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In the science fiction world, "Shipper" stands for for "relationshipper," and it means anybody who is completely obsessed with one particular couple on their favorite show. Usually, but not always, it's a non-romantic pairing that the Shipper wishes would get hot and sexy. We all have a little shipper in us, but some romanticism can easily slide into dangerous, capital-S Shipper territory. Take our quiz to find out how much of a Shipper you really are — if you dare!
QUIZ
1. Do you fight with your friends over whether Starbuck and Apollo would be better for each other than Starbuck and Anders on Battlestar Galactica? Or insist that Martha would be a more fit girlfriend for the Doctor than Rose, on Doctor Who? If you have these kinds of debates about any couples (real or potential) in a show, add 5 points to your score.
2. When you buy DVD box sets of your favorite show, do you skip to the episodes that show the most tension between people in your favorite couple? Plus 5 points for that. If you have ever bought a DVD that is specifically related to one relationship, like the Buffy/Spike special edition, give yourself 20 points.
3. Do you suspect it's just a scam to boost ratings when when two characters get together for a romantic liaison and then conveniently break it off one episode later? Take 5 points off your score.
4. Have you ever had a dream about your favorite couple from a TV show? Plus 5 points. Plus 20 points if you dreamed that you were one member of the couple.
5. Did you think the whole Han Solo/Princess Leia thing was either A) a lame plot diversion to get chicks to see a Star Wars movie, or B) a sexist plot to undermine Leia's power? If A or B, take 5 points off your score.
6. Did the love scenes between Padme and Anakin in Revenge of the Sith make you yearn for a fast-forward button? Well, that makes you normal. No points added or subtracted.
7. Have you ever thought maybe certain characters in the Star Trek universe are too slutty and need to settle down with certain characters who are more faithful? Give yourself 5 points.
8. Do you know that people write Shipper fiction on LiveJournal and share it with each other? Simply having that knowledge, even if you've never read any, means giving yourself 2 points.
9. Did you squeak - out loud OR in your mind - during the scene in Serenity when Kaylee and Simon got it on? Give yourself 5 points.
10. Are you bummed that Ripley from the Alien movies never hooked up with anybody? Plus 2 points. Have you tried to match her up in your mind with spaceship captains from other movies or TV shows? Plus 10 points.
SCORE
Less than 0 points. You're pragmatic about pop culture and maybe a little cynical about love.
Less than 10 points. You're just a normal person who enjoys science fiction and has occasional naughty thoughts.
10-20 points. Your ship is veering into Shipper territory. We suspect you fast-forward to the shippy parts of stories.
20-40 points. You've read at least one piece of fanfic, and more likely a thousand.
More than 41-50 points. Not only do you have a LiveJournal where you write about your favorite Ship, but you probably have a gang of friends who hate the rival Ship. You also refer to yourself as a Shipper in mixed company as if everybody knows what that means.
More than 50 points. You are to blame for the scene where Troi shaves Riker in the tub in Star Trek: Insurrection. Go sit in the corner with this silly hat on!
Comments
These are like a half step removed from people who write fan fiction. Do. Not. Want.
John Crichton/Aeryn Sun. I'll admit it. Also, when I was 15, I had a definite Shipper thing involving Deanna Troi and me.
In this context i'd rather be a handler than a shipper, but I'll accept the charges if you wait 6 to 10 weeks.
The term shipper is not limited to SF though. It's a fandom-wide thing...
@haguenite: True. I was just limiting it to SF for the purposes of io9. I even mentioned Buffy/Spike Shipping, which isn't strictly scifi. But I didn't go to the Very Big Ship Place, which as we all know is Harry Potter.
Just to clarify, at no point have I ever written fanfic. About anything. But especially not this.
I am not ashamed to say that I was/am a Xena Warrior Princess fan. I am a Xena/Ares shipper.
I fancied the pants off that guy. Hot hot hot!
@Her_royal_Highness: right....Xena isn't necessarily science fiction...but the creators did make cheesy sci-fi shows like Cleopatra 25/25. Oh dear...I am a geek!
Tho I am not a SciFi kinda gal, I am really obsessed with Jim and Pam of the American Office. It's actually pretty sick. I found all the things on YouTube that are still images of them from the show played with romantic tunes, and I was actually like "awww"... and then I realized how sad that is.
@Her_royal_Highness: Nothing wrong with that.
And yes, Sunn Crichton was good for everyone.
And Martha should stick with the doctor, but not as a relationship type thing. It's just all sorts of wrong for The Doctor. I hated when they wrote her all doe-ey eyed instead of you know, like a smart doctor type.
