Your First Science Fiction Film?

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mosaix

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I watched The Day The Earth Stood Still a couple of nights ago on television - the 2008 version starring Keanu Reeves. I quite enjoyed it and it reminded me of the 1951 version starring Michael Rennie.

I probably saw the 1951 version in the mid 1950's when I was about nine and it occurs to me that this was probably the first science fiction film I ever saw and played an important part in my life-long interest in the genre.

Remember your first science fiction film?
 
mosaix said:
I watched The Day The Earth Stood Still a couple of nights ago on television - the 2008 version starring Keanu Reeves. I quite enjoyed it and it reminded me of the 1951 version starring Michael Rennie.

I probably saw the 1951 version in the mid 1950's when I was about nine and it occurs to me that this was probably the first science fiction film I ever saw and played an important part in my life-long interest in the genre.

Remember your first science fiction film?
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Day of the Triffids I think. Was it a film or a series. I can't remember.:mad:
 
2001: A Space Oddyssey

I walked out of the theater in awe. "Wow, aliens helped humans to evolve. That was cool." - (age 6).
 
mosaix said:
I watched The Day The Earth Stood Still a couple of nights ago on television - the 2008 version starring Keanu Reeves. I quite enjoyed it and it reminded me of the 1951 version starring Michael Rennie....
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I saw part of the the 2008 version and it didn't remind me of the original 1951 version. But that's another story. I don't remember for sure what my first one was because I saw so many in the late 50s and early 60s but it could have been The Day The Earth Stood Still or GOG or even Godzilla. My best guess might be The Lost Continent with Cezar Romero and Hugh Beaumont. I was facinated by dinosaurs up until about the time I realized that girls sometimes weren't just ornery kids with more hair.
 
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In the cinema; Return of the jedi. At home, one of the Star Trek movies, when it was like a massive thing to watch a video, watched with all my family, cousins and all, gathered around my groovy uncle's telly. :)
 
At the cinema: that's a difficult one. Probably, the original Disney 'Flubber' film The Absent-Minded Professor with Fred McMurray (but it was made in 1961 and I wasn't born then so it must have been one of the reissues to theatres) probably around 1967.

On TV: that's even harder. It could have been anything (and everything) made in the 1950's such as the Day the Earth Stood Still or The Day the Earth Caught Fire or Day of the Triffids or Forbidden Planet .

As regards my interest in the genre, I think the TV series Thunderbirds (which was first shown around 1965) has more to answer for than any film I saw.
 
I think it was Star Wars (1977), which was probably one of my earliest visits to the cinema, as well.

On TV, it's a bit more difficult to pin down. We didn't have a TV when I was really young, but I have memories of a repeat of Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD with Peter Cushing as Doctor Who and Bernard Cribbins. That would have probably have been the early 80s.

By then, I'd seen Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and Space 1999 on TV anyway, which had already set my tastes. Oh and Star Trek, but that to a lesser extent.
 
It was King Kong versus Godzilla in 1968.
We were on holiday in a place called Dalbeattie and it was at the local cinema. For some reason, it was X rated (may have been because of the supporting feature...can't really remember) but my dad persuaded the manager to let us in. Apparently my brother and I spent the rest of the holiday fighting each other (can't remember who was King Kong or Godzilla).
I've been hooked ever since :)
 
Not sure what the very first was but DESTINATION: MOON would be a pretty good guess. BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE was another early one.
 
My folks took me to see Star Wars when I was 3 - fell asleep thru most of it! I guess the first SF movie I can actually remember going to see was the first Star Trek movie, which I still have a soft spot for. Sure, the plot was a rehash but it was atmospheric enough and dark for a U cert movie.

Loved Wrath of Khan more tho by a long stick!
 
I actually forgot the classic encounter of my childhood which was my first foray into sci fi. (Except for Blake's seven, that I loved.) When I was about ten we went to Dublin for a weekend and stayed in a hotel, which was all very exotic. But the highlight of the trip was to be a trip to the cinema. Me and Mum were going to be girly and go see Watership Down, my Dad was taking the brothers three to see Battlestar Galatica.

Anyway, Mum and I set off first, as ours was early, and she got hopelessly lost and by the time we got there the other lot were there first.

They stopped people going into Watership Down just before us and we had to go see Battlestar Galitica instead. To this day, I hate it. :(
 
Probably The Incredible Shrinking Man and the original The day The Earth Stood still - watched on a flaky ex-rental B&W TV in my bedroom as a kid; loved it, though!

But biggest influences, and see a few have already been mentioned here by Dave and Springs, were probably: Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Blake's Seven and of course The Tomorrow People - oh to be able to Jaunt, and have TIM to help you out :)
 
That far back (Please take into account the fact that I'm quite old;)) my memory gets a little fuzzy. The first I really remember were the Flash Gordon serials (1936, 38 and 40). But I saw them on TV, so maybe that doesn't count. The one that really stuck with me is George Pal's War of the Worlds from 1953. I was dumbstruck by the amazing (for the time) special effects and story. Hadn't read the Wells tale yet. I actually stayed in the theater and watched it three times in a row. My parents wondered what had happened to me.

Foxbat said:
It was King Kong versus Godzilla in 1968.
We were on holiday in a place called Dalbeattie and it was at the local cinema. For some reason, it was X rated (may have been because of the supporting feature...can't really remember) but my dad persuaded the manager to let us in. Apparently my brother and I spent the rest of the holiday fighting each other (can't remember who was King Kong or Godzilla).
I've been hooked ever since :)
Click to expand...

I actually "saw" this one while I was miniature golfing with some friends. The drive-in theater was right next door and we got to watch the monkey and the lizard taking turns jumping up and down on each other. Great fun. We couldn't hear the sound, so it was a silent movie experience.
 
It was probably some '50s nonsense shown on Saturday Morning Cinema, squeezed between Woody Woodpecker and whatever the main film was.

I remember seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the cinema so that was probably the first one I saw deliberately.
 
Ah yes... Saturday Morning Cinema - screaming kids, someone kicking the back of your seat for 2 hours, what bliss. It was always packed though.
 
And banned from the circle for dropping maltesers ... oh, and the quality - or lack of - of orange-maid ice-lollies (did you have them?) ... Great days! ;) Think the kids now would have higher aspirations for the content than we ever did. I think they're missing out, though.
 
I can't be absolutely sure, but it was probably Forbidden Planet. I saw a fair bit of sci fi on tv before seeing any in the cinema. Star Wars was my first sci fi cinema experience.
 
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