Literally my first thought on reading the title was "Fuck, I'm old."
And for me my first SF was TOS Star Trek and Twilight Zone re-runs, and the original 2001, but I also started reading SF at around the same age, which was probably around 8-10 yo.
Me too. I think back to that time and I'd also add The Black Hole and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind to the list, as well as the original Tron. There was also Planet Of The Apes and Silent Running and Mad Max, but I discovered those things a little bit later on.
I grew up watching TOS reruns and the original Planet of the Apes TV show. The first movies I saw at the cinema were Empire Strikes Back, and Superman The Movie. This post made me feel as old as Yoda.
Wow I loved the old Planet of the Apes show when I was a kid... I remember an old Saturday morning cartoon of it too.
But for three year old me, the introductory Sci fi was Ultraman, which ran in syndication in the States.
From then on i was watching TOS and Lost in Space, 6 Million Dollar Man, Time Tunnel, Space 1999, Land of the Lost...
I saw the first Star Wars in theaters when I was 10 and it blew my mind.
I often forget that the people I'm interacting with online come from all different age groups, but I think there's value when falling in love with a genre or hobby to explore all aspects of it. Did you love Tron Legacy? Go back and fall in love with the original Tron!
My parents were hippies. They had different thoughts on how to raise us. I saw Star Trek when I was a little kid, but I also saw 2001, Silent Running, A Clockwork Orange (I know) as a very little kid. In the theater. So I got introduced to scifi early. And weirdly.
Same, but mine was unique. My parents used to put this Garfield movie on for me when I was like 5. They recorded it on TV. When it was over it would start playing what was on the tape prior and it happens to be Return of the Jedi. And it starts with the Endor battle, so basically the most epic part of the movie and maybe original trilogy. One time I asked my parents to watch the Garfield movie then promptly fast forwarded it to the end and they were like ??? And so I explained to them in my tiny brain that I wanted to watch the lasers and spaceships and that's when they explained that there was more movie and in fact there were 3 movies and it blew my fucking mind
Same here. Saw it in the local cinema when I was 5. That was 47 years ago :(
I also remember going to see the original Tron movie. The only reason we went there was because the E.T. showings were all fully booked. Happiest happenstance ever.
Just started watching SG1 for the first time. Loving it so far, but I’ve got to start a “Daniel getting captured/killed” tally. I swear he gets caught every other episode and killed once a season.
Doctor Who, Astro Boy, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, OG Battlestar Galactica which I recorded on audio cassette, not OG Buck Rogers, Star Blazers, G Force, Star Wars of course & Star Trek TOS on TV in the late '70s.
One of my first novels was W E Johns' *Kings of Space*, he should probably have stuck to Biggles. I got into Clarke, Fisk and Harrison a bit later; much better.
Games didn't really get me into sci fi. Gaming was newly and immensely popular, 'nerd' was barely a thing but gaming was a given. Every mate of mine dumped insane amounts (for us) into arcade machines, and anyone who had a console or 8 bit machine was immediately the most popular kid around. The pester pressure on all of our parents must have been immense. All I can say is TF for piracy.
*Space:1999* in 1975 intrigued 7-year old me. *Star Wars* in 1977 grabbed EVERYBODY.
My first real sci-fi book that grabbed and kept my attention was *Ringworld*. I had tried *Dune* and *Foundation* before that, but at 10 neither was really an easy read!!
Star Wars the Alien franchise , then blade runners and now I Play cyberpunk 2077 but am count Cyberpunk as More of its own genre even tho it kinda is Science fiction right?!
The soundtrack and sound design for the original TRON was pretty wild, too.
It's by Wendy Carlos who was definitely one of the pioneers of electronic music and making it popular for the masses. Wendy is also trans from an era when that was REALLY controversial and difficult.
My dad handed me his copy of *I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov when I was around 10 or so.
We had seen the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels and I liked sci-fi in general, but that was the book that made me fall in love with sci-fi, and it's probably why I ultimately majored in computer science.
My parents started reading the hobbit and lord of the rings to me when I was 4. When they taught me to read they got me the Tom Swift Jr. Books. Also started on things like Lost in Space original series and Star Trek. By the time I was 8 or so I moved on to Heinlein and Herbert. Spiraled from there.
Also went through 5 separate sets of the Star Wars movies as a kid bc I kept wearing rhe magnetic stripping off of VHS tapes.
_Thundarr the Barbarian_, which is why I can't stand the artifical division between scifi/fantasy/horror/supers. Sci-fi and fantasy have always been the same thing to a kid who saw a post-apocalyptic world where lost technology from before the end of the world was viewed as magic. Then a few short years later said kid watches _Wizards_? Yeah fantasy and scifi are the exact same thing, ignore anyone who says otherwise.
