Ship Tease/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:sherlock-watson-bbc_7671.jpg|frame|[[Sherlock|"Not his date!"]]]]

 

* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''

** One semi-persistent tease was Xena and Ares.

* After Paul Gross learned of ''[[Due South]]'' slash fanfiction, he started turning the [[Ho Yay]] between Ray K and Fraser [[Up to Eleven]]. They finish the series riding into the sunset together. Case closed.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' writer [[Russell T. Davies]] seems fond of writing kisses between the Doctor and his companion solely so they can be shown in trailers. Both the last two season openers have done this. [[Intimate Healing|Both kisses were for]] [[Applied Phlebotinum]] [[Intimate Healing|reasons]]. In season two, another character had taken over Rose's body. The kiss in season three was explained by the Doctor as a "genetic transfer" to help Martha (whom he had only just met) get the attention of the [[Monster of the Week|Judoon]] by showing non-human traces on their scanner. The kiss in the season four trailer was inevitably something similar.

** Similarly, the character of Romana was invented solely to tease the audience. She was another Time Lord of comparable age at the time Tom Baker was the youngest actor to have played the Doctor, they had brilliant on-screen chemistry ([[Romance on the Set|Baker even ended up]] ''[[Romance on the Set|marrying]]'' [[Romance on the Set|Lalla Ward]], who played Romana II), but the writers ''just would not'' go the extra distance.

*** Then "The End of Time" took all that Ship Tease and just lit it on fire. "I don't know what I'd be without you." Awwww.

*** While definitely less blatant, Doctor/Master teasing is hardly a new phenomenon. "A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about", anyone?

** The [[Big Finish]] audio "The Boy That Time Forgot" does this for Adric/Nyssa. ''Hard.'' Nyssa confesses to Adric that she did love him once, and [[Love Makes You Crazy|Adric is clearly in love with her to the point of]] ''[[Love Makes You Crazy|insanity.]]'' The catch? [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Timey-wimey stuff]] has turned Adric into [[Jerkass Woobie|a mad, centuries-old man with a lust for revenge against the Doctor for leaving him for dead]], not to mention [[A God Am I|having an entire civilization of giant genius insects at his beck and call.]] ...Yeah, it's pretty clear that [[Will They or Won't They?|They Won't.]]

'''Rani:''' You mean if something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen? [They notice they're holding hands and let go] }}

*** And in ''The Empty Planet'', Rani and Clyde are the only two ones left in the whole wide world. Clyde muses that perhaps, the one who stole away all humanity wanted the human race to start again; and as they're the only ones left, they've got the roles of Adam and Eve in that plan. Rani doesn't like the idea. At the end of the episode, when the human race is back again, they say that they'll never be alone - they've always got each other. As cute as it is, it's [[Ship Tease]] in its purest form.

* Done to a point that it started to get annoying in the first two seasons of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' with Leonard and Penny. In the pilot she took a shower in their apartment causing Leonard to become even more flustered than before. Then in the season finale, Penny was drunk and kissed Leonard only for Leonard to be [[Above the Influence]]. Season 2 had them go on a date in the first episode, but he manages to screw that up. Then, in the Christmas episode, they ''both'' end up drunk and almost have sex. Only for him to screw it up ''again''. The season 2 finale had Penny beginning to realize her feelings for him, but she [[Cannot Spit It Out]] and he leaves for 3 months on a research trip. Considering the Season 3 finale, it seems likely that it'll be teased in season 4.

** Sheldon and Penny are blatantly teased in some episodes (mostly in ones where one or both sing ''Soft Kitty''), despite [[Word of God]] (both the writers ''and'' the actors) saying the pairing will never happen.

* An early ''[[Farscape]]'' episode has D'Argo hallucinating that Zhaan is his long-dead wife, and making out with her, with Zhaan obliging to protect his fragile mental state. Lots of speculation followed that the writers were building to the two getting together, especially when the makeout session appeared in the opening credits for a while. Nothing ever happened.

** Also, some of the very early episodes hint that Zhaan and Crichton would hook up, which was abandoned pretty quickly in favor of Crichton and Aeryn.

* "Don't Ever Change", the last pre-strike episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', seemed to be taking a nearly unholy glee in teasing as many shippers as possible. In one episode, they managed to tease 13/Cuddy, Wilson/Cuddy, House/Cuddy, House/13, 13/Cameron, and '''House/Wilson'''. There's really no explanation other than that the writers, faced with the strike, decided to go out having as much fun as possible.

