Your earliest sci-fi memory...

[Quokka]

My earliest memories are definately the cartoons... with Astroboy, Battle of the Planets, Robotech and Starblazers among them.

Then the movies such as When Worlds Collide and It Came From Beneath The Sea

As for novel's my first memories are of The Tripods, The Legionary Quartet and earlier still a series called something like Earth 2 or second earth?

 

[Robert M. Blevins]

This is an easy one, indeed.

Age 10...Catholic school in Roseburg, Oregon. Strict nuns, wearing full black and white habits, and carrying hickory rulers...

I read '1984' and it scared the hell out of me.
Read 'The Martian Chronicles,' and I felt better.

So, I started writing my own sci-fi and trying to pass it off on the nuns as essays. Didn't work, except on this younger nun. The others would give me the ruler and sometimes drag me to the priest for lectures on 'proper writing.'

'Say Goodbye To The Sun'
'Dimensions' (with Geoff Nelder)
'The 13th Day of Christmas.'
'The Corona Incident'
I authored these books. They're all sci-fi, of course. (LOL)
I can't remember the names of the nuns who told me 'no,' but I will never forget the one who encouraged me: Thank you, Sister Maureena...wherever you are.

 

[Loner]

That was a decent show for about half a season before it became "Monster of the Week."

That is not a problem unique to the earlier TV shows: SeaQuest DSV anyone?

And hurrah for sister Maureena, Mr Blevins! It's just as easy to be nice as nasty and so much more productive!

Hah! I read 1984 and it made the 21st century scare the hell out of me! I don't like where we're heading!

 

[Nuria]

The earliest memory I have was....star wars!

In fourth grade, my mom forced me to see 'A New Hope' when it came out in theatres again. She and my aunt were really excited, but I thought Star Wars sounded stupid. Then my mom told me there was a "princess in it" and I was like, "Oh, okay!" and agreed to see it. I remember sitting in my seat absolutely astonished. I remember my mouth was literally hanging open when the credits rolled. HAHA!

Then, I got obsessed with reading the "Junior Jedi Knights" series and developed a big crush on Anakin Solo. I used to play Star Wars in my room when I was bored (only child...lol!) and I was always an academy student who was friends with Tahiri and Anakin. I was SOOO depressed two years ago when I went on the boards on Starwars.com and discovered Anakin had been killed off. I felt like a childhood friend had died :/

DORK!

My mom and I also used to watch Earth: Final Conflict and Star Trek DS9 and Voyager together. *Sigh* Good times.

 

[j d worthington]

Hi, Nuria, and welcome to the Chronicles. Glad to see you jumping right in... by all means, browse around, get to know people, and put in your comments/questions/likes/dislikes/opinions or any silliness you'd like to share... Have fun, and I hope to see you around!

 

[Triceratops]

I do believe I really got behind Lost in Space. Especially Judy. Gak!

Tri

 

[K. Riehl]

My first and extremely scary contact was Quartermass and Pit. I had nightmares about 3ft insects jumping all over me. I was 9 or thereabouts.
First book was Slan and I never stopped reading. Going on 4,000 volumes in the collection now.

 

[Loner]

First book was Slan and I never stopped reading. Going on 4,000 volumes in the collection now.

That's what I like to hear!

 

[KZCat]

I think there may be a stray clip from Star Trek rattling around in the o'l neurons, but the one that is the "land mark" is when I stumbled across "The Time Machine by H.G.Wells" in the local library. At the time I was probably around 7 years old.

The book was a bit to high level for me to read but I talked my mother in to reading it for me (<voice type="Southpark:Cartman">but maaa</voice>).

She thought I would quickly tire of it after the first night. But I remember night after night asking her to read more of it. In later years she spoke of reading it to me and being amazed that I could remember where to pickup where she had left off reading it the previous night.

I remember being a little scared of the Morlocks and she asking if I wanted her to stop, but I would ask to hear more because I had to know what happened.

That was the last book she read to me at night. From that point on she turned the nightly book reading over to my own devices and I went on from there.

Ones after that were Heinlein, and Silverberg, and especially Asimov...

 

[KZCat]

... Lost In Space had an interesting pilot but went down hill rapidly. ...

Ooooo, how I learned to hate Dr. Smith!! Every week I wanted to see them just push him out the airlock!

There is a fellow at the place I work who I've dubbed, "Dr. Smith" -- it fits him so perfectly.

 

[ScottSF]

Thinking hard on this one. I really think it was a Sid and Marty Kroft show called Lost Saucer with Jim Neighbors a.k.a Gomer Pyle. Him and, was it Ruth Buzzy?, had these silver suits with buttons on the front. I even remember part of the song. "Where are ya goin to, Lost Saucer!. . . oi. I remember some crazy stuff. I even remember a Kroft show called Ghost Busters waaaaaaaaay before Bill Murray donned the suit. Only these Ghost Busters were dressed like 40s Gangsters and one of them was an Ape.

