What initially inspired you to get into Fantasy or Science fiction??

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Overread

edit - - - wins prize for the fool - just noticed the blue balloon - - though my stance on the remake still stands

LOL

I can't agree on your assessment of the new Who though - I think its marvellous.

[Moonbat]

Growing up with Starwars is enough to influence anyone. I also liked Star Trek, but by that time I was alreayd hooked.

I think my Osbourne Junior encylopedia got me hooked on Science; films and books were just the way to learn and let me imagination fly on warp engines.

I love the new Dr who, but I was too young for the old one, it always looked so cr*p by the time I saw it. Same goes for Star Trek, I'm not old enough to like the orginal but TNG was my bread and butter through teenage years.

[Talysia]

I think I got into fantasy from an early age - I grew up with the cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons and the like, and from there I went on to read as much fantasy as I could. My Mum's always been a big sci-fi fan, too, and she loves the old films, so I saw a lot of black and white sci-fi movies when I was small.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Talysia

I think I got into fantasy from an early age - I grew up with the cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons .

OH MY GOD I LIVED FOR D and D . . . it was awsome, my girlfriend bought me DVD complete series box last year, still fantastic, yet was dropped prematurley part way through a series, due to funding or licencing difficulties, sob . . . I hope one day someone will see the potential that series had and bring and up to date version out. lol PIPE DREAMS

[Connavar]

No one saw He-Man as a kid ? Maybe you dont wanna admit that you did

[Memnoch]

See another classic the original not the film or re made cartoon though (had a crush on She Ra lol)

A new films in the pipe line I hear.

[dustinzgirl]

I think it probably started when I was little, during the winter my dad was a drive in security guard so we saw all the cool movies.

I also read a lot, and I read everything from VC Andrews to Margaret Weiss, but the reason I love SFF above all else is that it answers two basic questions:

What if

and

What's the point?

Good SFF reflects and bends reality, with similar characteristics and lines that most people can see in their own reality, more so than a fictional historic romance or some other thing. For example, I could never empathize with the twins in Flowers in the Attic, although I could sympathize with them. But I could empathize with Goldmoon.

[Hilarious Joke]

Margaret Weis AND Tracy Hickman. I liked the Dragonlance elves, especially how there were like three branches. Very very cool.

[chrispenycate]

I was always the scientific member of the family- chemistry sets and meccano, keeping caterpillars and developing my own photographs, and we were a reading family, so it was just natural that sort of stuff would gravitate my way. I don't think there was a particular point when I said "Hey, I'm not just a fast reader, I'm a science fiction reader", it just became apparent when my local public lbrary had no more of that genre I hadn't read.

[Interference]

Torchie the Battery Boy, then Supercar (etc) and finally Doctor Who and Star Trek. Then first "science fiction" book I read was Thunderbirds Are Go, a whole bunch of comics (Marvel particularly, including the formative/formulaic Midnight Monster) and You Only Live Twice when I wondered how they got the camera into space.

[Ursa major]

Yes, Gerry Anderson has a lot to answer for.

[Interference]

The man was God.

(Exit left whistling theme from Space:1999)

[Curt Chiarelli]

Several influences acting separately or in conjunction with each other over the course of my developmental years:

- The Brothers Hildebrandt (their illustrations for the 1976 - 1978 Tolkien Calendars and Urshurak, etc.)

- Ray Harryhausen (his design and special effects animation for The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad, Mysterious Island and The Valley of Gwangi, etc.)

- Willis O'Brien (his animation for King Kong)

- J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, etc.)

- Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles and The October Country, etc.)

- H.P. Lovecraft (The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness, etc.)

- Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End)

- The works of composers Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith.

[quidscribis]

Growing up, we had thousands of books in the house, and a LOT of them were science fiction or fantasy, so that's what I ended up reading. They were more interesting than a lot of other genres to me. And when we had a working television, which wasn't often, we watched ST:TOS. Over and over again. And when we saw movies at the theatre - which wasn't very often as there weren't any in a lot of the places we lived - inevitably the parents took us to see science fiction/fantasy. As my sibs (I'm the youngest) contributed to the book collection, inevitably, they added more science fiction/fantasy than other genres. So, you know, it was inevitable.

[Daenerys]

I think there has never been a time I wasnt drawn to science fiction (and fantasy would be a dead give away since I always loved fairy tales: any fairy tales. Not just the girly-princessy ones. I loved Red Riding Hood being eaten up. I loved the 7 brothers being turned into swans. I loved what the stories told me without telling me in words. I understood subtext as.. a... toddler...?)

But my first memory of understanding I liked scifi was when I was 6 and I was reading a comic (in Dutch) called Storm. Storm was set in a not-determined futuristic apocalyptic post/pre-technology setting. I loved the questions it brought up in my mind.

My parents don't get science fiction. They don't get fantasy. I do think my grandfather would have understood Star Trek TOS, but he was more into westerns and history than the future. So it wasn't a family thing. I never thought I'd find a lot of people that understood scifi. Now I know better. But I still think 'we' as scifi/fantasy aficionados are the exception. But I like it that way.