I’ve been drawn toward science fiction my whole life. I suppose being a child in the mid–1960s it comes naturally. NASA was preparing for and executing moon missions when I was a kid. Saturday morning was full of science-fiction oriented cartoons. Frankenstein Junior, the Herculoids, Johnny Quest. I remember watching Lost in Space very early in life, and seeing Star Trek during the early 70s in reruns already. Later Saturday mornings would include shows like Space Academy, Land of the Lost, Sealab 2020, and Arc II.

I was all about space ships, robots, and monsters. I suppose I still am.

One of my best SF memories from childhood was going to a birthday slumber party in 2nd grade, and watch SF films until the wee hours as we drank Coca Cola and ate M&Ms until we were all sick. This was the night I first saw the classic War of the Worlds.

As a pre-teen and teen, Sunday afternoon television included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the Time Tunnel, monster movies, horror, and science fiction. Local TV stations had great libraries of SF films they showed on a regular basis, like the Andromeda Strain, Colossus: the Forbin Project, etc. And of course one local TV station had “Ape Week” at least once a year during which they showed the Planet of the Apes series. In fact, I saw the final film in that series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, at the theater during its original release.

My interest in science fiction was fed by magazines like Starlog and others, through which I learned about classic films and series like the Quatermass films (which I have still not see, but just got on Blu-ray and will be watching soon). I would read about films I was not old enough to see yet, like Aliens.

Well, I’m not going to write a dissertation on my history with SF tonight. This is a warm up post, which will I’m sure lead to some rambling posts over the coming year.

My project for the rest of this week – read number 16 in the Dumarest of Terra saga and have a quality viewing of the first Quatermass film, give it some thought, and read about it from a few sources.