To comment on my own introduction into speculative fiction:

Star Trek the Animated Series was the first I saw. Followed by some Saturday Morning cartoons, like Space Ghost. Saw Star Wars in the theaters not long after. (I also saw the 70s versions of Wonder Woman and the Hulk on TV on occasion and the Adam West Batman a time or two.)

I was a fan of non-fiction science books, especially books about dinosaurs and outer space. When I got to my middle school library in 5th grade I saw a section marked “Science Fiction” and wanted to know what that was because I was interested in science. My first science fiction book was Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein, which was the first sci fi novel he wrote (the title is what drew me). I read all of the sci fi by Heinlein available to me in that library, which was all his clean work (post 1960s, his sci fi was drenched in sex, as I discovered around the age of 16). I also read a pile of other science fiction writers of the “Golden Age” of science fiction of the 1950s. Lester Del Rey, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Frederick Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke–and some few post-golden era sci fi writers like Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and eventually Michael Crichton.

A Christian I knew recommended Narnia to me, so I read the 7 books in that series about the time I was reading a lot of sci fi. I then read Terry Brooks Sword of Shanarra, and some other fantasy books, including some sex-and-slavery-drenched Conan the Barbarian and Gor series books (about the same time I discovered Heinlein’s obsession with sex post 1960s). Eventually I read Tolkein. Gimly was my favorite character my first read through.

I didn’t have access to a television when Star Trek The Next Generation came out. I’ve seen Star Trek Deep Space Nine was the first sci fi series on TV I followed episode by episode.