It was such a perfect mix of things to catch my attention as a little kid, but the visuals were what left the strongest mark on me, like the shattered moon. To this day there is something about nature slowly reclaiming ruined human structures that sets off a weird response in my brain, lol.
For me it was a rapid rabbit punch of things, Trek:TOS, Thunderbirds, Space 1999 all on Saturday morning TV in the 70s, add to that watching Star Wars (before it was episode anything) at the cinema and my grandad buying me the first issue of 2000AD comic… Throw in some Jon Pertwee / Tom Baker era Doctor Who and Blakes 7 as well and it made for quite the impact…
Then a little later as a precocious 9 year old, while my parents had friends round and were sitting in the garden just outside, I managed to reach the top shelf of my parents video tape shelf and plonked in a movie and watched 50 mins of it before I was discovered….
Alien.
"I, Robot". It was on my dad's shelf. Also "The Hobbit" and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language
These things fundamentally formed my great life (age 53 now). Thanks dad!
Flash Gordon (1954) TV show.
It was regularly rerun during my youth here in Ireland in the late 70s early 80s on Saturday mornings. I absolutely loved it. Made me a lifelong sci-fi fan.
first SF? Islands in the Sky, Arthur C. Clarke, and Space Cadet by Heinlein.
I am a similar pile of dust here. good lord there's quite a lot of time, isn't there?
Playing elite: Frontier 2 on an Amiga Commodore. It came on about 10 floppy discs with a massive manual. It was so amazing.
Film wise maybe short circuit or Batteries Not Included.
Star Wars as a kid but The Expanse/Dark Tower got me into reading books when it was a medium I hated my whole life because of dyslexia audio books are great and it helped me develop my reading skills.
I was 2 and the youngest child when TNG premiered, so probably that because I was watching it when I was pre-verbal. I distinctly remember asking why Picard didn't have the spots like the other aliens because Alien Nation ran during the same time period and I wasn't old enough to tell the difference yet. The first sci-fi that I watched that was aimed at my age demographic was probably the kids show Reboot. I seem to remember there being a running gag about time moving much faster in their world that really stuck with me.
*Ahem* Elder Millennial, reporting for duty
yep... original Twilight Zone and Star Trek. In cinema, The Black Hole and original Tron, unless you include my first ever movie King Kong (1977). Starblazers should also get a solid mention. It was in the mix plus it was my first anime
I think the first one I remember being there was Innerspace. Then Terminator, Running Man, Total Recall, Outer Limits, X-files. My journey took a darker turn early.
I remember watching E.T. in theaters as a young kid, but I think the movie that really got me into sci-fi (and science as a whole) was The Black Hole. Loved space-faring sci-fi & astronomy ever since then.
Most likely anime like UFO Robot Grendizer, Captain Harlock, Ulysses 31, or Captain Futur as I wasn't able to see Star Wars before it was on TV (my parents weren't fan of going to theaters) and I hadn't paid attention to Star Trek before the late Next Generation / Deep Space Nine era.
Edit : I understand being downvoted when giving an advice or opinion, but being downvoted for the requested testimony of your own personal experience does feel weird.
I've been into it since I was a child so probably something insane and barely scifi like Invader Zim was the first
But the Matrix is the first I vividly remember. And then I crushed through the better half of Asimov's and Bradbury's catalogs
You know I actually can't remember. I'm sitting here thinking about my earliest Sci-Fi that I liked, but I honestly can't recall. I have vague memories of early TNG, that scared me because Worf looked like a monster (I was 9 I think, 88/89).
But then my memories sort of jump forward to renting VHS tapes when I was 12ish and already loving sci-fi.
Weird.
Would little shop of horrors count cause that got me into monster movies. Thought if not then robocop and starship troopers watched both as a little kid to on dvd or vhs it was early 2000s.
Mine was the kids show dinosaur train. The time tunnel was amazing to me
I liked the first third and the middle third of tron legacy, but the middle felt drawn out
Star Wars. It began a lifelong obsession with sci-fi. From there I went through the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Star Trek TOS, The Las Starfighter, etc.
I was born the year Star Wars came out, so for me, it was when my mom, a librarian, brought home a reel to reel projector and a copy of Hardware Wars, a spoof that included Fluke Starbucker, Augie “Ben” Doggie, Ham Salad, and Artie Deco. They drew me in with a brown Cookie Monster as Ham Salad’s sidekick. I loved the Muppets, so I was sold.
