Utkarsh Talwar for XenoX

Posted on Sep 7, 2020

Growing up, what were the most influential pieces of sci-fi media for you?

#watercooler #discuss #scifi #inspiration

I recently stumbled across this image of The Jetsons and it was like a blast from the past. I remember how much I used to enjoy watching this show on Cartoon Network as a kid. The future looked fantastic! Flying cars and robot maids and what not? I also absolutely loved Transformers when it first came out. It was absolutely mind-blowing to me!

Now that I look back, I realize how much sci-fi media shaped my perception of the future. There wasn't a lot of dystopian media back then, at least not that I remember watching or reading about. As I got older, however, I got into some dystopian sci-fi stuff as well, like The Hunger Games and Snowpiercer.

So what were your favorite pieces of sci-fi media while growing up? List your top 3 at least! How do you feel about them now? I'd love to know!

Top comments (33)

Manas P • Sep 7 '20

Dexter’s Laboratory🔥

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

I soooo loved this show. One of my absolute favorite shows growing up, period. Old Cartoon Network was a blast.

Jacko • Sep 8 '20

Dexter’s Laboratory was ahead of it’s time. 👊

Max Ong Zong Bao • Sep 8 '20

It will probably be SG 1 Stargate which Jack" O'Neill was always the funny guy that provides the comic reliefs & being a very relatable leader. Who gets thing done despite he is surrounded by people who is much smarter or better than him.

Matthieu Cneude • Sep 8 '20

It's a great show, great writing, great actors too. Love it.

Max Ong Zong Bao • Sep 8 '20 • Edited

Yup!!! It's sad that it's limbo in now. I hope Netflix picks it up to make it happen.

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

Great choice!

Lex • Sep 8 '20

Matrix

already I told about this, but when I was kid I saw this movie so in the fight of metro station of Neo against Smith agent, I was only a kid and the agents was invincible for me so when the Smith agent appears I said in my mind...."Run Neo, run"(Yeah like Trinity), but Neo see the stairs and don't run he keeps there to fight, he didn't give up, but Smith agent is too strong, and with a hit send to Neo close to the stairs, Neo touch his chest in sign of pain, Neo see the stairs again, and I thought again "Run Neo, run, Smith is too strong run", but Neo takes courage, and return to fight more focus(my mind splodes in that moment with that very epic scene, and that teach me a big lesson), Yeah that movie mark my life, that teach me that I need Never give up, how Neo did in that big fight, because that I learn to skate, I thought that I never could be skater and learn the ollie, but you know, I never give up, and I was train very hard and now I skate so cool, or like when I was learning to code, I thought that I never could learn to code, that it was very hard for me, that my mind didn't work for that, but I never gave up, so see me here, anyway I made a tattoo in my hand that says #NeverGiveUp, yeah that phrase have a lot of power for me, yeah that sci-fi movie was Matrix, also Terminator 2, I cried when the T800 die, and for last was the anime Trigun very cool anime, I have a history with this anime but already I wrote a lot, maybe the next, so animus NeverGiveUp, Keep trying

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

Ahh man! You captured those emotions while watching Matrix so well. Everyone loves a good underdog fight. The Matrix trilogy is without a doubt one of the most influential scifi media of all time.

Matthieu Cneude • Sep 8 '20 • Edited

Ulysse 31, a french-japanese anime. Yep, it exists.

youtube.com/watch?v=_ZFUOmU-nzI

It's basically a re-imagination of the The Odysseus with spaceships. How cool is that? It was great. 30 episodes or so, pretty slow for the common standards, but really great ideas all along. Lead me for a passion to Greek Mythology, for reading, for a lot of stuff. I couldn't stop drawing the spaceships, especially the one with a big eye in the middle.

Sarthak Sharma • Sep 7 '20

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

Haha I know! I remember how obsessed you were with that show.

Valentin Radu • Sep 8 '20

A great movie, but I'm too old to qualify.

Kieran • Sep 7 '20 • Edited

I discovered the Dune series when I was 16. It drastically changed how I view both myself and society as a whole. It's pretty heady, so every time you read it, you see things in a new light. There's apparently a new movie coming out soon, so I started reading it for like the third time.

Sean Antony Brunton • Sep 23 '20

Star Trek all the way. Purely because the sci-fi has correlation to the real laws of Physics.

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

Oooh this sounds like worth checking out.

Michiel Hendriks • Sep 7 '20

The huge cubicle farm, what's not to love... No wait, that wasn't it.

riidom • Sep 7 '20 • Edited

Star Wars, but the book, written after the movie. I needed a few years to realize there is a movie too :)
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon The Stars
The Black Hole (movie from 1979)

(all of these in german translation, when it comes to prose, the foreign-language-barrier definitely sits between me and my entertainment value)

And how I feel about them now? Well I have to guess, I sadly lost all my books from that time. I think the Star Wars book may feel weird now, since the movie blends in whether you want or not. Vernor Vinge's book I would read again, it's timeless. And The Black Hole.. uff.. I think it'd show its age in a bad way nowadays.

Utkarsh Talwar • Sep 8 '20

Haha isn't that the best when you discover another related piece of media exists in the same franchise? I was so happy when I first saw the Percy Jackson movie only to then discover there's a book series, which I promptly started reading!

Ahh I feel your comment about The Black Hole movie. It probably has some problematic elements, I assume?