Earliest Science Fiction memories?

[qnr]

There are probably others, but I can remember wolfing down, at about five years old, the Tom Swift books, and all the books relating to Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[coloradodem2005]

1. Star Wars.

That is what I remember earliest. On T.V.

[lakemonster11]

26. Yeah,

I remember Darth Vader breathing menacingly. I think I was three.

[Eugene]

2. Lost in Space

around 1967.

[Gothic Sponge]

3. Lost in Space around 1972

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Was it in syndication?

Lost In Space ran from 1966 to 1970, IIRC.

I don't remember it being on the UHF channels in syndication, but it should have been.

--bkl

[Wat_Tyler]

4. Tom Baker as Doctor Who - The Keeper of Traken.

That or Blake's Seven.

[Technowitch]

5. My father watching The Outer Limits...

..and me getting the bejeebus scared out of me by that "Galaxy Being" critter.

Gave me nightmares for months. *lol*

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Star Wars films on TV

[Robeson]

7. Lost in Space...

...back in the day.

[Fleurs du Mal]

8. Lost in space - mid 70s

[Streetdoc270]

9. Starwars 1974

n/t

[Gothic Sponge]

10. Uhm....Star Wars didn't come out until 1977.

[Streetdoc270]

12. woops... Thats what I ment, I was only 2 in 1974 anyway :)

n/t

[qnr]

11. I would have expected more books :) n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

13. "Future Soldier" on the early-60s Outer Limits

With a script by Harlan Ellison, no less.

The plot was later turned into Terminator (no flaming, please -- Ellison and Cameron have worked out their differences amicably). But I was five when I saw the TV episode, and it completely blew me away.

It was the first time I had ever seen a depiction of an alien who was really alien. Most of them were either bug-eyed monsters or extremely contemporary humans. "Quarlo" (the name of the soldier) was the strangest thing that had ever been brought to the TV at that time.

I also kind of remember My Favorite Martian, but that wasn't really S-F, and not nearly as intense as The Outer Limits.

--bkl

[YankeyMCC]

14. Probably Star Trek

Or maybe Space:1999.

I'm sure I was watching reruns of The Original Series long before my first novel but even though I loved Trek I don't credit that with really briging me into science fiction.

I credit that to Jack L Chalker's, "Four Lords" novels. These were the first Science Fiction novels I read. I remember my friend handing me the first one and sitting in our lodge at Boy Scout camp devoring them, he had the whole series with him. I was caught, and I followed up quickly with his "Well World" series which is still a sentimental favorite of mine. When I go back and read them now (I do sometimes) I realize Jack isn't exactly one of the greats but like I said the books have sentimental value for me.

[Chovexani]

16. Return of the Jedi

I saw it in the theaters when I was really little.

It's a wonder I became such a sci-fi fan. :P

[bullimiami]

17. I remember the invaders (a quinn martin production)

which started in 67 so I was ....8

and its about time its about space which was super goofy

i looked it up and it ran only for 26 episodes i remember i loved it though.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-6357
that was 66-67

and of course star trek

and we were crazy about night gallery, the outer limits, oh everything.

man i completely forgot lost in space. what was the chimp with the big ears named?

[mike_c]

18. Burroughs, oh yeah, and Robt Heinlein

I remember reading "Starship Troopers" as a kid. Probably not my first SF, but one of the earliest I remember.

[paulk]

19. "The Runaway Robot"

by Lester del Rey - I was seven or eight. Then I discovered Heinlien and the sci fi section at the public library.

A funny story - or maybe a sad story - I grew up in a real small town with a real small library - there were three other people around my age who were into sci fi - there were only around a hundred fifty sci fi books in the library - and every single one had been checked out by all four of us between 1965-75. The last time I was back there was about 1995 - and most of those books hadn't been checked out in twenty years.

[qnr]

20. I'd say that falls into the sad category :/ n/t

[paulk]

21. it fits right into this thread

and the sci-fi forum in general. People don't read anymore.

One of the biggest attractions of reading sci-fi for me was that it gave my imagination freer reign than other fiction. The worlds created in my head through sci-fi were as much mine as the authors.

TV shows or movies are someone else's vision.

[qnr]

22. I feel the same way. That's also why I used to like the old Infocom

games so much.

[paulk]

23. I'm familiar with infocom - Zork, wasn't it?

I never played those, but I understand what you're saying.