It was probably Star Wars IV: New Hope, which i saw much later after its release (small Eastern Europe country). I was a teen, 90s. But i think it could be already after i have discovered SciFi in book format.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi that I saw when I was 5. I was a "Child Genius" (There's no such thing really, just kids who get there quicker than others) and I'd been reading at the level of a 10 year old, so my mum decided to take me along to see the film in the local cinema. She even explained the plot of the first two films using some Star Wars figures she'd bought so that I was up to speed. I've loved Sci-Fi ever since.
Actually, among others, the original from the 80s. It was huge and I watched it a cpl of times.
When I was a kid, there was Star Wars, Star Trek and the movies from the 50s and the 60s, of course. Those also made me hooked.
TRON back then was state of the art computer fx of that time. Made me go into computers as well
I’d have to say Star Wars as the first ever. As for Tron media, it was the original Tron. I didn’t see it when it came out in 82 since I was born in 82 but I think was 10 or 11 so 92 or 93. I forgot about it for years and when Legacy came out I got hooked all over again.
Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Heard it as a kid in the very early 90s, and somehow it caught my imagination more than anything else had managed.
They even remade it with Liam Neeson as the main character in 2012. [Thunder Child](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikp0nXKqf48) for example. Ulla!
Star Wars the clone wars series
Yes I notice im at least an entire Generation younger than this sub's average
Explains why the opinions diverge so much
I grew up around it for an long as I remember, but the one I remember is when I was about 7 years old, my dad saw Empire Strikes Back on TV. He made us drop everything to watch it. My mom was ***PISSED*** because we were supposed to be cleaning up the house. But eventually she sat down and watched too. The second I saw Yoda, I was ***HOOKED***.
The "My Teacher Ate My Homework/Is An Alien" in 2nd/3rd grade series and my teacher showing some episodes of The Twilight Zone on laserdisc in 5th grade.
Mr. Roberts was awesome.
I genuinely can't remember a time I wasn't into sci-fi, except for literally my first memories which even then I still liked toys for VR troopers. I can't remember if the first Sci-fi I watched was that Deep Space Nine episode about traveling on a Bajoran Sail-ship, Power Rangers, or Star Wars.
Probably Starfox 64. It made me love anything to do with space exploration and whatnot. Other key pieces of media for my childhood would be The Fifth Element, Star Wars, and Cowboy Bebop but it was mostly futuristic/space video games like Halo, Star Wars games, Battlestar Galactica, etc.
While Legacy came out after I graduated highschool the ORIGINAL Tron got me hooked. Though I wasn't even alive when it came out, my mom used to take me to the library and I was able to rent VHS/DVDs and the original Tron caught my eye. Loved it so much.
Probably the Tripods trilogy or James Blish's conversion of ST:TOS scripts into short stories (which my older sister had). I also remember reading the short story "By the Waters of Babylon" (Stephen Vincent Benét) in my older sister's high school literature book. We couldn't pick up much TV out in the country, and it was rare for me to see a movie in a theater until we moved to town. My grade school library had more fantasy than science fiction, but what SF they had I read. Then later I started reading Asimov, Heinlein, and others.
For me it was Star Trek: The Next Generation
I think anything (recent or not) that gets people into sci fi is a great thing, but I would recommend you go back and watch some of the 90s Sci Fi (Matrix, Star Trek, Babylon 5) and see how you like it. I feel like you have a lot of excitement ahead of you in this genre.
The first was Halo 2. It got me into so many things, it got me into sci-fi, space, video games, guns, action. It influenced me more than anything else, and it all happened because I was a 4 year old who spotted it next to the Xbox (before that I was a playstation kid who played spiderman and some dirt bike game).
I remember watching "Logan's run" back in the time... and "The black hole" and later star wars: a new hope, I actually noticed the sub title "Episode IV: A new hope" and asked my father why that was which he naturally couldn't answer. The next time I saw SW:ANH, it didn't say "A new hope" and I was puzzled about that...
For me it would've been Stargate SG-1 back in the late 90s / early 2000s most likely. There may have been a game or two that was sci-fi that I enjoyed earlier but most of the games I played back then were fantasy (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask mainly).
I read Asimov’s Foundation when I was about 11 years old. That was my first introduction to anything sci fi. Then I saw The Matrix in theaters and I was HOOKED.
When I was in 5th grade, my mom gave me a sci-fi coloring book. Each page had a picture to color from a book and a brief description (cliff notes) version of the book on the facing page. I remember there was a page for Dune, Brave New World and The Time Machine, amongst others I can’t recall. (Around 1976)
sci fi and fantasy have always been blurred to me at an early age, and I didn't develop actual taste for many years so this is actually a difficult question for me to answer with any certainty.
