Are people born with a love of space adventure or can one good space opera make a person love the genre?

[CmdrShepN7]

I was never interested in anything sci fi or set in space until I finally played "Mass Effect" after a friend recommended it to me. Shortly after finishing the trilogy I devoured shows like "Babylon 5", "Battlestar Galactica", "Farscape", "Firefly", and now "The Expanse". Around this time I first discovered the movie "The Fifth Element".

Are people born with a love of space adventure or can one good work of a genre make a person a fan? Are there some deeper psychological factors at play here? For some reason I associate space opera particularly the ones with aliens and lasers with the 1990s and for me who was a child growing up in the 90s I consider the decade to be one of happiness and optimism.

Perhaps I associate space adventure with optimism and happier times.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I just loved the fantastical nature of things and the escapism. I think we all love the escapism.

 

[Rodders]

I think I always had leanings toward Sci Fi. On my 7th birthday, my mum asked me if I wanted to see Star Wars or another film. (I forget which). I asked waht Star Wars was and she explained that it was “some space thing”. I chose it without hesitation. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Vince W]

My first impressions of science fiction were Doctor Who and Star Trek, and I always enjoyed anything to do with space. Then the summer when I was seven my uncle came by and took me to stand in a cinema queue for more than two hours. I whinged and complained but all he would say is 'just wait'. He had brought me to see Star Wars. It's been a lovely ride ever since.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

As a child I remember always being obsessed with space, and I don't know where that came from. It didn't come from movies. I was generally interested in the existence of life on other planets and wanted to be an astronaut when I grew older. Somewhere along the line, in my early teens I think, this translated into a love of science fiction (chiefly influenced by my brother, I think). Flash forward to now and my initial interest in actual space and space travel has faded and my views on the existence of terrestrial life are very different, but the love of science fiction and that entire aesthetic remains. For whatever reason, escapism has replaced a more genuine child-like fascination.

 

[Dave]

As a child I remember always being obsessed with space,

I don't know how old you are, but for my generation it was the real world reporting of the 'Space Race.' That and Thunderbirds probably. I never saw Doctor Who as actually being "in space." Maybe because the Doctor that I most remember was stuck on Earth. I didn't see Star Trek TOS as 'space opera' either, even though it was set in space. Looking back now, some episodes definitely were, but it was never Star Trek DS9 (really a soap opera in fancy dress).

'Space Opera' for me is EE Doc Smith's Lensman and other books that I could never get into, though I tried hard to like them. I came to science fiction through the fantasy of Ray Bradbury, and then on to Hard science fiction. It was books like Dune and Larry Niven's 'known space' that first brought me to what you are calling "space adventure." However, at the same time I was watching UFO, Space 1999 and Blake's Seven as well as re-runs of old Flash Gordon serials. We didn't have DVDs or any ability to record TV, so I actually had rarely seen films like Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds and This Island Earth.

It seems odd to me that people here credit Star Wars as their defining moment, because while I welcomed it, and loved the scale and old battered spacecraft and droids, even then it struck me more as 'swords and sorcery' in space than hard science fiction. It did certainly change the landscape. Science Fiction at the cinema was never the same again. Films like Alien would never have been made if not for Star Wars. I really wanted more films like Alien, however, what I got was more like The Black Hole and Saturn 3. It has actually taken a very long time for science fiction to become as mainstream as it is today, and for there to be so much more choice.

 

[Vince W]

It seems odd to me that people here credit Star Wars as their defining moment, because while I welcomed it, and loved the scale and old battered spacecraft and droids, even then it struck me more as 'swords and sorcery' in space than hard science fiction.

It would depend on the person I guess but as a child, my definition of science fiction was anything futuristic, set in space, or with a scientific slant. Star Wars had all the trappings of science fiction and that was enough for me at the time.

 

[Alex The G and T]

I'll venture a suggestion of a possible genetic factor...

The parental library, when I was cutting my reading teeth, was chock full of Adventure stories; collected by three or four generations of the men in my patriarchal lineage.

It never occurred to me me to make much distinction between "Captains Courageous," "20 kiloleagues under the sea;" 42 OZ books , Jack London's Yukon stories; War of the Worlds and Run Silent Run Deep; Tom and Huck, Kidnapped, Treasure Island or the Complete Ian Fleming.

The closet-sized library in my 2 room elementary school; was surprisingly well stocked with Science Fiction and fantasy. (Seems odd. Robert Heinlein lived three miles up the road, and Peter S. Beagle two miles out. Coincidence?)

Genetics or propinquity? Who can say for sure?

It wasn't until I was 16,18 years old and discovered weird science fiction: Cordwainer Smith, Simak, Zelazney, Farmer; that I began to make any distinction between "Adventure Stories" and Science Fiction.

All of which made me blase and skeptical about TV and Movie Sci-Fi; which had to be extraordinarily excellent to live up to the mental images that came from my reading.

 

[Foxbat]

For me it's more about nurture than nature. I recall me and my dad sitting up through the night to watch Armstrong step on to the moon. He also loved anything to do with space and science fiction and I've no doubt that's where my love for it came from.

 

[Rodders]

How wonderful, Foxbat.

One of my fondest childhood memories is my dad taking me to see Warlords of Atlantis at the cinema. Just me and him.

2000AD and Star Wars were my first memories of SF, but my toys were mostly spaceships.

 

[Vladd67]

I grew up on Dr Who, Star Trek, TV21 comic, and Gerry Anderson’s series’. Follow this up with Star Wars, 2000 ad and Battle Star Galactica and I was hooked.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I recall the 1960s as the period of the moon race and there being a US national obsession with things space related. Launches and splash downs were major events carried live on on 2 (3?) networks. My mother served as Tang in the morning, the drink of the astronauts. Science Fiction showed up on TV in Star Trek, Lost in Space, and arguably, the Outer Limits pushing out westerns and World War II dramas. Society seemed welcoming of some level of science fiction at the time, so I believe attraction to it is learned (or at least influenced) behavior.

Aside: Does anyone remember The Prisoner? It is probably on the outer fringes of being considered science fiction, but there was Rover and the guys on the creepy two-man merry-go-round.

 

[F.J. Hansen]

I was exposed to science fiction at an early age. Star Trek: The Next Generation began about a year after I was born, and my older sisters watched it regularly and I would often find myself watching it with them. It wasn't until I was 8 years old that my interest in science fiction really started to take off with collecting Star Trek and Star Wars Micro Machines and branching off to other science fiction--Star Wars and Babylon 5, the latter just beginning at the time.

 

[Bick]

As a child I... wanted to be an astronaut when I grew older.

Proper 8 year old boy. Huzzah.

 

[AlekseiVashchenko]

Gotta gitem when they're yungins.

 

[Guttersnipe]

It might depend on how scientifically-minded the reader/watcher is, which could be due to some education.

 

[BAYLOR]

Classic tv shows, Like Lost In Space , Star Trek and some the Saturday morning cartoons also pushed me in the direction of Space opera. Then Star Wars. The book part my interest took a bit longer.

 

[J-WO]

Whereas I enjoyed Next Generation and Babylon 5 it was Banks' Culture novels that truly got me space opera crazy. So I suppose the soil was always fertile but it needed the right kind of crops.