Pornokitsch

For those of you who don’t know, “shipping” in fandoms refers to supporting/encouraging a relationship between two (or more) characters, even (or especially) if they’ll never have a canonical relationship. For example: Percy/Annabeth is popular among the Percy Jackson series and is canon with the books. “Johnlock” (John Watson/Sherlock Holmes) is very popular among the Sherlock fandom and is obviously not canon (as if that’ll ever stop the fans). They are a lot of fun and I’ve spent an embarrassing number of hours reading fanfiction dedicated to certain ships.

What follows is a list of my favorite Star Trek: Alternate Original Series ships...*

Spock/Nyota

I have a strong suspicion that the AOS Star Trek came from the writers doing fanfiction on the original series and shipped this relationship.

This one took me a while to get used to. It seemed a bit too far-fetched at first, but seeing them over the course of three movies (and Jim and McCoy’s hilarious reactions to the relationship), it’s been growing on me. Spock gets to be the flustered boyfriend, and Uhura’s more than a pretty face in a miniskirt.

Plus, this way, there’s a potential baby Vulcan Uhura in the future. 

Chekov/Sulu

Sulu’s a badass with a sword and Chekov’s adorable. What’s not to love?

And this’ll occasionally lead to a fic where Chekov flips the tables and is awesome and saves the day (which is a refreshing break from him constantly needing rescuing or getting hurt; seriously, the kid’s more of a trouble-magnet than Kirk).

McCoy/Jim

These two already spend so much time together; forget the best friends thing, Jim gets stuck in medical all the time. We get to see McCoy’s I-care-about-you-a-lot-but-I’m-not-going-to-show-it-except-in-taking-care-of-you routine (he’s such a marshmallow, I love it), and we see some of Jim’s insecurities (which I love; I’m a sucker for angst, and insecure/self-hating characters are my jam).

And because McCoy’s Southern, we get a lot of really cute pet names.

Spock & McCoy

Note that I put an & for friendship rather than a / for a relationship - the relationship ones are just too weird.

We don’t get nearly as much time with these frenemies in the canon (or really in fanfic; trust me, I’ve looked), but I’m so happy that they got stranded together in Star Trek: Beyond. (I gushed about it a bit here). They’re just so different and their arguments are so much fun!

Jim/Spock

Come on. They’re practically space husbands, anyway.

So long as it takes place after the academy (because professor/student relationships are a very bad idea; wait until graduation), these stories are fantastic. The telepathy is really fun to play around with, they had a strained beginning (to put it mildly), and they’re almost polar opposites. There are literally hundreds of romance novels with those parameters.

So that’s it, the best 5 ‘ships in the Star Trek AOS fandom!

---

*Just remember to be very careful if you’re looking into this, because the internet will shatter your innocence like a hammer.

---

Guest post by Christina “DZA” Marie; the “DZA” stands for Dragons, Zombies, and Aliens. Her ongoing fantasy serial, The Flying Cobras, featuring a very unconventional adventuring party, is available now through Channillo.