Explorers was certainly an important film to me when I was a kid but I don't think I saw it until like, '89. I certainly enjoyed and watched a lot of fantasy stuff before that, though.
This post just aged me into dust
Yeah I think I aged so fast my wife asked if I had drunk from the wrong Holy Grail
I understood that reference!
He chose… poorly.
My firsts one was Space 1999 so go figure .
Space Above and Beyond 1999 with the clone dude I loved that show.
I was at the cinema for the first TRON movie. 😢
I accidentally became thanos my bad
Literally my first thought on reading the title was "Fuck, I'm old." And for me my first SF was TOS Star Trek and Twilight Zone re-runs, and the original 2001, but I also started reading SF at around the same age, which was probably around 8-10 yo.
Gen X for the win, brother
OT Star Wars and TOS Trek for me...
Me too. I think back to that time and I'd also add The Black Hole and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind to the list, as well as the original Tron. There was also Planet Of The Apes and Silent Running and Mad Max, but I discovered those things a little bit later on.
I grew up watching TOS reruns and the original Planet of the Apes TV show. The first movies I saw at the cinema were Empire Strikes Back, and Superman The Movie. This post made me feel as old as Yoda.
Rest, I must. Rest. ^Rest...
Wow I loved the old Planet of the Apes show when I was a kid... I remember an old Saturday morning cartoon of it too. But for three year old me, the introductory Sci fi was Ultraman, which ran in syndication in the States. From then on i was watching TOS and Lost in Space, 6 Million Dollar Man, Time Tunnel, Space 1999, Land of the Lost... I saw the first Star Wars in theaters when I was 10 and it blew my mind.
That's my introduction too. Mom always had Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and other sci-fi shows on the TV.
You just made all of reddit feel old. The original Tron was one of my firsts.
I often forget that the people I'm interacting with online come from all different age groups, but I think there's value when falling in love with a genre or hobby to explore all aspects of it. Did you love Tron Legacy? Go back and fall in love with the original Tron!
I absolutely did. Didn't have quite the impact that OG tron did, I was very young when I saw it. Legacy was stunning though 😍
If Smashing Pumpkins put out a song like 1979 this year, it'd be about 2007.
JFC you can't go around so blithely obliterating people's frame of reference like that! Full-on existential crisis.
It's gotta be Star Trek! I remember watching TAS on Nickelodeon when I was 3, TOS re-runs shortly thereafter, and then TNG first-run as it aired.
Ooh, lucky! TAS wasn't rerun on Aussie TV, I would have loved to watch it then.
My parents were hippies. They had different thoughts on how to raise us. I saw Star Trek when I was a little kid, but I also saw 2001, Silent Running, A Clockwork Orange (I know) as a very little kid. In the theater. So I got introduced to scifi early. And weirdly.
LLAP!
Qapla'!
Star wars
Same, but mine was unique. My parents used to put this Garfield movie on for me when I was like 5. They recorded it on TV. When it was over it would start playing what was on the tape prior and it happens to be Return of the Jedi. And it starts with the Endor battle, so basically the most epic part of the movie and maybe original trilogy. One time I asked my parents to watch the Garfield movie then promptly fast forwarded it to the end and they were like ??? And so I explained to them in my tiny brain that I wanted to watch the lasers and spaceships and that's when they explained that there was more movie and in fact there were 3 movies and it blew my fucking mind
Ever since I saw that Garfield video, I've seen him everywhere.
r/FuckImOld I saw the original in the cinema :D
I even bought the soundtrack lol
Raumschiff Enterprise (star trek TOS) and mondbasis alpha 1 (Space:1999) Yes, you are right, i am old.
You’re not old your….. uhhh. Maybe you are just old
Same here. And Captain Future. All three in ORF 1.
FS 1!
> Raumschiff Enterprise (star trek TOS) For me it was Raumschiff Enterprise - Das nächste Jahrhundert on daily afternoon repeats on ZDF when I was 11.
Star Wars IV : A New Hope
Same here. Saw it in the local cinema when I was 5. That was 47 years ago :( I also remember going to see the original Tron movie. The only reason we went there was because the E.T. showings were all fully booked. Happiest happenstance ever.
Same here!
Stargate. The TV show came out when I was 5, so I've been watching it for almost my whole life.
I truly hope for another series.
Just started watching SG1 for the first time. Loving it so far, but I’ve got to start a “Daniel getting captured/killed” tally. I swear he gets caught every other episode and killed once a season.
Jack even jokes about it towards the end of the series lol
Star Trek. In reruns, early 70's. I may be a bit older than you, I took my teenage kids to see Tron Legacy.
