Who introduced you to science fiction?

Wes R

Legendary Member
I was thinking back to when I first got introduced to scifi and I was wondering who got all of you hooked on it.

It was my dad that got me hooked. Between watching scifi movies on sunday afternoons (back when they'd have mini marathons after wrestling) to him thinking that War of The Worlds was a good book to read and have me read back to him when I was learning to read. The first movies I remember was POTA, Logan's Run, star wars, star trek, and Superman II. The came Indiana Jones and so many others. Oddly enough he never had many scifi books in the house, most of his were the original Conan novels and westerns with a few other fantasy writers.
 
It would probably be a toss up between George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling. Episodes of Twilight Zone and Star Trek were still in heavy syndication when I was young and I grew up in the age of Star Wars.
 
Actually I blame him a bit too as when I was little reruns of his shows were on during the day.

I was crazy for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as a kid, which led to my mom getting me 20,000 Leagues under the Sea from the library, and then it was all over.
 
Lost In Space is what got me. That and on weekday after noons the local station had "the money movie" where they'd show 2 movies and give away cash. It was usually POTA, old star trek episodes, or disaster movies that he made.
 
lol. I'm sure I'm sure I would have found scifi eventually but I think my dad's love of it and fantasy movies made it worse or better since it gave us something in common. He was into comic books and had as much if not more fun at the comiccons then I did. If he didn't work saturdays now i'd see if he wanted to go to one again.
 
I can't remember which I saw first: ESB, Star Trek TOS or Battlestar Galactica (the original). But those are certainly the Big Three.
 
I guess it was my dad because he took me to see Star Wars when it came out. My dad is not what I would call a sci-fi fan but he does appreciate a good action movie.

Prior to that, the closest interest I had was in astronaut related things. Prior to 1977, if you would have said spaceship, my mind would have pictured a Saturn V rocket. My main interests before Star Wars was Speed Racer, Soldiers, Cowboys, and Fireman. You could often find me pretending to be any one of those. But after Star Wars, I started looking for anything else that was close to it to be interested in.
 
For me, the blame lies firmly with two of my 'Aunts'. Carol and Joan had both been friends of my mother's for years and both are/were very into scifi and fantasy. It was my Aunt Joan who took my brother to see Star Wars when it opened, and it was Carol who kept a steady supply of novels (fantasy, horror, etc) coming into the house after we moved to Arizona.
 
Hmmm....tough one. So many influences got me around the same time. Loved the cheesy Sci-fi movies of the 50's and 60's...King Kong..Universal monsters...Sci-fi tv shows..POTA... Bradbury and Heinlein..It was magical time indeed. Star Wars came at the tail end of all of this.
 
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Tough call to pin it exactly but the easy answer is TV.

Obviously I fell hard for 'scifi' when I first saw Star Wars.
I'm not sure what if anything fell onto my radar before that.

I remember seeing the Planet of the Apes series and various Japanese monster movies as a kid on the ABC Saturday Afternoon Movie. Godzillla, Gammara, Forbidden Planet, and I guess Star Trek, Lost in Space, Twilight Zone, Dr. Who.

Now some might lump all or most of that into the category of 'Science Fantasy'.

My brother had a subscription to 'Azimov' and I happened upon the works of Douglas Adams all on my own.

Just recently I found Orson Scott Card's Enders Game, and I burned though every book I could find.
 
Prior to 1977, if you would have said spaceship, my mind would have pictured a Saturn V rocket.

Ditto that.
I recall watching the moon landing on a B&W TV in the basement.
My dad sat in his recliner and I was playing in a rocket I'd made from a cardboard box.
 
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