What was your first exposure to science fiction?

POSTED BY: TrainBandit
UPDATED: Friday, September 25, 2009 16:01
VIEWED: 15180
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CYBERSNARK

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 2:12 PM

The oldest reliable memory I have is sitting with my dad watching a rented video of Return of the Jedi. I didn't even understand what was happening (looking back, I recognize the Battle of Endor), but I was hypnotized by the lightsabers and blaster bolts against the black bakgrounds of space and the Emperor's throne room.

But what really made me a fan was Robotech. Not the TV series (it never aired in my part of Canada), but the novelizations by Jack McKinney. Especially Sentinels (the spinoff that only existed in book form).

It had everything! Action, comedy, music, jet fighters, giant stompy robots, romance, passion, tragedy, redemption, corruption, betrayal, manipulations, heroism, sacrifice, god-like aliens, thousand-year epic mysteries, generational legacies, humans and aliens overcoming their fundamental differences to unite --creating something even more important than mere survival (we can survive alone, but we can only thrive together). . . It was like a distillation of every dream I'd ever had or ever would have.

I remember the first summer after I'd finally managed to track down the whole series --all 18 books (at that point). I read the whole saga in about a month. Things were never the same after that.

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

DEADLOCKVICTIM

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:01 PM

ah, the delivery room...

FARFLY

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:33 PM

Not that I'm old or anything but my introduction to sci-fi was with Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and Tom Corbett,Space Cadet.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/captainvideo/captainvideo.ht
m

http://www.solarguard.com/tchome.htm

CHRISISALL

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 4:42 PM

As a little kid sitting in front of our first black & white TV, I came across a movie called "The Incredible Shrinking Man" being broadcast one day- it mesmerized me. Around that same time I discovered Lost In Space, and liked it for the Robot, even though it was goofy. But Star Trek was really where it was at (using the appropriate 60's lingo), and my one beef with the show was that each episode was only half as long as a typical Lost In Space ep (that was how my seven-year-old mind saw it, I didn't understand back then that fascinating stuff just seems to be shorter in duration).
So mainly I thank Roddenberry.

The laughing Chrisisall

DEADLOCKVICTIM

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 4:52 PM

and who can forget the incredible Planet of the Tapirs

CHRISISALL

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 4:57 PM

Planet of the Tapirs

A classic.

The laughing Chrisisall

STOWEAWAY

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 5:34 PM

My parents used to take my little sister and me to the movies almost every weekend. And in 1977 I fell in love with a guy named Han Solo. Dressed up as Princess Leia for Halloween -- won a kids costume contest & got my picture in the paper with my little hair buns. And so it began.
I'll never forgive my parents for letting me see Wrath of Khan at much too young an age. I had nightmares for weeks about slugs in my ears!
A few years later, I picked up one of my dad's Isaac Asimov non-fiction books. Not all of it made sense to me. But it really tickled my brain. So when Asimov came to town for a lecture, I convinced my parents to take me. Again, I couldn't follow all of his material. But I was electrified to see him in person!
I think it's really a matter of what grabs your imagination. Even though she was exposed to the same things as me, my sister has always been more of a fan of fantasy. She has devoured every shred from the world of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. And none of that ever appealed to me.
It's funny, but I don't consider Firefly to be primarily a work of sci-fi. I would first consider it a character study & then a sci-fi 2nd or maybe 3rd.

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COZEN

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 7:40 PM

E. E. "Doc" Smith, The Skylark of Space, novelization of his first serialized magazine series. Followed by the Lensman series.

Some of us are readers.

THESOMNAMBULIST

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 8:11 PM

When I was five, and the Six Million Dollar Man was on. Back then I lived in Paraguay so it was better known to me as: Hombre Nuclear! Friggin' Awesome!!!!

The 70's must have been an odd time for parents, watching they're energetic offspring spend half a morning crossing the front garden because they were immitating Lee Majors going full speed in slow-motion!

CHRISISALL

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 8:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TheSomnambulist:
When I was five, and the Six Million Dollar Man was on.

* resists the impulse to chant "baby, baby" to Som*

The laughing Chrisisall

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