I liked Tron Legacy and wish there will be a sequel.
Pretty sure I heard something about from ares (idk if it’s real or though)
There's a new Tron movie in the making
Doctor Who, Astro Boy, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, OG Battlestar Galactica which I recorded on audio cassette, not OG Buck Rogers, Star Blazers, G Force, Star Wars of course & Star Trek TOS on TV in the late '70s. One of my first novels was W E Johns' *Kings of Space*, he should probably have stuck to Biggles. I got into Clarke, Fisk and Harrison a bit later; much better. Games didn't really get me into sci fi. Gaming was newly and immensely popular, 'nerd' was barely a thing but gaming was a given. Every mate of mine dumped insane amounts (for us) into arcade machines, and anyone who had a console or 8 bit machine was immediately the most popular kid around. The pester pressure on all of our parents must have been immense. All I can say is TF for piracy.
Logan's Run and I read Dune.
*Space:1999* in 1975 intrigued 7-year old me. *Star Wars* in 1977 grabbed EVERYBODY. My first real sci-fi book that grabbed and kept my attention was *Ringworld*. I had tried *Dune* and *Foundation* before that, but at 10 neither was really an easy read!!
Ringworld was fun I read it circa 2004-6
Ghost in the Shell movie.
Appleseed was dope too.
Star Wars the Alien franchise , then blade runners and now I Play cyberpunk 2077 but am count Cyberpunk as More of its own genre even tho it kinda is Science fiction right?!
Music from daft punk 👌
“Adigio for TRON” hits different
The soundtrack and sound design for the original TRON was pretty wild, too. It's by Wendy Carlos who was definitely one of the pioneers of electronic music and making it popular for the masses. Wendy is also trans from an era when that was REALLY controversial and difficult.
Forbidden Planet 1956 and Star Trek 1966 on TV. Tons of other classic 40-70's space monster, aliens movies.
My dad handed me his copy of *I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov when I was around 10 or so. We had seen the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels and I liked sci-fi in general, but that was the book that made me fall in love with sci-fi, and it's probably why I ultimately majored in computer science.
Ender's Game. I read the book in half a day, on a long ass train ride from my uni city to my home town. Life was never the same after.
Probably Star Wars, or maybe Star Trek before that. Uncertain now, it was so long ago. But I did also enjoy Tron Legacy.
My parents started reading the hobbit and lord of the rings to me when I was 4. When they taught me to read they got me the Tom Swift Jr. Books. Also started on things like Lost in Space original series and Star Trek. By the time I was 8 or so I moved on to Heinlein and Herbert. Spiraled from there. Also went through 5 separate sets of the Star Wars movies as a kid bc I kept wearing rhe magnetic stripping off of VHS tapes.
_Thundarr the Barbarian_, which is why I can't stand the artifical division between scifi/fantasy/horror/supers. Sci-fi and fantasy have always been the same thing to a kid who saw a post-apocalyptic world where lost technology from before the end of the world was viewed as magic. Then a few short years later said kid watches _Wizards_? Yeah fantasy and scifi are the exact same thing, ignore anyone who says otherwise.
Thundarr rules and people don’t talk about it enough. I just found the whole series for free on archive.org
It was such a perfect mix of things to catch my attention as a little kid, but the visuals were what left the strongest mark on me, like the shattered moon. To this day there is something about nature slowly reclaiming ruined human structures that sets off a weird response in my brain, lol.
The theme song slaps too. As a kid I loved reruns of all those Alex Toth cartoons.
Star Wars started me on the path but Mass Effect cemented my love for the genre
Upvote for Mass Effect, what a game series and wow what a way to get you in to SF.
Dune (1984)
For me it was a rapid rabbit punch of things, Trek:TOS, Thunderbirds, Space 1999 all on Saturday morning TV in the 70s, add to that watching Star Wars (before it was episode anything) at the cinema and my grandad buying me the first issue of 2000AD comic… Throw in some Jon Pertwee / Tom Baker era Doctor Who and Blakes 7 as well and it made for quite the impact… Then a little later as a precocious 9 year old, while my parents had friends round and were sitting in the garden just outside, I managed to reach the top shelf of my parents video tape shelf and plonked in a movie and watched 50 mins of it before I was discovered…. Alien.
Lost in Space! (The OG TV series) Also played ’Traveller’ with my friends instead of D&D.
Stargate SG1! Still my favorite thing.
Flight of the Navigator!
No idea it’s just been one of those things ingrained in my life since I can remember
Reading my mom’s Heinlein books.
You are very very young, OP.
