
Does Power Rangers count as sci-fi if your 4 when you watch it? I only say this because at recess in kindergarten we played PR, and then played Star Wars in first grade. I hadn’t seen the movies yet, but had fun playing. One of my baby-sitters had them on VHS, and I watched them over the span of a couple of weeks at about an hour at a time, and fell in love with them. The first real book I read was The Disappearing Bikeshop the summer between first and second grade. I don’t remember the exact plot, but I know it involved time travel. Well over half of the books I’ve read since then have been scifi though I didn’t know it at the time. I love The Giver, along with anything by L’Engle and Verne. I watched Hercules and Xena as a kid which led me to Cleopatra 2525 and Andromeda. I also watched Dark Angel, Buffy, Angel, and Tru Calling. Now I’m at BSG and lovin’ it. GWC led me to Firefly (Thanks). I missed Stargate, but I think I’m gonna get into that, along with some other stuff.
Me too, I cannot thank them enough. I’d send them a cake but it would probably go stale before it gets to Texas 
Now that things are settling down here post-kid’s broken collar bone, I guess I’ll answer my own post…
I was thinking about this questionl long before I posted this, because I was reading through these forums and reading about shows/movies/books that I was unfamiliar with. A lot of you mentioned liking sci-fi from your childhood. I started thinking about my own “sci-fi history.”
Here is what I can remember watching and enjoying…(I was never much of a sci-fi book person, though I DO like fantasy, e.g. LOTR and HP.) You may or may not consider some of these actual sci-fi; however these are the influences that have led me to be who I am now.
Star Trek (TOS & Movies)
Battlestar Galactica (TOS)
Star Wars (the first sci-fi/fantasy that really captured my imagination)
Buck Rogers
Ultraman
Twilight Zone (re-runs)
Bionic Woman
Wonder Woman
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Superman (movies & the old TV show re-runs)
Batman (campy TV show re-runs)
The Dark Crystal
E.T.
Terminator 2
Star Trek: TNG (probably the first sci-fi TV that I couldn’t miss)
The Abyss
Back to the Future
Quantum Leap
I had been thinking that I didn’t really have many sci-fi/fantasy influences but as I look back, I see that there were quite a few shows and movies that drew me in. I have always been attracted to the genre. I just didn’t realize it.
-K
My parents took us to see Star Wars when I was very young. So, I remember seeing Star Wars in continuous reruns on a government-owned channel during the afternoons when I was four. So, growing up, my daytime viewing as a kid involved Sesame Street, the Muppet Show in the morning, Star Wars and Star Trek TOS in the afternoon. Kids in my neighborhood watched soap operas, and I got sci-fi. I remember being six and asking my dad if “Luke and Leia were going to be together”, and my dad explaining that they were brother and sister. I remember seeing 2001: Space Odyssey in memory flashes because I was too young, but what really struck me then was the visual of that guy walking around the ring, and the voice of HAL in the background. Little did I know that the image would be iconic for sci-fi movies.
I would watch TOS reruns late at night when I was eight? nine? Unlike many of you I don’t remember the storylines much, but I do remember being excited to stay up late because I was watching something completely different: beings, creatures and scenarios in outer space. I guess that was the fuel that fed the fire. Sci-fi doesn’t have as big of a fanbase where I live, so I stuck with TV (Spielberg’s Amazing Stories! the Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Sliders) and movie reruns. I watched Back to the Future so many times that I can recite dialogue off the top of my head (and it’s still the best movie series in terms of continuity - can you honestly show me a serious flaw in their time traveling?)
On fifth grade I got hit by a week-long flu. That’s when I borrowed a book from a friend who had a sister who was a sci-fi fan. She wasn’t too interested, so she lent me the book while I was sick. The title? Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars series. I was floored. Sci fi books? I was hooked. This was an entirely uncharted avenue for my sci-fi interest. Aside from the regular classics in the school library (Austen, Shakespeare, the Scarlet Pimpernel were favorites), I started borrowing books from L’Engle and Tamora Pierce (okay, that’s more ‘fantasy’, but I think of them as sister-genres). And ST:TNG came on TV as well as, SeaQuest, Space: Above and Beyond, the X-Files, Millennium, Roswell, Lois and Clark (okay, aside from the Superman storyline, I had a crush on Dean Cain).