 

[Loner]

I even remember a Kroft show called Ghost Busters waaaaaaaaay before Bill Murray donned the suit. Only these Ghost Busters were dressed like 40s Gangsters and one of them was an Ape.

Ooh, that rings a teeny little bell in the back of my mind.
Was it part of something called the Kroft Super Show?
I also seem to remember something about Electro Woman and Dyna Girl - a kind of mix of Wonder Woman with a Robin-like sidekick. It was horribly cheap and tacky but very tongue-in-cheek. If I recall correctly (which is rare) it was supposed to be educational in some way...

 

[ScottSF]

I remember Electro Woman and Dyna Girl and their song. I also remember Dr. Shrinker. I have a sick memory for tunes and lyrics from way back. Well I Only remember the first line usually. "Dr. Shrinker, Dr. Shrinker, he's a mad man with an Evil mind!" or "When you hear the horn, help is on the way, clap your hands and say "Hooray" for Wonder Bug the magnificient Wonder buuuug!" I don't remember the exact adjective for wonderbug but I'm pretty sure it was four syllables. Or "Where the Ghooost Busters, he's Spencer he's Tracy, I'm Kong." The funny part was The Ape's name was Tracy I think.

 

[ScottSF]

oh man, this is from amazon

Ask any fans about the menacing dinosaurs of the pre-Jurassic Park adventure show Land of the Lost, the proto-feminist superheroes Electra-Woman and DynaGirl, or the fantasyland of H.R. Pufnstuf and friends, and they'll rhapsodize with a goofy smile on their faces. The lasting power of these shows is due more to nostalgia than quality; they're pricelessly over the top and campy, and the parade of familiar faces--such as Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors in The Lost Saucer--can bring back memories faster than an old home movie. This three-tape set features one episode each from the Krofft treasure trove, including the ever-popular H.R. Pufnstuf, the Brit-inspired The Bugaloos, Wonderbug the talking dune buggy, the odd coupling of Bigfoot and Wildboy, and much more. Grab your favorite cereal box, put on your pajamas, hunker down on the floor in front of the TV, and watch for six--count 'em, six--hours. --Mark Englehart

I forgot all about Bigfoot and Wild boy! I thought that was a spin off of the 6 million dollar man. . . was it?

 

[Kostmayer]

I would say either somebody shooting a Pterodactyl in The People That Time Forgot, or somebody getting his stomach drilled in The Black Hole. Saw The Black Hole years later and only realised it was the same film halfway through. It was strange to think such a cheesy film could have terrified me so much when I was little.

 

[Ian Whates]

I always trace my SF roots back to Andre Norton -- the Janus books, the Beast Master, Catseye, Moon of Three Rings etc. My first SF book leading on from there was the Asimov collection Through a Glass Clearly but muddled in there somewhere was a BBC radio adaptation of John Wyndham's the Chrysalids... and yes, I too was an avid fan as a kid of both Fireball XL-5 and Lost in Space... so now I'm not so sure...

 

[Ash59]

'Fireball XL5' and 'Supercar' in the very early sixties - i was tiny and cherubic then. Ah me...

 

[bruno-1012]

Very hard to say for sure -

TV would probably be either Dr Who or Star Trek.

Not sure what episode I started with in Dr Who but I was of the Pertwee era. Worst monsters were the Sea Devils....the thought that they could be just across from the house I was sleeping in near the beach in Troon.

I do remember seeing Fireball XL5 on TV (and having an annual) - was it first time around or a repeat though??

For books again I think it might have been the Tom Swift adventures from the local Library. They competed with The Three Investigators/Hardy Boys/Secret Seven and Famous Five for my reading when I was young.

I still have the first book I bought myself which was from the school book club - Ben Bova's 'The Duelling Machine'. (Books before that were bought by my parents for me - OK they were the ones I wanted but it wasn't my money)

Kept on getting into trouble about my book choices for prizes at school - we had a budget and all prize winners went into John Smiths in Glasgow to pick any books up to your budget. Always SF/F which was looked down on by the teachers since the local dignitary who would be handing out the prizes on the night would see the books and be 'black afronted'.

One teacher was very down on the genre but he did get me into PG Wodehouse...oh and helped me pass Higher English so it wasn't all bad.

 

[Circus Cranium]

Star Trek, TOS, as well as The Brain that Wouldn't Die, shown on Creature Double Feature Sunday afternoons.

Blew my tiny 8 year old mind.

 

[HoopyFrood]

One teacher was very down on the genre but he did get me into PG Wodehouse...oh and helped me pass Higher English so it wasn't all bad.

Ah, P.G Wodehouse is a legend! And it was because of a sci-fi author (Douglas Adams) that I started reading his books (seeing as Wodehouse was a big influence on Adams, I thought I'd check him out).

Hmm, earliest sci-fi memory...well I can't say for certain, but it's probably like many other people around here...watching Star Trek and Doctor Who on the TV etc.