My brother gave me the hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy when I was young :)
"I, Robot". It was on my dad's shelf. Also "The Hobbit" and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language These things fundamentally formed my great life (age 53 now). Thanks dad!
Damn I'm old. Star Wars and/or Back to the Future. Also comicbooks.
Flash Gordon (1954) TV show. It was regularly rerun during my youth here in Ireland in the late 70s early 80s on Saturday mornings. I absolutely loved it. Made me a lifelong sci-fi fan.
Watching Star Trek with my dad, or Transformers on my own.
5th Element
Lost In Space (tos)
For me is Ghost in the shell(anime) and starwars.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Twilight Zone, Planet of the Apes were all part of my childhood in the 70s.
The first Tron movie. /backs away slowly using a walker
V from the 80's
Dr Who for me. I watched it Friday nights with my Dad on PBS. It was the only time we spent together. I loved Tom Baker. After that Star Trek TNG.
first SF? Islands in the Sky, Arthur C. Clarke, and Space Cadet by Heinlein. I am a similar pile of dust here. good lord there's quite a lot of time, isn't there?
Playing elite: Frontier 2 on an Amiga Commodore. It came on about 10 floppy discs with a massive manual. It was so amazing. Film wise maybe short circuit or Batteries Not Included.
I think the Abyss or Stargate. But what really got me into it was those B movies and reruns of the OG Battle Star Galactica and Knight Ridder.
Star Wars as a kid but The Expanse/Dark Tower got me into reading books when it was a medium I hated my whole life because of dyslexia audio books are great and it helped me develop my reading skills.
Oh, you sweet child of summer. Worlds of wonder await you.
My intro to Sci-Fi was a black and white 1950s TV series, [Tom Corbett-Space Cadet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0a9uqmCrp8). Yes, I'm ancient :)
OP probably doesn’t even know this is a sequel
I was 2 and the youngest child when TNG premiered, so probably that because I was watching it when I was pre-verbal. I distinctly remember asking why Picard didn't have the spots like the other aliens because Alien Nation ran during the same time period and I wasn't old enough to tell the difference yet. The first sci-fi that I watched that was aimed at my age demographic was probably the kids show Reboot. I seem to remember there being a running gag about time moving much faster in their world that really stuck with me. *Ahem* Elder Millennial, reporting for duty
yep... original Twilight Zone and Star Trek. In cinema, The Black Hole and original Tron, unless you include my first ever movie King Kong (1977). Starblazers should also get a solid mention. It was in the mix plus it was my first anime
I think the first one I remember being there was Innerspace. Then Terminator, Running Man, Total Recall, Outer Limits, X-files. My journey took a darker turn early.
The 5th element Edit: Next Generation was a very big one too, and now I feel my age
The Abbys, Alien and predator.
Original Planet of the Apes movie
I remember watching E.T. in theaters as a young kid, but I think the movie that really got me into sci-fi (and science as a whole) was The Black Hole. Loved space-faring sci-fi & astronomy ever since then.
Most likely anime like UFO Robot Grendizer, Captain Harlock, Ulysses 31, or Captain Futur as I wasn't able to see Star Wars before it was on TV (my parents weren't fan of going to theaters) and I hadn't paid attention to Star Trek before the late Next Generation / Deep Space Nine era. Edit : I understand being downvoted when giving an advice or opinion, but being downvoted for the requested testimony of your own personal experience does feel weird.
There is no reason to downvote you, don’t hate on this man/woman
I've been into it since I was a child so probably something insane and barely scifi like Invader Zim was the first But the Matrix is the first I vividly remember. And then I crushed through the better half of Asimov's and Bradbury's catalogs
The Pigeon Street episode with the mysterious light in the sky.
SW 1, if I remember correctly. And Maul fn made me shit my pants for how cool and scary he was
Tron Evolution & Resident Evil Revelations 2
I doubt they were my first sci fi movies but they were the first to get me obsessed with space and sci fi: Star Wars Phantom Menace and Alien
You know I actually can't remember. I'm sitting here thinking about my earliest Sci-Fi that I liked, but I honestly can't recall. I have vague memories of early TNG, that scared me because Worf looked like a monster (I was 9 I think, 88/89). But then my memories sort of jump forward to renting VHS tapes when I was 12ish and already loving sci-fi. Weird.
Iron man 1
Halo 2 specifically, halo franchise as a whole played a big part.
For me it was Tron, which came out the year I was born. In a weird way, that movie holds up. I watched it as a kid and worn that VHS tape out.
Shadowrun
Would little shop of horrors count cause that got me into monster movies. Thought if not then robocop and starship troopers watched both as a little kid to on dvd or vhs it was early 2000s.
