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(redirected from Main.UST)

Sexual tension. Gross.

Gert, Runaways

Two people are obviously attracted to each other, but some element of the story is keeping them apart. This tension is frequently referred to as UST in fandom, where it is pronounced "oost" or Yu-Ess-Tee.

See Will They Or Wont They. UST is also a cousin of Just Friends. Moment Killer is a staple of a UST relationship.

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Examples:

• This may or may not be the whole point of Bones.
  • According to Word Of God, this is the whole point of Bones.
• Law And Order Special Victims Unit between Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson; the Elephant In The Living Room until the episode "Fault."
  • Neal Baer, head writer for the show, has also said that Olivia has UST with Assistant DA Alexandra Cabot.
  • Many fans of the different L&O franchises maintain that the UST between Goren and Eames, on Law And Order Criminal Intent, is more believable, especially since Stabler/Benson has been vetoed by Word Of God.
• The Firefly-class merchanteer Serenity had so much of this hanging in the air, they could probably have turned a profit by selling it in bottles.
  • The entire concept was skewered beautifully in the episode "War Stories", however. Wash, sick of being left on the ship during most jobs (what with being the pilot), declares his suspicion of UST between his wife Zoe and Captain Mal Reynolds. Said captain is dumbfounded by the very suggestion; while the two of them do have an extensive history, their relationship is only that of old friends/war buddies. Once the situation has resolved, however, Mal and Zoe make a show of it, just to needle Wash for being overly suspicious. There's so little romantic chemistry that even hardened mercenary Jayne, normally the crudest and most lecherous of the crew, is unnerved.
• Pam and Jim from the American version of The Office. So much so that, were it to actually be resolved, the show could lose its reason to air.
  • Soon after Pam and Jim hooked up, the show was forced off the air by to the Writers' Guild of America strike. Coincidence?
• Mulder and Scully. 'Nuff said.
• Stargate SG-1: O'Neill and Carter flirt with this, but behind-the-scenes forces make any romantic feelings between them genuinely appear and disappear at apparent random (as opposed to Will They Or Wont They.) Nonetheless, the shippers got a carrot-on-a-stick at least once a season, and TV Guide reports that two people may or may not kiss in the new movie.
• Sliders: Being a Genre Blind Chick Magnet, Quinn has this with both female regulars as well as any Girl Of The Week. Ironically, Quinn is eventually replaced by his Alternate Universe counterpart, who seeks girls a lot more actively but doesn't have nearly the same luck as the other Quinn, who wasn't really looking.
• Present between Maddie and Jonathan on several episodes of Jonathan Creek. Refreshing in that both actors were well outside the established romantic lead type.
• Grissom and Sara. "Pin me," anyone?
  • Still present even though they've gotten together, although now it's more like "Repressed Sexual Tension" since two members of the same shift aren't supposed to date. Plus, Grissom's her supervisor.
• This was the whole premise of Moonlighting, a romantic Dramedy series starring Bruce Willis and Cybil Sheppard as private detectives. The whole show jumped the shark in the fifth season when they finally consummated their relationship; the tension was simply gone and it become yet another sitcom.
  • Lampshaded in the series finale, a great example of the show's frequent Breaking The Fourth Wall. The two detectives come back to the office to find it being dismantled by people working for ABC; an ABC network executive tells them that viewers had enjoyed watching them fall in love, but after they'd already fallen they lost interest.
• A TV Guide critic from the mid-90s had a wittier acronym for this - Long Unresolved Sexual Tension.
• The title character and his doctor in the extremely short-lived show Jake 2.0. While they came close at one point to "consummating their relationship", the show was canceled before anything could come of it.
• In one episode of Justice League, after remotely watching Hawkgirl and Green Lantern deal with one of his booby-traps, the Joker cheerfully comments about the two's UST. And then tries to blow them up.
  Joker: Will Green Lantern ever admit to his feelings? Will Hawkgirl ever stop sublimating her passions with that big honking mace? Will true love conquer all? Not on my show. *BOOM*
  • The episode itself ends this with blatant obviousness for a cartoon. After the UST is resolved, we hear an offscreen voice say "It's about time" - and then a cut to a woman winning the jackpot at a slot machine. Hmm...
• Essentially the series spanning relationship of Harm and Mac in JAG, as half of their spats in and outside the courtroom liked to play with this. The wake of failed relationships also seemed to keep their UST alive and well, as both Harm and Mac would have a new love interest by mid-season or the start of a new season. This lasted until the final episode where they decide to finally get married.
• Shakespeare. Benedick and Beatrice, Romeo and Juliet in their first scenes, Viola and Orsino, Viola and Olivia.... this is a staple of his comedies. In his tragedies, sex seems to fall by the wayside (Hamlet notwithstanding). This is rather tricky of him to pull off, considering the women were played by boys probably half the age of the men's actors.
• Friends anybody? That show lived off UST, they'll resolve it once then something will go wrong and it'll build up again over time, over and over again.
• Goldie Gold and Travis Jack from Goldie Gold And Action Jack
• Niles and Daphne on Frasier, in one of the most drawn-out examples, with some absolutely brutal Moment Killers and a plethora of Paolos. Opinion is mixed on the effect of them getting together on the last seasons of the show. It ran for four more years thereafter, and even after they did get together, it took them almost an entire season to consummate. Of the four seasons, they were married for two. It could be argued that since they were not the nominal lead characters, this did not have a Moonlighting effect, and the producers even said that they did it because the couple, official or not, had taken too much focus away from the lead character (significant damage to Kelsey Grammer's ego may have also played a role). It is true that Frasier's own stories became more interesting after his brother's (and maid's) coupling (yeah, I know Daphne isn't really a maid, but she fits the archetype). There are those who think that the portrayal of N&D as a couple was realistic, genuine, sweet, and enjoyable, and others who argue vociferously that they became cutesy and saccharine, and that Niles lost many of his integral character traits as a result.

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