The ultimate shipper show of the 90s--The X-FILES. I shipped long and hard for that show and they rewarded me the way that shippers should be, with a shitty recast and steadily deteriorating quality. Yeeeah shipping!
yeah, 45 points-ish. I didn't know there was a term for it - I just thought it was part and parcel of being a geek. Buffy and Spike / Batou and Motoko / Jet Black and Faye, etc. What can I say - sf and anime brings out the pathetic lusting after never-can-be's in me.
Thanks cynical about love eh? Maybe cynical about TV show plots...
Oh nevermind.. I gave myself +5 for the Doctor who Martha thing... (for a total score of 0)
I don't have friends over to fight about it, but if I had freinds who watched Doctor Who, and they said Rose over Martha, ohh how I would fight them....
Bodyblow bodyblow.. UPPERCUT!
Oh, it works EVERYWHERE: Veronica/Logan -- OTP! Or, let's see... SF... uh...
Mulder/Scully -- OTP!
I do so love this site. Anyway, I scored only 5 points! I'm not sure whether to feel pride or shame in that regard.
@Her_royal_Highness: I miss Xena soooo much! I never could ship that show, though I kind of fantasized about Xena being with Ted Raimi as he was in SeaQuest instead of as Joxer.
So uh, is this the tame hetero version of slash?
@Annalee Newitz: Now THAT is some creative crossover fanfic.
I *like* it!
@Yes_Tim_Gunn: *points* n00b!
NO. It works for slash pairings, too.
Clark and Chloe. That's where I started. But now that Lois is on the show, seeing as how I'm a Superman fan, and not a Smallville fan, I'm all for that, because it's what happens, and what has to happen.
I'm also very anti-Clana.
And I have no other issues with shipping, but I have read fan-fic of Chlark and Clois. Of course, I've also read a lot of official Clois stories.
@goldenthorn: Jet and Faye? Spike and Faye. Get it right.
Oh great, I do have issues.
Too much math. How about John and Tayla (sp?) on Stargate Atlantis? Or Kirk and Spock in the new Trek movie? I'd like to see Kirk take it like man. Hehehe.
That would the science fiction fandom world, and a specific subset of it at that. There are plenty of us citizens of SFland who never worry about shippering.
The "Will Kate choose Jack or Sawyer" nonsense finally turned me off the Lost fandom websites -- especially since the two camps were the "Kack" and "Skate" camps. I'm a strictly spoilers, no speculation man now...
@Jackson West: Worst. Mashup Names. Ever.
"Kack?"
*shakes head*
@jaylake: It's "shipping," buster. Get it right! ;)
does it count if the couple requires rishathra for consumation?
@Defendant: Spike and Faye? heeeell, no! Faye is perfect for Jet. Jet's problem with women is that he overprotects them. Faye would keep him on his toes and not let him shelter/rescue her except when she actually needs help. And Spike was too hung up on Julia to ever really go for Faye, whatever the undertones. She would only ever have been second-best to his memories. Faye deserves fireworks, and being with Jet would be continuous fireworks (of all sorts!), and probably calm her down a fair bit, after a while... and Jet is much more attractive than Spike, anyway. I've always thought that he'd know how to take care of a woman, ifnyaknowwaimean, winkwink-nudgenudge.
(oh gods, oh gods, I'm a teenager again - I am a shipper... *sobs*)
I'm only the mundane form of shipper in that I ship, and also recieve, for a living.
I'm afraid I don't get the whole use-my-imaginary-psychic-powers-to-act-as-a-matchmaker-for-fictional-characters thing. But, whatever floats your boat.
-Kle.
@Klebert: Yeah, yeah. You and Jay are uber cool and above it all. The cooties have not besmirched you.
@ jeff-minor: teyla.
can't believe i admitted knowing that, but its teyla. And she got knocked up by an athosian dude.
In regards to #1, my friends and I agree that Martha is too good for the Doctor. Ideally, if she and Rose meet up in season 4, they should just forget about the Doctor and run off together to be awesome (or in Rose's case, learn how to be awesome from Martha). Martha Jones, agent of UNIT, meet Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf and um, shopgirl in an alternate universe.
@ohyeth: supposedly
Not a shipper, but Ripley did get some in Alien3 with Charles Dance's character.
@Lizfu: *sighs*
I barely rated above 10, with erring on the side of awarding points. This quiz is clearly calibrated wrong.
I think my score may have been hindered by:
a) Possibly there have been slutty Star Trek characters (Original Series), but is it really possible for them to be too slutty?
b) Everyone arguing Martha vs. Rose is insane.
Personally, I think the scariest shippers are the Harry Potter fans; they've got the crackiest names for their ships. For example, Wheezing Snitches (Fred Weasley/Harry Potter) and Ssssss (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter).
my girlfriend is not only a big-time potter-nerd, she's in a livejournal harry potter role-playing game. full of smut.