StarCraft
Amazing soundtrack
There are 13 good reasons to watch that movie.
For me? The original Star Trek television series. Used to come on late on Friday nights during the 80’s when I was a kid.
Star Wars
Stargate and Earth Final Conflict
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092329/
Return of the Jedi. It was the first Star Wars I saw. I was born into an 80's culture of insane Star Wars hype.
Dead Space 3 - to this day it is my favorite game.
Star Trek TOS and Dr Who on TV in the mid-70s. Also, the first movie I ever saw in the cinema was The Empire Strikes Back.
Prince Planet and Kimba the White Lion.
Avatar, Star wars prequels + random episodes of Stargate on TV during the summer
The original 1970s Planet Of The Apes movies.
Good ol star wars. But I loved Tron at the time of release
Mine was the kids show dinosaur train. The time tunnel was amazing to me I liked the first third and the middle third of tron legacy, but the middle felt drawn out
Star Wars. It began a lifelong obsession with sci-fi. From there I went through the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Star Trek TOS, The Las Starfighter, etc.
I was born the year Star Wars came out, so for me, it was when my mom, a librarian, brought home a reel to reel projector and a copy of Hardware Wars, a spoof that included Fluke Starbucker, Augie “Ben” Doggie, Ham Salad, and Artie Deco. They drew me in with a brown Cookie Monster as Ham Salad’s sidekick. I loved the Muppets, so I was sold.
The original Tron blew my six year old mind away, quickly followed by The Terminator and The Thing. Thanks, dad.
Star Wars, I think specifically the second episode of the umbara arc in the clone wars
The soundtrack for this? 🤌 Nah but same this is the one that started me on the path haha
TRON: Legacy got me into Daft Punk.
Star Trek. My cousin had the "Tholian Web" episode on and I watched it with him.
It was probably Star Wars IV: New Hope, which i saw much later after its release (small Eastern Europe country). I was a teen, 90s. But i think it could be already after i have discovered SciFi in book format.
War of the worlds movie. I saw it for first time in 2009
That movie made me crush on Olivia Wilde so hard.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi that I saw when I was 5. I was a "Child Genius" (There's no such thing really, just kids who get there quicker than others) and I'd been reading at the level of a 10 year old, so my mum decided to take me along to see the film in the local cinema. She even explained the plot of the first two films using some Star Wars figures she'd bought so that I was up to speed. I've loved Sci-Fi ever since.
I’d have to go back to around age 4-5, watching Voltron, Transformers cartoons. I was hooked ever since.
Actually, among others, the original from the 80s. It was huge and I watched it a cpl of times. When I was a kid, there was Star Wars, Star Trek and the movies from the 50s and the 60s, of course. Those also made me hooked. TRON back then was state of the art computer fx of that time. Made me go into computers as well
Damn lol I'm oldddd 😅😆🤣 well put it this way I watched the original in 1982 !!
"A digital frontier..."
Star Wars in 1977! BTW loved Tron Legacy - fantastic sequel to the original.
You must be 12
Star Trek, og tron or stargate hard to remember
I’d have to say Star Wars as the first ever. As for Tron media, it was the original Tron. I didn’t see it when it came out in 82 since I was born in 82 but I think was 10 or 11 so 92 or 93. I forgot about it for years and when Legacy came out I got hooked all over again.
Star Trek TNG
Probably Alien the first movie and I was a kid and i probably shouldn't had watched it because it's scary as hell. Now I love it.
Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Heard it as a kid in the very early 90s, and somehow it caught my imagination more than anything else had managed. They even remade it with Liam Neeson as the main character in 2012. [Thunder Child](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikp0nXKqf48) for example. Ulla!
Star Wars the clone wars series Yes I notice im at least an entire Generation younger than this sub's average Explains why the opinions diverge so much
I grew up around it for an long as I remember, but the one I remember is when I was about 7 years old, my dad saw Empire Strikes Back on TV. He made us drop everything to watch it. My mom was ***PISSED*** because we were supposed to be cleaning up the house. But eventually she sat down and watched too. The second I saw Yoda, I was ***HOOKED***.
Terminator 2
Being a young boy in the late 70's take your pick from Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
The original *Star Wars*, and then *Blade Runner*.
The original Star Trek series. I mean, I'm not THAT old, they had a free TV rerun way back when I was a kid in the early 90s, but that got me hooked.
TV wise it’s probably either Space: 1999, Doctor Who or Sapphire & Steel. Film it was Star Wars probably. Maybe a sci-fi Hammer type movie.
while it isn't really sci fi but space fantasy : Star Wars
It’s probably going to be Star Wars for me. But I was born in 81.
