Uhura/Chapel
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Uhura/Chapel |
| Alternative name(s): | Chuhura |
| Gender category: | Femslash |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | Rare |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
Uhura/Chapel is the femslash pairing of Uhura and Christine Chapel in Star Trek: The Original Series fandom.
The Kiss
Fans of this pairing sometimes half-jokingly say that them kissing in the episode What Are Little Girls Made Of was the "first interracial kiss in the TV history" rather than Kirk/Uhura kiss in Plato's Stepchildren.
David Gerrold once referred to this kiss in the same light, and Geoff Allshorn expanded upon this idea by deconstructing this kiss far more favourably (and in greater historical/contextual context) than the kiss from Plato's Stepchildren.
History
Kismet by Dani Morin in Obsc'zine #2 is a story some fans consider one of the very earliest examples of femslash in a media zine. In "Kismet", Uhura and Chapel, lovers, speculate on the gossip that Kirk and Spock are, too. Obsc'zine #2 was published in August 1977.
Another early Uhura/Chapel story is A Time Out Of Fragment by Paula Smith, a short non-explicit parody of the famous A Fragment Out of Time. It describes Chapel waiting for a mysterious lover and ends with the lines: "The door glided open; Christine's heart sped. She could never mistake that body; it was her love. The slender form approached as Christine reached out for the dusky hands and said lovingly, 'Uhura.'" It was published in Warped Space #20 in October 1976.
Fan Comments Regarding the Uphill Battle
1999
1980
I just got INTERSTAT #29. What have we here? Yet another re-hash of the "I'm more Feminist than you" argument, only with Trekkish overtones, . Leslie complains that we don't write "feminist" because we're writing Kirk/Spock stories instead of Uhura/Chapel stuff. Aside from the fact that Star Trek was originally a male-oriented show, there's no reason that a writer, male OR female, couldn't use the Chapel/Uhura stuff in fanlit — except that it's not particularly exciting! (Of course, there are a couple of stories in he Obsc'zine, and Guardian…). [2]
2007
There wasn't much discussion about femmeslash because, until Blake’s 7, there just wasn’t much of it (the occasional Chapel/Uhura or Uhura/Rand story aside). [3]
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Ship's Night by lynndyre
- So This is Love lost_in_thyme_and_spacebars
- Thrice a First Time by DanOfVulcan
- Kismet by Dani Morin
- Just a Little Comfort by unspecified author in Sappho
- A Time Out Of Fragment by Paula Smith (part of a trio of vignettes titled: "Filthy Funnies.")
Fanart
- TFW your shifts don’t overlap so you gotta get smooches from your wife on the fly! :/, Archived version by deheerkonijn
- Space Gal Pals™, Archived version by janedesarts
- Spreading some Uhura and Chapel love :3, Archived version by thegriffindiary
- garish set design and christine chapel in actual nursing shoes, Archived version by pencilscratchins
Art Gallery
The full text of A Time Out Of Fragment with the illustration for the story, art by Gordon Carleton
Archives and Links
- Christine Chapel/Nyota Uhura tag at Archive of Our Own
- Uhura + Chapel at FanFiction.net
- Some Uhura/Chapel moments discussed in the post by textsfromtos
- ^ from COCO CHANNEL Interview with Scarlet (1999)
- ^ comments by Roberta Rogow in Interstat #30 (April 1980)
- ^ comment by catalenamara at Sexuality and slash fandom (2007 post)