BUT MY DORKY HOBBIES ARE WAY COOLER THAN HER DORKY HOBBIES, MAAAAAAAAAAN.
@femto: Hahaha. Here is the funny thing. I was inspired to write this post because I was shopping for lotion in The Body Shop yesterday, and the woman working there saw my Doctor Who-esque hightops and asked, "Do you watch Doctor Who?" Thus followed the most surreal convo I have ever had with a salesperson in The Body Shop, and ended with her squeaking, "I'm a Rose Shipper!" Damn she was cute.
"Do you fight with your friends over whether Starbuck and Apollo would be better for each other than Starbuck and Anders on Battlestar Galactica? "
No, me and my friends think Apollo and Anders would make the hottest couple on tee vee.
@JennaW: well I feel welcome now.
ok ido admit to a few gwack thoughts (Gwen and Capt Jack)
squeeeeeeeee
@Annalee Newitz: Why are the cute ones always insane? ;-)
@Yes_Tim_Gunn: I just didn't think there were enough hazings at this site...
@JennaW: Fair enough! I wandered over via Jezebel because a whiff of slash was enough to pique my interest. Actually writing academically right now on slash in Smallville...
@Yes_Tim_Gunn: I should have known you were a Jezzie from your handle.
Huzzah! Academic SLASH -- and good choice in Smallville as your subject.
@DocGratis: Sarah Jane Smith FTW!
@Yes_Tim_Gunn: I await your academic paper so I can link to it!
@JennaW: Thanks! It's a point of pride how people's heads look in danger of exploding when I mention that I love Project Runway and and Heroes equally, and that I'm not getting enough work done on my (slash-featuring) dissertation because I love to knit while watching hockey too much. I'd like to hang around here more on io9 now that i know it exists!
@Annalee Newitz: Thanks kindly! Sadly it's a dissertation in its early stages at present, but I hope to expand the Smllville slash chapter out into a conference paper later this year. Showing Clex-y clips will be awfully fun.
@JennaW: Ohhh no.. HE is down... HE is not getting back up folks...
Jennaw is the NEW Doctor Who Shipper Champion...
@DocGratis: Nobody beats Sarah Jane!
wait..wait wait.. there's really a special dvd about Buffy and Spike??
I'm not a real shipper. Unless we're talking about that trainwreck that is HP. In that case, I simply beg forgiveness for my sins.
I'm a huge shipper for all of my fandoms. Buffy/Spike, LoVe (yes, I am that girl), and, most recently, Chuck/Sarah on Chuck... I need help.
heh: "shippering."
anybody on this thing watch Mad Men? i know it's not SciFi TV but it might as well be (emphasis on invented history, reliance on attractive surfaces of production design/costume design, props & fake history to dramatize an unreal world, plot lines involving virtual identity, etc)
anyhoo i do believe that Rachel is better for Don than his BORING wife but she is after all easy on the eyes and her "strange men in the house" fantasies are hot-making.
look, watch the show. it's hot as hell. no lasers though. but lots of the guys look like Alien messiah JR "Bob" Dobbs.
I'll be skipping on the shipping but first in line for the Cherry 2000 when yall do the sexiest anrdoid quiz.
doctor + rose 4eva fools!!
ahem. 14 points for me. i like a little shipping but whatevs.
I got -5....
I am a Shipper for anything involving Simon Tam. Period.
pfft. Het-Shipping? Why would you even want to?
Jack Sparrow/Will Turner for the win.
@Yatta!: My mind still reels that Simon actually got with Kaylee, because, HELLO, he's the gayest gay to ever gay in the 'verse! He was totally in love with Mal.
@Yatta!: Kaylee/Simon filled the void in my heart left by the emotional disaster that was Willow/Xander. Thanks Joss!
I haven't shipped since Romana Dvortrelundar hooked up with Birok, the Leonine Tharil time-walker in the third of the E-Space trilogy episodes "Warrior's Gate" in Dr. Who's Tom Baker years (also one of the best-written/directed episodes EVER in the series' history, IMHO, excepting, of course, the episode's moronic villain...)
Oh, okay, there was that business with Buffy and Spike...though, in all honesty, I was a bigger shipper for Willow and Tara...and was crushed with Tara was accidentally killed. But I think I did my best shipping with Sam Hurt's Comic strip EYEBEAM, with the relationship between Eyebeam, the main character, and his girlfriend, Sally... Eyebeam was the closest thing to a science fiction comic strip since Chester Gould took us to the moon in DICK TRACY back in the sixties... The Eyebeam strip is mostly in limbo, I think, but Sam might STILL be drawing episodes in his spare time... [www.samhurt.com] (shameless fan-plugz R Us)