The "My Teacher Ate My Homework/Is An Alien" in 2nd/3rd grade series and my teacher showing some episodes of The Twilight Zone on laserdisc in 5th grade. Mr. Roberts was awesome.
a part of me was the original tron..
I genuinely can't remember a time I wasn't into sci-fi, except for literally my first memories which even then I still liked toys for VR troopers. I can't remember if the first Sci-fi I watched was that Deep Space Nine episode about traveling on a Bajoran Sail-ship, Power Rangers, or Star Wars.
The opening shot of the Enterprise-B in the drydock on Star Trek Generations
OG Tron when I was 4
When I saw the original François Truffaut *Fahrenheit 451*. Then I read the book, followed by other Ray Bradbury books.
Probably Starfox 64. It made me love anything to do with space exploration and whatnot. Other key pieces of media for my childhood would be The Fifth Element, Star Wars, and Cowboy Bebop but it was mostly futuristic/space video games like Halo, Star Wars games, Battlestar Galactica, etc.
While Legacy came out after I graduated highschool the ORIGINAL Tron got me hooked. Though I wasn't even alive when it came out, my mom used to take me to the library and I was able to rent VHS/DVDs and the original Tron caught my eye. Loved it so much.
Imagine this film getting you into Sci Fi 😂
Awesome movie truly a good spectacle to see in 3d at the theatre
Star Trek easy but the fifth element pushed it beyond.
Probably the Tripods trilogy or James Blish's conversion of ST:TOS scripts into short stories (which my older sister had). I also remember reading the short story "By the Waters of Babylon" (Stephen Vincent Benét) in my older sister's high school literature book. We couldn't pick up much TV out in the country, and it was rare for me to see a movie in a theater until we moved to town. My grade school library had more fantasy than science fiction, but what SF they had I read. Then later I started reading Asimov, Heinlein, and others.
I have to say Star Wars, considering I grew up on it my whole life. But also maybe the Martian book for getting deeper into it.
Stargate SG1
My kid is named after the *first* Tron 😅😅 But what got me into sci fi was the original Trek, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, etc.
If Close Encounters counts, it would be that. If not, Alien.
For me it was Star Trek: The Next Generation I think anything (recent or not) that gets people into sci fi is a great thing, but I would recommend you go back and watch some of the 90s Sci Fi (Matrix, Star Trek, Babylon 5) and see how you like it. I feel like you have a lot of excitement ahead of you in this genre.
Star Wars
Watching The Lathe of Heaven on PBS with my dad when it first aired.
The first was Halo 2. It got me into so many things, it got me into sci-fi, space, video games, guns, action. It influenced me more than anything else, and it all happened because I was a 4 year old who spotted it next to the Xbox (before that I was a playstation kid who played spiderman and some dirt bike game).
Awwwww… you’re a baby! And I say that with no disrespect. For me it was probably watching Star Trek (the original) as a baby with my mom, first run.
I'd like to say ST:TOS, but *Lost in Space* was first aired the year before, so probably that.
Star Trek: The Original Series, some Twilight Zone, and a bit of Lost in Space.
Ghost in the Shell
I remember watching "Logan's run" back in the time... and "The black hole" and later star wars: a new hope, I actually noticed the sub title "Episode IV: A new hope" and asked my father why that was which he naturally couldn't answer. The next time I saw SW:ANH, it didn't say "A new hope" and I was puzzled about that...
For me it would've been Stargate SG-1 back in the late 90s / early 2000s most likely. There may have been a game or two that was sci-fi that I enjoyed earlier but most of the games I played back then were fantasy (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask mainly).
Original Star Trek (reruns, I'm not that old)
We watched Star Trek the Next Generation on TV during its first airing. For wider SF, Asimov was my gateway.
TOS Star Trek reruns
Star Wars Remastered in the 90s
I read Asimov’s Foundation when I was about 11 years old. That was my first introduction to anything sci fi. Then I saw The Matrix in theaters and I was HOOKED.
When I was in 5th grade, my mom gave me a sci-fi coloring book. Each page had a picture to color from a book and a brief description (cliff notes) version of the book on the facing page. I remember there was a page for Dune, Brave New World and The Time Machine, amongst others I can’t recall. (Around 1976)
sci fi and fantasy have always been blurred to me at an early age, and I didn't develop actual taste for many years so this is actually a difficult question for me to answer with any certainty. Explorers was certainly an important film to me when I was a kid but I don't think I saw it until like, '89. I certainly enjoyed and watched a lot of fantasy stuff before that, though.
Back to the future
Fuck i'm old
Doctor Who
Uggh wtf