** The writers have been doing this with House/Cuddy for ages. By season three it was pretty clear that he has strong feelings for her, but whenever they seem to bring it to a point where it could lead anywhere they drop it and ignore it for a few weeks, before starting it up again.

** In season 6, the House/Wilson text has ceased to be anything even close to "sub", and entered a whole new realm of Ho Yay Shipper Baiting. While it's obviously there just for laughs, it's also clear that the writers are aware of the slasher-base, and have decided to take the "married couple routine" one step further. In one scene, ''Wilson publicly got down on his knees and proposed'' to House. It was completely part of a ruse and not real at all, but still, damn. Talk about a big shiny present for the House/Wilson shippers.

* The ''[[Shake It Up]]'' episode ''Add It Up'' brings a ship tease for the Ty/Tinka pairing. However, it's never mentioned again.

* ''[[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]]'' has a huge following of Ricky/Amy, likely because they have a baby together. The writers picked up on it, and seem to adore [[Ship Tease|teasing it]]/[[Ship Sinking|smashing it]]/[[Ship Tease|teasing it again]] as much as they can. There have been quite a few previews with various characters saying "Do you still have feelings for Ricky?" to Amy or vice versa before fade to black. When the episode is actually shown, Ricky or Amy follows the question with a fierce NO!

** There was also the episode of their son's first birthday party, where Amy ended up spending the night at Ricky's apartment. [[Shipping Goggles|It's vague enough]] that she could have just spent the night....or she could have spent the night.

* [[Brother-Sister Incest|Justin and Alex]] in ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]''. The movie is just one giant ship tease after another.

** In a Season 3 episode, they pretend to be ''married''.

** Many seem to not care the situation in which Justin and Alex are situated and still believe they will probably kiss or get together at one point. There were so many questions from the fans, regarding their relationship, to the point where the creators of the show got used to them. In a live chat show, [[Word of God]]'s reaction was something like this:

'''Todd J. Greenwald:''' (laughs) They are ''[[Brother-Sister Incest|brother and sister]]'', people. }}

** Though it seems the [[Ship Tease]] and the [[Relationship Writing Fumble]] was pretty major in the last seasons and especially [[The Movie]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxEPOEIav1c WhatTheBuck] funnily commented on their relationship, stating that Justin and Alex are actually lovers and that they will soon have wizard babies.

** ''Smallville'' does this with everybody. They also teased Pete and Chloe, Clark and Lois (before they became the [[Official Couple]]) and [[The Baroness|Tess]] and well, everyone, from [[The Hero|Clark]] to [[Anti-Hero|Oliver]] to [[Big Bad|Major Zod]] to (most recently) [[Gadgeteer Genius|Emil]].

* On ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', the second half of Alex Cabot's farewell episode throws a bone to the Alex/Olivia shippers in almost ''every scene''.

* ''[[Bones]]'' Season 3 is largely considered a tease for Booth/Brennan, well the whole show's purpose seems like a big tease for the [[OTP]].

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' has ''more'' than a few indications of this between John and [[Robot Girl|Cameron]], not the least of which is a scene at the end of "Vick's Chip" where John, leaning over Cameron while she is still deactivated, stops to affectionately stroke her hair.

** There's also some Ship Teasing between Future!John Connor and Cameron, as well as some subtle indicators of Future!John and Allison. It does ''not'' help that Cameron and Allison look ''exactly'' alike, and that Cameron can apparently ''become'' Allison in personality...

* The first couple of seasons of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' appeared to be building up to a relationship between Captain Janeway and her second-in-command Chakotay, only for nothing to happen. According to the [[Word of God]] the whole issue was 'resolved' in the end-of-season episode "Resolutions", yet such hints continued throughout the series until the [[Last-Minute Hookup]] between Chakotay and Seven of Nine.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'', despite having an onscreen chemistry that was practically explosive, the writers ignored the dramatic potential of a Mulder-Scully relationship until just prior to David Duchovny's departure (and, arguably, until long-time fans no longer really cared). The 2nd movie resorts to cheap [[Hand Wave]] and [[It's the Only Way]] plot twists to play this aspect of the series down.

** In ''the pilot episode'', Scully goes to Mulder's motel room in the middle of the night, wearing a robe and not much else, and asks him to look at some marks that have appeared on her back. Then they seemingly have a slumber party. And this isn't deliberate?!

