One of the big anniversaries of 2016 (of which there are several, one might add, as 1966 was a big year in pop-culture) is the Golden Anniversary of Star Trek. Though the Trek star has waned somewhat in recent years, it’s still a major force in pop culture, filled with great character like Kirk, Spock, Benjamin Sisko, Worf and many more. With so many episodes, films and expanded universe bits and pieces to play with, there are dang-near infinite ways to enter Trekdom: Comic book adaptations, novels in the expanded universe, even the always-excellent ‘Red Shirt Diaries.’ While many of our Faithful Spoilerites are young enough not to have been around for the earliest episodes circa ’66, nearly everybody has seen SOMETHING Trekkery, leading us to today’s boldly going query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) still has fond memories of reruns on Saturday and Sunday mornings, as well as a vivid memory of Kirk in Native American dress from ‘This Side Of Paradise’ at a very young age, asking: What’s your first memory of Star Trek?
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I had seen bits and pieces of original series or movies when I was very young because I was aware of it before The Next Generation but no real memories of that. So my first real memories about Star Trek was when it started on freshly opened channel 3 in 1993. (Yes, until 1993 Finland only had two TV channels without cable or satellite which showed foreign programming) It aired on Saturday nights, just in time after I came back from sauna. I cant say things were better back then, but I got fond memories of it. Picard is the best captain to me forever.
According to my parents, they took me to the theaters when Star Trek VI came out, as I was a wee infant I have no memory.
However, I do recall sneaking downstairs passed by bed time as my parents were watching a TNG episode with Picard & Worf wearing masks. So, even though that’s a pretty bad episode, the imagery sticks with me.
I can’t remember my first memory of Star Trek. Its somewhere between watching the animated series and Star Trek IV the Journey Home.
I remember watching [from behind the couch :) ] the Devil in the Dark at age 4 on a black and white television back in 1972. I have been a fan ever since.
Watching what has since become one of my favorite episodes of TOS, “Mirror, Mirror”, with my older brother. I was only three or four years old, but I understood the basic concept of what was going on, and for some reason that really amused my older brother because I spent most of the next week “explaining” the episode to various people. I come from a long line of geeks, why was it so surprising that I could grasp a simple concept like parallel timelines at such a young age?
The earliest I remember Star Trek was the local commercial channel ( of 2) showing it on Saturdays or Sundays to fill time when the sports was rained out.
My older sister and I watched the TOS episode “Arena” back in the early 70’s. To young kid, a 7 foot tall green monster fighting a man was kind of scary.
The moment that stood out for me was when a red shirt was disintergrated by phaser fire. I’m thinking “how do you know he’s dead with no body.”. He missed his shift, guess he’s dead, oh well.
This was a TOS episode before the computer would alert you to a phaser discharge.