Matthew Knott

Did you have crazy ideas about things it would be great to have or do, that are clearly fantastical but as a child seem strangely achievable?

I had a seriously over active imagination, and built up amazing adventures around these elaborate day dreams. Here's 5 that I can remember...

Did you have crazy ideas about things it would be great to have or do, that are clearly fantastical but as a child seem strangely achievable?

I had a seriously over active imagination, and built up amazing adventures around these elaborate day dreams. Here's 5 that I can remember...

1. Build / Find / Acquire A Robot Minder

One of the most vivid fantasies I remember having as a child was having some kind of humanoid robot protector. I just remember thinking how cool it would be to go to school with my own personal body guard and sort everyone out. In more of a righting wrongs sort of way as opposed to a full on massacre.

When I was 9 / 10 I started trying to build small mechanical robots without much success. Rather than being protectors these were more like gadget packed r2-d2 clones.

Looking back this was probably born out of being picked on a fair bit and thinking about how cool it would be to watch my robo-pal rip these pricks to pieces. 

2. Space Saving Bed

Ah the Space-Saving bed. Now, an ordinary child, at hearing they were getting one of these may not be that excited, but when I heard space saving, I didn't see a high up s[ace generating bed, I saw a freakin' x-wing. My dad, being a capenter, was no doubt somewhat confused by my constant nagging for this bed, then one day he showed me the plans.

No cockpit, no lasers, no space hatch... gutted.

3. Replica Falcon

I'm still not letting this one go, build a replica of the Millennium Falcon in my back garden.

Early attempts resulted in my dad getting fed up of the drive being blocked, and I nearly knocked half my teeth out in the construction process.

4. Go to space in the defiant

Never before (in Star Trek anyway) has a ship captured my imagination the way the Defiant on DS9 did. It had everything, cool guns, speed, maneuverability and a cloaking device.

This was one of my favourite teen fantasies, dreaming about leaving earth on this bad boy and tear-arsing across the galaxy having fun. Another fine product of an over-active imagination.

5. Build A Frikkin' Laser

When I was about 9, I had this really strong desk lamp. The bulb got seriously hot. Using a hypothesis I formulated (pretty impressive for an 8 year old I think) I proposed that if I created a cone of smooth tin foil, the light would bounce around inside the cone, and what would come out of the tip would be some kind of death ray, focusable using concave / convex lenses. I actually finished this one, alas it didn't work, probably just as well.