** Scully's sister goes to Mulder's darkened apartment in "One Breath" (when Scully is comatose in hospital) and has a nice and tense conversation with him. Unsurprisingly, the writers later admitted that this was remnants of a possible relationship that had been nixed.

** Chris Carter has said a good deal of that tension was more or less a happy accident, that came about mostly because Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny just have a crazy amount of natural chemistry. The writers took that and ran with it like a football.

** There's also a good case for some shipteasing between Mulder and Krycek, particularly the kiss in "The Red And The Black"

* John Sheppard and Elizabeth Weir on ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''.

** Rodney McKay, whilst experiencing a second childhood, is distressed and calls only for John Sheppard in the 'Stargate Atlantis' episode "The Shrine", despite the fact that Jennifer Keller, the woman he supposedly loves, is sitting right in front of him.

** Later in ''SG-1'', General Landry and Dr. Lam are introduced in the same episode, and have quite a few scenes which seem to imply without explicitly stating that they have a prior relationship. Eventually it's revealed that he's actually her father.

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' seemed to ship Picard and Dr. Crusher, especially in the [[Psychic Link]] episode "Attached".

** Very notably in the episode "The Naked Now", where a virus of sorts makes everyone act as if they are drunk, and Crusher and Picard are very obviously attracted to each other.

** The implied shipping is effectively delivered in "All Good Things", the last episode of the series. It's the future, and it's revealed that {{spoiler|Picard and Crusher not only had a relationship, they eventually married. And then divorced}}.

** The second season premiere ramps this up to a new level. In addition to the expected Ballard/Echo and Victor/Sierra, there's some gratuitous Whiskey/Echo and Ivy/Sierra, as well as a rather disturbing Topher/Claire scene.

** Echo/Bennett and Caroline/Bennett are both heavily implied in different ways.

*** A later episode featured {{spoiler|Topher and Bennett kissing}}, which had shippers exploding with glee right up until {{spoiler|Saunders kills Bennett.}} Talk about your [[Moment Killer]]...

* Cleverly used by the writers of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. Barney and Robin have had a huge fanbase since season one, and in the season three episode ''Sandcastles in the Sand'' Barney offers Robin comfort after a breakup and the two of them get cosy at the bar before Robin asks Barney to come back home with her. Cut to Robin's apartment where Barney asks if she's sure about this and she insists that it is, prompting him to ask "So should I just...put it in?" And it turns out he's talking about her second Robin Sparkles video. Cleverly done because {{spoiler|they actually do hook up in that episode, but when it happens they don't build up to it, it just happens.}}

* [[Tina Fey]] has said that her ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'' character will never hook up with Jack, but she seems to be going out of her way to imply that they might.

** Particularly in "The Problem Solvers."

* ''[[Skins]]'' does this quite a bit - most notably in the third series with the Cook/JJ ship. Teases (usually one or more in each episode) include Cook putting his hand on JJ's knee less then five minutes into the first episode, hugging JJ, kissing JJ's cheek twice, licking JJ's cheek, touching JJ's crotch while talking about the time they went to a brothel together, clinging to JJ while dancing, tickling JJ, doing a strange victory dance which consisted of grinding against JJ's thigh and not much else, pulling down JJ's pants (not seen, but described by another character) and ''grabbing JJ's head, pulling it into his lap and playing at 'JJ is giving me a blowjob'.''

** And somewhere around the middle of Katie's S4 episode, Katie/Effy teasing - which had been around as a kind of background for a while - suddenly kicked into overdrive.

* On ''[[Stargate Universe]]'', one of the Kino webisodes has a female soldier using the [[Body Swap|communication stones]] express an interest in Eli...while using Chloe's body. Just to make things worse, she is played by Chloe's actress (Elyse Levesque), while the normal convention has the character portrayed by whoever is using the body in question.

* ''[[Rizzoli and Isles]]'' does this with the [[Les Yay|titular pair]].

* ''[[Glee]]'' does this with every pairing you could conceive of -- [[Crack Pairing|and some you couldn't]] -- but fans are getting particularly invested in Kurt and his [[Sexy Mentor]] Blaine. Between the hand-holding, the casual touching, and the {{spoiler|romantic duet}}, even [[NY Mag]].com is saying "Make out, make out, make out already!"

** Speaking of Kurt and Blaine - this is arguably the entire point of the otherwise completely plot-irrelevant [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHhPHfXYpe4 "Baby, It's Cold Outside,"] in which Blaine contrives the [[Lame Excuse]] of "rehearsing for a Christmas performance" to eyesex Kurt whilst Kurt himself spends the song giving Blaine "come hither" eyes and playing hard to get.

* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': Rimmer and Lister [[Ho Yay|kissing]] in "Blue".

** The teasing for this pairing started as early as ''the second episode''. "Two babies? How do I get two babies? (looks at Rimmer's crotch)."

* A ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode in which Lwaxana Troi gets a psychic illness that makes her project her affection towards Odo onto others, exists almost solely for this: We have Sisko/Dax, Bashir/Kira, Bareil/Dax, Jake/Kira, and [[Squick|Quark/Keiko]].

* All of the possible pairings between two members of the study group in ''[[Community]]'' have at one time or another been teased. Gets pretty crazy when even Abed/Pierce is given scene time with a montage of private moments set to music.

* Ted and Peggy in ''[[Just Cause (TV series)|Just Cause]]''. The writers stick them together for three episodes that make it look like they're starting a relationship, beginning with him teaching her how to rollerblade and ending with her inviting him to a Christmas party at her parents' house. It's later implied that they talk regularly, although not necessarily that they're dating, but they [[Ships That Pass in the Night|never interact on screen again for the rest of the series]], before or after.

* The writers of ''[[Weeds]]'' have been consciously torturing the [[Fan-Preferred Couple|Nancy/Andy]] shippers since at least season four, what with them often [[Sleep Cute|sleeping in the same bed]], [[No Sense of Personal Space|constantly invading each other's personal space for no reason at all]], [[All Love Is Unrequited|Andy being in love with her]], [[Fake-Out Make-Out|fake-out make-outs]] and tons of other teasing scenes.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''

** '''The''' most popular pairing in the fandom is [[Idiosyncratic Ship Naming|Wincest]] between Sam and Dean. The writers know this and have tossed around both Ship Teasing and [[Ship Sinking]] with equal maliciousness. Zachariah states that the two are "psychotically, irrationally, erotically co-dependent on each other", one episode has the brothers going to Heaven and showing, that unlike the majority of people who each get their own little slice of Heaven, the brothers actually share one (another character explains that only happens with soul-mates), and Lisa, the girl who Dean eventually, finally, settles down to have a 'normal' life with comments on the relationship: "You two have the most unhealthy, tangled up, crazy thing that I've ever seen."

** Archangel Michael's taunting Dean about his "precious little Sammy."

** There are just as many (if not more!) teases for Dean and Castiel than there are for Wincest, given the innumerable times that Castiel has [[No Sense of Personal Space|invaded Dean’s personal space]] (but almost ''never'' anyone else's) and the fact that he’s more likely to appear when Dean prays for him than if Sam does.

*** In “The Third Man” Cas admits he likes Dean better than Sam:

'''Castiel''': Dean and I do share a more profound bond. I wasn't going to mention it. }}

*** One more in “My Heart Will Go On”

*** “Mommy Dearest”

'''Castiel''': I wasn't in your... }}

* The writers of [[Victorious]] seem to have latched onto the popular Jade/Tori pairing. One acting exercising has the two of the two of them playing a married couple. Plus a future episode signals the end of Jade and Beck is near so...

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has at least one tease per show. Actual couples are pretty rare (and, unfortunately, there's a [[No Hugging, No Kissing]] rule since after the ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' era).

** ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': [[Official Couple|Kimberly and Tommy]], Tommy and Kat, Billy and Trini, Skull and Kimberly

** ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'': Cole and Alyssa, Merrick and Shayla

** ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'': Tori and Blake, Tori and Cam, [[Dating Catwoman|Dustin and Marah]]

** ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'': Chip and Vida

** ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'': Lily and Theo

** ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'': Dillon and Summer, Summer and Scott, Dr. K and Ziggy, Flynn and Gemma

* Betty and Kate on Canadian period drama ''[[Bomb Girls]]''.

* ''[[Sherlock]]'''s Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Complete with multiple [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?]] moments, and entirely too much flirting. [[Steven Moffat]] and [[Mark Gatiss]] ''have'' to be having the shippers on at this rate.

'''Sherlock''': People do little else. }}

** We have Bill/Sam (played [[Up to Eleven]] in season three) and Jason/Hoyt (dream sequence sex scene in season four) as the prime examples. But there's a lot more than that. Season two had heavy undertones for [[Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?|Sam/Maryann]] and season four gravitated towards [[Stalker with a Crush|Steve McNewlin]]/Jason in the season finale.