In college came the movie-watching: The Matrix, Bladerunner, the Star Wars series. More books (Heinlen, Gaiman, Orson Scott Card), more TV shows (Farscape, Aeon Flux)… and the Internet!
The communities that came online gave me a chance to talk about this little thing I was very interested in, but not a lot of people I know understood. I could research on the history and trivia of the creators of these worlds, and then I could discuss them with the community members. I’d read very interesting and insightful posts from people around the world - fans like me! My brother got me watching Battlestar Galactica. I looked for podcasts about it, so I found the GWC. GWC talked about Firefly a lot, so I took a chance and watched it (and never looked back!)
So there it is, my sci-fi history.
I have been watching SciFi ever since I was about 8. That’s when I noticed Star Trek TOS. It came on Sunday morning, then got moved to a weeknight with Space:1999 behind it on the same night. I watched both but liked Trek better. I recall watching Ultraman, Space Giants, and Spectreman, all Japanese live action shows. The local ABC channel showed a 3:30 movie every weekday, and when they had their special monster week events (when they would show movies with Godzilla, Rodan, Gamera, etc) I’d rush home to catch them after school. They also had a bad B movie week sometimes when they would show classics like Green Slime. This was all before the VCR so I watched everything. The second big show for me was the anime show ‘Star Blazers’, which would come on at 6am. I’d get up early to catch it before I went to Jr. high. I was addicted to that big time. At about this time I noticed the show 'Dr. Who on PBS. It came on after Monty Python. When Python went off, it was my bedtime, so I had to sneak to the back room to try to catch Dr. Who. I watched years of Dr. Who and enjoyed that greatly. Blake’s 7 was aired here and I watched the whole series. Instead of having a nice Federation that show had an evil one, and the good guys were fugitives, which was a nice change. I saw some Robotech but could not get into it much. I did watch the whole original BSG series. It was a disappointment but it was SF so I guess I cut it some slack. I saw all the Trek movies except for Trek: Nemesis. I thanked the gods when STNG came on TV! However, for me the greatest 1-2 punch in SF TV was when STDS9 and Babylon 5 were on in the same week! When both shows were new eps that was like winning the lottery. I had to tape them usually when I worked nights. I’d have to say that I swore more when I missed the B5! Both shows were wonderful, but I think the DS9 ending could have been a little better.
I saw a smattering of SF anime films/series like Gunbuster and Appleseed. The one that stands out is Akira. I walked out of the Akira screening a little confused but blown away. And now I am addicted to the new BSG. I am enjoying this big time because you never know when another compelling show will come around.
My earliest SciFi memories are of being jealous that the kid across the street had the Eagle from Space 1999. This was followed by the usual progression into Star Wars, BSG, and Buck Rogers (I soooo had a crush on Erin Grey) and reruns of Star Trek. The two biggest influences that got me into becoming a fan that sought out shows were Star Blazers and Robotech. Robotech led me into Battletech and a group of like minded individuals and the gaming environment. This fostered the addiction and led to my first convention, BosCon, way back in the day. That was so long ago that the big thing at that con was a preview of the new Star Trek show, The Next Generation :eek: Man I’m old
I guess I’ve grown into SciFi while most of my friends have grown away from it, raising families of thier own. But now I am acquiring a family of my own (gotta love Ebay) and the 13 year old is a scifi fan, so I will be fostering that in him as well as his 6 year old brother, both are soon to be my step-sons. I will set them on the SciFi path to geeky enlightenment.
It’s true, you can get anything there…
was a weee lad when I saw Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back…totally blew my mind. Then Wrath Of Khan (which made me a Trek fan to this day). I enjoyed TNG, but it wasnt until DS9 that I become an absolute die hard fan of the sci fi. Tho that didnt translate into Voyage or Enterprise. Needed something with more meat to it.
And then BSG came. Sniff scuse me…I need a moment…