I've always been interested in strategic war games, myself. I miss the days when there were just straight translations of those games to computer - just the hex maps and the tiles - I didn't need explosions and 3d animations - those were provided by my imagination and knowledge of the time periods involved.

ok - war games - not very PC, I know.

:)

[qnr]

24. Yes, Zork, among many others. Heheh, believe it or not, since I

posted that, I've actually started working on writing a text adventure. I haven't played any war games in a while, though I do have some loaded on my computer, like ASC, and others.

terry@timestorm: /home/terry
15:46:13 $ gaze what asc
asc:
ASC is a free, turn based strategy game. It is designed in the tradition of the Battle Isle series
from Bluebyte and is currently available for Windows and Linux.
ASC is distributed under the terms of the Gnu General Public License (the license Linux uses too),
which basically means the game is free, the complete source code is available and you can do
everything with it as long as it remains free.

[semillama]

25. earliest movie memory

was seeing Star Wars at the drive through.

Earliest sci-fi tv memories include syndicated Star Trek, Lost in Space, and of course: Space 1999, Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica.

My earliest sci-fi book memories include Heinlein and Asimov. I think I had read the robot stuff of Asimov by the time I was 9 or so. I know I finished Lord of the Rings when I was 8.

[ruthg]

27. A Wrinkle in Time..

but actually before that I believe it was Heinlein's children's book Time For The Stars...

ruth, old geek.

[HawkerHurricane]

28. Original Star Trek 'The Doomsday Machine'

that big ice cream cone shape gave me nightmares.

[Tikki]

29. The Invisible Man.....

The Invisible Man..... The (1933) version with Claude Rains.

I was six or seven; saw the movie on television. Scared me. I was also fascinated.


Tikki

[seasat]

30. Definitely the original Star Trek.

After watching the original series, I started drawing pictures of the Star Trek creatures in Kindergarden. My teacher became concerned that my pictures were so dark and full of what appeared to be monsters. After a conference with my Mom (an art teacher) she set them straight. My first Sci-Fi book was the Space Eagle. It was actually the first novel I ever read. I was hooked from then on out.

[Cerridwen]

31. War of the Worlds - late night tv when I was a kid

First SciFi book....a play I wrote in the 5th grade. I don't remember the first SciFi book.

Original Trek, of course.

[haele]

32. A Wrinkle in Time series, various Andre Norton books,

C.S. Lewis' Lensman Series. H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Manley Wade Wellman's "SilverJohn" short stories, some Asimov, some Bradbury. Fantesty was LeGuin, Lloyd Alexander, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis' Narnia, Poul Anderson. Also, some Scandinavian series based on young mideaval Vikings apparently taking part in a re-telling of some of the old Sagas, very dark and mystical that I don't remember because it was sooo long ago(author's name started with either an S or a T). Evangeline Walton's Mabonigian series.

TV - "It's About Time", "Fantastic Voyage", "Twilight Zone", "Outer Limits", "The Avengers", "The Prisoner" and of course, "Star Trek".

All between the ages of 6 and 14.

Haele

[Ripley]

33. The Andromeda Strain and The Martian Chronicles.

Those were the days...back when there were lots of good sci-fi shows on TV, too. Not this overly-made-up, sex-toy absurdities on the Sci-Fi channel today that are more like soap operas than thought provokers.

The original Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (does that count?) and all day Saturday Horror and Sci-Fi marathons. War of the Worlds scared the bejeebuz out of me!

[Love Bug]

34. Twilight Zone and My Favorite Martian

Oops, forgot about The Outer Limits!

I didn't start reading SF until Star Trek came along. I don't remember my first SF book, tho.

[Deja Q]

35. Star Trek (Kirk, naturally) and Buck Rogers...

Especially for Buck Rogers, forgive me. Yuck. While some stories were good and ultimately had some neat core ideas (even with today's standards), the production and developing those core ideas into full stories often fell flat (just ask Heironymous Fox :scared: ). Unlike Erin Gray, who was probably why the show got more than 13 episodes in the first place...

[okasha]

36. A Tom Corbett luchbox in second grade

But I actually got into sf late, in my thirties. I checked Time Enough for Love out of the library and didn't put it down for three days. When I went back to the shelves, I really didn't know anything about the genre, so I just started with Anderson and worked my way through to Zelazny while snapping Galaxy and Analog and F&SF up off the news store racks every month. The Total Immersion approach.

Okasha

[landdaddy]

37. Jules Verne for books and

Flash Gordon on TV.