# What movie or TV show inspired you to become a  Sci-Fi Fantasy fan



## Justme (Apr 30, 2012)

As a child, I really didn't get very much exposure to the TV media. My mom was a Jehovahs witness and dragged my brother and I along with her for 2 hour meeting on Friday and Sunday and a 1 hour bordomfest on Tuesday. I really didn't mind the Sunday and Friday sessions. I learned the usefull skill of sleeping, while propped up on one arm, but the Tuesday session really burned me up. That's when my favorite show, Johnny Quest came on. It was a 30 minute show and the Church meetings started exactly at 7:30, which was when JQ ended. That meant I could stuff in 15 minutes of the show, before we had to leave and I never saw the ending of any of that show.

As far as Movies go, the first one I saw was a movie called Silent Running. I saw that when I was about 9-10 and it amazed me.

Silent Running (1972) - IMDb






The first movie I saw on TV was the best one I'd seen for a long time. It was The Andromeda Strain. I hope I don't have to describe that movie. It's a classic.


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## Penpilot (May 1, 2012)

I think it was this... 




One of the first Anime imports to North American TV, Star Blazers... aka Space Battleship Yamato.

Silent running was also one of the movies from that era of scifi films that I loved when I was growing up.


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## Hans (May 1, 2012)

None.
I grew up mainly without a TV, still don't have one today, so it was all about reading and books. Largely sagas and legends.
I guess living in Europe has the advantage that here are lots of folk sagas. I don't have to walk very far in any direction to be at a place with some legends attached to it.


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## JCFarnham (May 1, 2012)

I think I may be among a majority (maybe not here, who knows) when I say that Star Trek (TOS and all spin-offs) is responsible for my being a fan of speculative fictions. 

Now, I can't say she was ever a massive fan in any sense of the word, but my mum always used to say things like "I used to watch this when I was growing up", or "I use to _do_ such and such" in other cases. I suppose it was about giving the young me options of what to be. Maybe though its as simple as me showing an interest in the shiny shiny tv show that was on _just_ past my bed time. That must be my earliest memory of genre fiction of any kind.

Anyway, that, bolstered by my dad's panchant for reading the classics of the genre (it was him who gave me his early editions of the _Hitchhikers guide_ seires and Tolkien's books), pretty much did it for me. 

What else can I say?


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## Steerpike (May 1, 2012)

It was books for me. My dad reads science fiction and fantasy, and there were always tons of books laying around. He reads horror as well, and we had those in the house. There was never any limit on what books I could or couldn't read, regardless of age, so I started going through his collection at an early age.

On the fantasy side, I guess I read The Hobbit and C.S. Lewis first, and then branched out from there.


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## Shockley (May 1, 2012)

I don't watch a lot of tv these days (don't have cable in my home), but I can remember some of the shows that stuck with me:

 Really young: The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. Courage the Cowardly Dog. Mummies Alive (f yeah). Justice Friends and all the spin offs. 

 When I got older, I turned to other stuff. Star Trek (TOS and TNG), the Merlin miniseries with Sam Neill, Rome and old Saturday Night Live episodes.

 As for movies, not a lot of influences here. Excalibur. Thirteenth Warrior. The Lord of the Rings movies. A lot of campy eighties sword-and-sorcery films (Conan, Kull the Destroyer, Red Sonja, etc.) and things like that. When I watch movies, though, I tend to prefer stuff like 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita. While it's strange for a man - especially one who is somewhat obsessed with the concept of masculinity - my favorite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany's.

 Going over this, I don't know why my writing isn't more humorous/romantic.


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 1, 2012)

I'm not really into TV, and I tend to enjoy fantasy books more than fantasy films, as I find books to be deeper and less flamboyant or exagerrated.  Having said that I am of the generation that grew up with the Rings films, and I'd be lying if I said they didn't have a major effect on me.  They really opened up Tolkien's world to me (although I had previously seen the animated film) and as I got into books I realised that while the films were fantastic, some of the greatest ever made, they were after all merely a tribute, an adaption, of the genius of Tolkien himself.


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## ArielFingolfin (May 2, 2012)

Tolkien is the god of fantasy, all others are just servants humbly following in his footsteps. 

Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration 

But reading Tolkien was when I first really started to delve into fantasy, and the films coming out were what inspired me to read them.


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## Twilight Flyer (May 10, 2012)

For me, it was a combination of things.  I've always been a huge Star Trek fan and while I certainly enjoy all the spin-offs, my heart is with the original series.

But I've always been a huge reader, too, and Tolkien for fantasy and Bradbury and Wells for sci-fi have both had big impacts on me.  War of the Worlds is top notch.  I was given a tape of the original broadcast from an old WW2 vet on my paper route back in the late 70's.  Can't tell you how many times I listend to it...absolutely wore it out.  No doubt that it made it's mark on me.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (May 11, 2012)

It's clichÃ©, but... _Star Wars_. Well, it wasn't _just_ that; I've always like SF/F, but I remember in 1990 seeing _Star Wars_ for the first time in several years, and it pretty much rocked my teenage world.


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## Twilight Flyer (May 12, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> It's clichÃ©, but... _Star Wars_. Well, it wasn't _just_ that; I've always like SF/F, but I remember in 1990 seeing _Star Wars_ for the first time in several years, and it pretty much rocked my teenage world.


I remember seeing Star Wars in the theatres with my father and brother back in 1977.  Wow...am I that old?


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## Aidan of the tavern (May 12, 2012)

Twilight Flyer said:


> I remember seeing Star Wars in the theatres with my father and brother back in 1977.  Wow...am I that old?



Wow, that must have been something.  I saw the Phantom Menace in theatres and, well, on reflection it wasn't so amazing.


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## Jabrosky (May 13, 2012)

It's hard to single out any particular movie as especially inspirational, but here's some that have helped:

* _Jurassic Park_
* _King Kong _2005
* _300_
* Disney's _Tarzan_
* The _Turok_ video games


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## Feo Takahari (May 15, 2012)

As much as I hate to say this in hindsight, the first fantasy I read and liked was the original _Dragonlance_ series. (Tolkien's been bastardized worse, but probably not outside of budget video games.) That said, what really convinced me of the potential of speculative fiction was reading _Ender's Game_.


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## Xenodeus Blade (May 17, 2012)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!


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## Saigonnus (May 17, 2012)

I never watched much television at home as a child, and when I could, it was always whatever my elder sib would want to watch, so usually i'd curl up somewhere with a book from my dad's collection. Much of his stuff is histories, but often enough he'd bring home other stuff. I also used to go to the school or public library and borrow dragonlance books, forgotten realms and played lots of role playing games based off a single D&D module from Gary Gygax that I bought with money found in the street (didn't have the luxury of an allowance); it opened the doors to my imagination.


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## King Raven Stark (May 17, 2012)

lol, my mother was a Jehovah's Witness and lol she would drag me and my brother to those long meetings too, that's crazy. But I always liked history and knights, oh yea and I loved Star Wars, but what really, really, really, really drove me into fantasy was this [video=youtube_share;OTUiYBEoTfE]http://youtu.be/OTUiYBEoTfE[/video]


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