Your earliest sci-fi memory...

[Kostmayer]

I loved Alien Nation too

 

[pie'oh'pah]

My earliest memory is getting out of bed and going downstairs when I was about 5 or 6. I wasn't well and I was probably a bit fevered. I walked in on my parents watching the last 10 minutes of 'The Man With X-ray Eyes' - the gruesome bit in the church. I had nightmares for months after that. But it has to be said that I was hooked from that moment on in the worst way

 

[Musky]

There were more than a few movies or TV shows that kindled my interest in Science Fiction. As far as books, I would say I was around nine (1970) and remember really loving a Wrinkle in Time, which is of course a timeless classic. Another book I remember ordering in third grade through scholastic books was Stranger from the Depths by Gerry Turner. A little less well known, obviously. Anyone know this book published in 1970?

If I remember correctly, it was about two children that become involved with an undersea being from a civilization a lot older than humanity. I recall they burrowed to the Earth's center in a mole machine that used a laser to burn the rock in front of it and it then fused behind the ship.

Very cool book. I remember always hoping to find a book on those Scholastic order forms that I would like as much. I wish I still had all the paperbacks I ordered through Scholastic when I was a kid. They were at my parents home in boxes for many years, but were ruined when their basement flooded.

 

[Naryaló S dú]

Star Wars of course

 

[manephelien]

I remember role-playing Star Wars with my friends. We lived out in the boondocks without a car (!) and didn't get out to the movies very often, especially as neither of my parents is a movie fan (my Mom last saw The English Patient in theater, and I don't think my dad's been to the movies since my parents dated 40 years ago...), only when friends' parents invited me too. Anyway, I role-played SW long before I saw any of the movies, even though I was 5 when ep. 4 came out. The first SF I saw was ET and it gave me nightmares for weeks.

The show that really got me hooked on SF was Knight Rider, KITT was so cool (and Michael Knight/The Hoff was my first celebrity crush. Well I was 12!).

 

[Kostmayer]

I remember staying up late watching Quatermass and the Pit. Channel 4 in the uk had a scifi night on a Friday I think it was. I stayed up till about 4 am watching Godzilla films. Quatermass was the scariest.

 

[Steve Jordan]

I remember staying up late watching Quatermass and the Pit. Channel 4 in the uk had a scifi night on a Friday I think it was. I stayed up till about 4 am watching Godzilla films. Quatermass was the scariest.

Oh yeah... I saw that for the first time at about midnight. Seeing that image of the alien, and realizing how it looked like the Devil... creepy!

 

[matt-browne-sfw]

Star Trek the original series. I was totally intrigued by Spock's pointed ears.

The most intense memory however was in a cinema in the early 80ies when watching "Alien". The whole crowd including myself made a violent jerk in total shock when the baby alien cut through the belly of one crew member. This collective gasp of all the spectators was overwhelming...

Later when watching it again on television it wasn't the same anymore. If you know what's coming... and the smaller screen...

Anyone else who saw Alien in a cinema first? Not on television or DVD?

 

[HardScienceFan]

me in a series of cheap reruns in the 90's
the cinema tried to raise visitor numbers artificially
10 movies for fl 12.50,plastic seats,little airco

 

[Dave]

Anyone else who saw Alien in a cinema first? Not on television or DVD?

I saw it on the first release, which was 1979, I think. I was already a scifi fan, but I also used to go to the cinema more regularly. I was much less choosy; I would see whatever was on, once every week or two; some films that were quite appallingly bad. So, I had no idea of the chest busting event before it happened (and neither did the cast themselves from all accounts.)

I totally agree with you, except to add that after frequent viewings the puppet itself and the special effects are not a patch on what could be achieved today. It is only John Hurt's acting that covers it.

 

[Ian Whates]

I also saw Alien in the cinema on its first release, but was already a firm SF fan long before that (showing my age). The film's advent coincided with a TV campaign by the Egg Marketing Board here in the UK, under the slogan "Go to Work on an Egg". When combined with the posters advertising Alien, this opened up all sorts of comic potential.

 

[j d worthington]

*holds up hand* I did. In fact, I saw it on the day it opened down in Houston (where I was living at the time), and again about a year or two later... when there was only one poor guy who was the "virgin"... and whose reactions soon made him the center of the show.... When they're in the escape pod, and the creature flashes that arm out, everyone had turned to look at this guy, not the screen... His popcorn went one way, his drink went the other... and he lifted about two feet of his seat.....

 

[Vladd67]

My earliest memory is of Jon Pertwee as Dr Who, and the first sci fi books I read were from the Puffin book club at Primary School, I remember reading Islands in the Sky by Arthur C Clarke, I can remember having Catseyes but I can't remember anything about the book. I also remember a book called Space Hostages about a group of kids on a space ship who are left to run it when the crewman went mad. TV wise I watched Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Lost in Space, Space 1999, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, I also vaguely remember a series called Moonbase 3.

 

[angrybuddhist]

The first sci-fi book I can remember reading was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron.The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
One of the first fantasy books I read was Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Black and Blue Magic - Google Book Search

I also saw Alien in the theater, first. I thought I was going to watch a sci-fi film, but was surprised to find it was a horror film.

 

[Bant Warick]

My earliest sci-fi memory is watching Laputa: castle in the sky on tv when I was 7/8 years old. But at the time I had no idea of the genius that was Miyazaki, and over time I forgot about the film.
Fast forward to 28 years of age; I bought a film magazine that I don't usually buy but just wanted something to read on a train. In it, somebody wrote in asking if they knew the name of a film he watched when he was little, about a flying castle that had pirates in it! suffice to say I went straight out to the the nearest dvd store and bought Laputa that very day!

 

[Tielhard]

Let's see it was a long time ago that's for sure.

I remember hiding from the Daleks behind the settee to afraid to come out too fascinated to leave the room. I think that Troughton was Who at the time but it may have been Hartnell. I remember the transparent robot from Fireball XL-5 and the way it took off but little else.

When I was about 5, maybe 6, my aunts began buying me Project Sword toys and that, I think, is what really got me interested in space.

I was a late reader, the first science fiction I read was a picture book called 'Major Matt Mason Moon Mission' all about the space toy of the samme name which I loved. I still have it today. Then in the year of the moon landings my father took me to see 2001: A Space Odyssey and as a little boy I understood an awful lot more of it than he did, I had to explain it to him on the way home on the bus and my father was a clever man. For me the experience of the film especially the bone and the bush baby was an epiphany. It changed my life. I went into the sciences and never regretted it even though my talents lie elsewhere.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Then in the year of the moon landings my father took me to see 2001: A Space Odyssey

Yeah. My dad took me to see that one, too. It was the only movie we ever went to see when it was still just in limited release. It was that important to him. Not anywhere near my earliest sf memory (I was 12 or 13 at the time), but a definitive one.

 

[UnderTheOath]

Star Wars FTW!

My big bro was obsessed. I remember being about five or so when we watched A New Hope together. Ten years ago. Geez that's a while.

 

[AJS]

Seeing William Hartnell regenerate into Troughton.

Go I am old!

 

[j d worthington]

Seeing William Hartnell regenerate into Troughton.

Go I am old!

*sigh* Now, I'd like to see that episode... actually, I'd like to see the whole bloody story......