So how did you get into Star Trek?

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Graham Kennedy
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So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

For me it was two things, really. When I was a kid, TOS reruns used to be on TV once a week on BBC 2 in the 6pm slot. I'd sit and watch it with Ian and dad, usually whilst mum was off cooking in the kitchen. I was always fascinated with Trek- it may seem rather old fashioned and clunky to modern eyes, but it really was miles above and beyond the other sci fi that was around at the time. Seriously, if you think TOS is clunky go watch some Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space.

When I heard they were making a sequel set 80 years later I was sooo skeptical. It was like a slap in the face to a lot of fans, and nobody really thought a Trek without Kirk and Spock and the others could ever work. TNG came out when I was 18, during my first year of university. I used to watch it in the TV room of the student union bar... the place would pack out for an episode of TNG, at least a hundred people crammed in, most of them having to sit on the floor. And yeah, it really didn't come across as terrible to us back them. In fact I still don't think it's terrible. It's certainly flawed, but there's a lot of the TOS spirit there as well, IMO. And it sure was popular!
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Teaos »

I'm born in 86, I remember one of my older brother watching TNG when I was very young but never really paid attention.

I first started watching DS9 and VOY at the same time around 95 probably, I think I started second series of VOY and 5th of DS9.

I then started watching older episodes and TNG on reruns late night TV.

I just loved the portrayal of a sucessful humanity.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Tyyr »

TOS reruns. My dad would be flipping through the channels and find it on and we'd watch it. The first episode I ever saw or remember seeing was Balance of Terror.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Lt. Staplic »

My father got me hooked on it. He'd been watching Trek since TOS, and when I was a kid (I was born in 92) Trek was on in my house a lot. Obviously being born in 92 I caught a lot of TNG reruns, DS9, and VOY while I was growing up.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Griffin »

A few years ago for me. It started on the somewhat unfortunately named channel “Virgin 1” which aired episodes of TNG and VOY (which I tolerated, because, hey, It's still Trek) They then started to show DS9 and ENT, which I also enjoyed. Sadly no TOS, but that was made up for when I was gifted the box-set of the original 10 films. Found DITL not much later after looking for Size Comparison stuff.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Jim »

I believe that it was ST2 Wrath of Khan. I think that the ships fighting and the music grabbed me and pulled me in.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by McAvoy »

Parents. Both are original TOS Trek fans from the 60's. They were watching the series while in high school. So naturally when I was kid I was exposed to it.

Hell I even remember one of my baby sitters when I was maybe 5 got excited when my parents had STII on tape.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

McAvoy wrote:Hell I even remember one of my baby sitters when I was maybe 5 got excited when my parents had STII on tape.
I once had my little sister in hysterics because we sat and watched Star Trek II and I recited the entire film from memory, saying each line about five seconds before the actors did. :lol:
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Tinadrin Chelnor »

I had a somewhat troubled childhood. I found star trek and it allowed me to escape what I was going through.
I used to make lego starships (of my own design) and made a little star trek universe of my own.

Originally it was TNG, then I started watching TOS at my nan's on Sundays. Then DS9 and Voyager.

That has now evolved over 22 years to a universe of my own creation, which is still ongoing. But I will always look to Star Trek as the thing that helped me through.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

November 29, 1986. Channel WNDS-TV 50, channel ten on the dial. I was watching TV over my dad's mobile home when Balance of Terror came on. My dad turned to me. "Jon, Star Trek! Have you ever seen Star Trek before?"

The rest, as they say, is history.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Vic »

Early 70's, I watched any time it was on. Dad would ask me, "haven't you seen that one already?'', to which I would say "no Dad, not this one!" At first it was just a fun action/adventure show, then I started noticing the moral of the stories. One thing that has kept me as a fan is the idea that humanity at large can choose to adhere to a higher moral and ethical standard.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Mithrandir »

Puh, good question! I don't remember exactly, it's been a while...

I know that here in Austria Star Trek (TOS) was shown on TV saturdays after the 60s Batman show (around 1994) and I watched it sometimes. Then I remember an article in the newspaper we got at secondary school (1995), a comparison of TOS and TNG. Around that time, TNG was aired daily on Austrian TV and then I really got into it.

Back then it was usual for TV stations to buy complete TV series and air them on a daily basis, so for a time you could watch TNG at 15:00 and DS9 at 16:00. By the time VOY came around, Star Trek's popularity was at its highest in Germany and so VOY was shown as a Friday evening prime time show (a time of course where most young people - the biggest potential audience for the show) would be out and not watching TV.

But then they overdid it: After years of Trek every day, the ratings (already much lower on VOY and especially DS9 - which was cancelled in Austria after season 5) dropped (no wonder!) and Star Trek was taken off the air. I hardly ever watched later seasons of VOY and never caught a single episode of ENT on TV, but I've watched everything on DVD since. I really love my DVD collection, because now I can watch Star Trek whenever I want (in theory), whatever series or movie I want and, most importantly, in original language and not in the at times terrible german versions.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Tsukiyumi »

I remember going to see The Search For Spock at the drive-in with my parents when I was a little kid, and then all of the other original cast films up to Final Frontier; after that, I caught a few TNG episodes on TV every once in a while, but I didn't have my own TV, nor any control over what was watched at my grandparents' house. I was at a party in my teens, and the saucer crash scene from Generations came on; everyone in the room went silent and we all were kind of slack-jawed at how bad ass that sequence was. After that, I decided to give DS9 a shot, and I loved it at once. Worf beating the crap out of people sold me on it immediately. By the end of DS9, my friends and I all caught every episode up to the finale.

And, from then on, I've given every incarnation of Trek a shot; loved some of it, hated some of it, and I like where the movies are going so far. I hope they get the chance to do a big concept film next. Maybe one without a villain in the traditional sense.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Varthikes »

I was born in '86, and I grew up around science fiction--Star Trek especially. My sisters would always be watching TNG, and I would catch glimpses of it. I rarely stayed for long, but I remembered certain things--a bald guy, a pale guy, a guy with a beard, a black guy with weird bumps on his forehead, another black guy with a thing over his eyes... One of the first episodes I remember seeing was "Q Who?", distinctly remembering a dark, cube-shaped ship. I didn't know what it all meant at the time, but there was something memorable about all of it. I remember when the show was syndicating five nights a week, it would come on at 7 pm. More often than not, I would find my sisters and my third oldest brother watching it. I also caught glimpses of the original Star Trek.

It wasn't until I was about 6, 7, or 8 that I really started getting interested while watching Star Trek III. The moment I saw the USS Excelsior and started noticing the many different starships. My third oldest brother bought some models (of the 1701, 1701-A, and 1701-D) and Micro Machines (including the Excelsior) and we played with them together. From that moment, my interest in Star Trek blossomed, which later grew to include other science fiction such as Star Wars and Babylon 5.
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Re: So how did you get into Star Trek?

Post by Reliant121 »

I was born a month after Voyager was first aired in the US (January 1995 was when it aired). I grew up with it when I was young, I can remember the original transmissions of series 7 (I was 6) and it was rerun quite a lot in the years after it. About 2004/2005 I got into the series from the start of a rerun and that was it.
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