On the Art of Shipping (for Me Anyway)
Jan. 18th, 2008 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meddowRumour has it that Ashes to Ashes is going to start in early February. I have my doubts about it with the changed location and missing Sam and Annie. On the other hand, it’s got the Gov, so I’m really looking forward to it.
I was flicking through TV a few nights ago when I had a “Hey! It’s Toby” moment. Richard Schiff was in something or rather. Unfortunately, after about five seconds and one line, his character was shot dead, which I suppose beats being torn in two by a pair of T-Rexs.
I do miss The West Wing. I remember falling in love with it when I was young an idealistic. I do have a strange relationship with it though, since I was forced to give it up a few episodes into the six seasons and only watched the final after that, and the fifth season is a haze, so really only the first four exist for me.
Anyway, this sudden appearance of Toby on my TV brought back a wave of nostalgia. And then I watched Hairspray the other night, which is good but doesn’t have nearly enough Allison Janney in it, and that brought back my West Wing OTP: CJ/Toby. It was the greatest ship, there was little to nothing textual other than the fact they knew each other before the campaign and it was pretty much entirely based on the chemistry of the actors. Yet it seemed to be the fandom consensus that they were at it like bunnies. Actually, shipping the West Wing was glorious. It took six and a half seasons for Josh and Donna to get together. CJ and Toby never did, she ended up with Danny.
Thinking about it, I like having my ships only on the verge of being canon. Or a sideline couple that rarely gets attention. It makes you work for them. It’s like a scavenger hunt through canon for those little moments and you get wonderful shipper joy out of an exchange or a glance and revel in just having the two characters in a scene together enjoying each other’s company. And really, the lines left unsaid and the stories untold can be so much more interesting because if you’re like me, you come up with them yourself, and then they are subject to endless revision and told with so much more detail than the show would ever give you. The ship becomes yours because you’ve put so much effort into it.
I think this explains away most if not all of my favourite ships. CJ and Toby had this backstory that was never really touched upon and a chemistry between the actors that was undeniable. We were only given the briefest snapshots of Remus and Tonks’ relationship, leaving so many endless possibilities of how they got there. Elizabeth and Norrington is so much about his inability to express his devotion and her failure to see it. Sarah and the Fourth Doctor’s relationship is entirely about those moments they can’t look at each other and the things they don’t say to the other, and the subtlety of those that they do. Sandra and Noah have at most five scenes devoted to them in 35 episodes and under the perfect exterior such a complex mess of a marriage that’s only ever touched upon.
So you can have your confessions of love and your romantic kisses and the endless will they-won’t theys and the occasional spectacular break-ups along the way, and that’s fine But really, just give me two actors with chemistry or two interesting characters in a relationship with some mystery and I’m better than good, I’m enjoying myself.
I was flicking through TV a few nights ago when I had a “Hey! It’s Toby” moment. Richard Schiff was in something or rather. Unfortunately, after about five seconds and one line, his character was shot dead, which I suppose beats being torn in two by a pair of T-Rexs.
I do miss The West Wing. I remember falling in love with it when I was young an idealistic. I do have a strange relationship with it though, since I was forced to give it up a few episodes into the six seasons and only watched the final after that, and the fifth season is a haze, so really only the first four exist for me.
Anyway, this sudden appearance of Toby on my TV brought back a wave of nostalgia. And then I watched Hairspray the other night, which is good but doesn’t have nearly enough Allison Janney in it, and that brought back my West Wing OTP: CJ/Toby. It was the greatest ship, there was little to nothing textual other than the fact they knew each other before the campaign and it was pretty much entirely based on the chemistry of the actors. Yet it seemed to be the fandom consensus that they were at it like bunnies. Actually, shipping the West Wing was glorious. It took six and a half seasons for Josh and Donna to get together. CJ and Toby never did, she ended up with Danny.
Thinking about it, I like having my ships only on the verge of being canon. Or a sideline couple that rarely gets attention. It makes you work for them. It’s like a scavenger hunt through canon for those little moments and you get wonderful shipper joy out of an exchange or a glance and revel in just having the two characters in a scene together enjoying each other’s company. And really, the lines left unsaid and the stories untold can be so much more interesting because if you’re like me, you come up with them yourself, and then they are subject to endless revision and told with so much more detail than the show would ever give you. The ship becomes yours because you’ve put so much effort into it.
I think this explains away most if not all of my favourite ships. CJ and Toby had this backstory that was never really touched upon and a chemistry between the actors that was undeniable. We were only given the briefest snapshots of Remus and Tonks’ relationship, leaving so many endless possibilities of how they got there. Elizabeth and Norrington is so much about his inability to express his devotion and her failure to see it. Sarah and the Fourth Doctor’s relationship is entirely about those moments they can’t look at each other and the things they don’t say to the other, and the subtlety of those that they do. Sandra and Noah have at most five scenes devoted to them in 35 episodes and under the perfect exterior such a complex mess of a marriage that’s only ever touched upon.
So you can have your confessions of love and your romantic kisses and the endless will they-won’t theys and the occasional spectacular break-ups along the way, and that’s fine But really, just give me two actors with chemistry or two interesting characters in a relationship with some mystery and I’m better than good, I’m enjoying myself.
