The Misanthope's guide to Enterprise...

[Trekwatcher]

Sadistro,
While I do not agree with many of your points I like that you took the time to think about them and you make your arguments well. I could go on but I will keep this brief. I think that, to some extent, you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I think you are to some degree unfair in your assessment of Blalock's T'Pol, as I, among many, found her character interesting and a break from prior Vulcans. Also, the show is hardly reviled. Clearly, ENT had a smaller fanbase than other ST shows, and has some haters, but there is also a healthy ENT fanbase out there, which I consider myself a member of. As I have said before it gets better as it evolves and it plays much better on the 2nd run though than the first (which is not true for all of the series).

 

[Sadistro]

True, there are fans of the show (I am one!), but this must be measured against the sheer venom with which the people who dislike the show view it. I believe I have been supportive and appreciative of the show in general, but I do not ignore faults where I see them. And as I have said, I believe this show has several important ones (a reletively weak writing staff being chief among them).

As to T'Pol... I didn't say that I hated the character or the actress, but neither do I like either of them. I find her a very dry character, and fiddling around with Vulcan characters emotions is the oldest trick in the book - it's the one you go to when you can't think of anything else to do with them!

She just comes across as a bit of a cypher and the writers don't seem very interested in her either. Her inclusion in episodes always seems like 'well we have to, because she's the babe of the show'.

Also, the Trip/T'Pol romance seems to sit poorly with the writing staff - they pretty much drop it as soon as Braga and Berman step back. Mike Sussman makes it quite plain in his interviews (and it's pretty obvious looking at his season 1-2 episodes) that he would have preferred to write an Archer/T'Pol romance arc.

Incidentally, I got my Season 3 boxset the other day and am ploughing through the episodes. My initial reaction is... a bit disappointing so far, but it's alright I suppose.

 

[Mach5]

Also, the Trip/T'Pol romance seems to sit poorly with the writing staff - they pretty much drop it as soon as Braga and Berman step back.

That's... Not exactly true. Would you care to elaborate?

Mike Sussman makes it quite plain in his interviews (and it's pretty obvious looking at his season 1-2 episodes) that he would have preferred to write an Archer/T'Pol romance arc.

And yet he wrote "Home," to me the mother of all TnT episodes.

 

[commodore64]

^ I don't know if Mike Sussman indicated he preferred Archer/T'Pol, even if Twilight (a season 3 episode) was probably the best thing Sussman ever wrote.

I think the staff for the most part preferred no romance. I don't blame them. It's hard to write romance well. I think Enterprise failed.

 

[Mach5]

^ I don't know if Mike Sussman indicated he preferred Archer/T'Pol,

He even wrote "E2," which is something of a holy grail to the TnT shippers.

even if Twilight (a season 3 episode) was probably the best thing Sussman ever wrote.

You mean, in your opinion? Because to me, "Kir'shara" and "IaMD pt1" are far superior episodes (and I emphasize the "to me" part).

I think the staff for the most part preferred no romance. I don't blame them. It's hard to write romance well. I think Enterprise failed.

Agree on "failed," but I don't see what's so goddamn difficult about writing romance. Take "Buffy" for example. A (IMO) stupid show, but romance worked just fine (for the most part).

 

[Sadistro]

Sussman makes it plain in S3 that whilst the staff were told to write for Trip and T'Pol, it wasn't where his thinking was at that time. You cited 'Home' as proof he was behind it, yet this episode pretty much puts the nail in it. It's an old formula though - the continual reset to 'will they, won't they?'

Writers cannot go against what the Executive Producers want (as they will simply veto arcs and ideas that don't fit in with what they want). They can however offer passive resistance, by simply not including the romance in their story ideas, only doing so if ordered to.

When their romance is supposed to be developing in S3, why is it that outside of the neuropressure scenes, they spend very little time together? Yet we get intimate scenes and episodes of T'pol and Archer thrown together - 'Extinction' (yes, I know it's lame), 'Impulse', 'Twilight' etc.

Conversely, if writers do want to see a certain romance or simply like the idea of it, even if it would never be approved, they will just keep coming up with ideas that place those characters together. (I would argue for example, that Fred Dekker does this with T'Pol and Hoshi in Season One).

As for the 'writers preferred no romance', I agree as well. I recall that Tim Kring recently admitted that his writing staff (for Heroes) were unhappy writing romance and thus they'd decided to scale that back.

With regard to Trek, just look at TNG. Riker and Troi, Picard and Crusher were clearly established by Roddenberry early on, but over 7 seasons, no-one on the writing staff got behind either of those. And when Brannon Braga decided he liked the idea of Troi and Worf, no-one bothers to either stop or help him (his episodes are the only ones featuring that particular romance).

And what about Mulder and Scully, one of the most famous 'relationships' of them all? Chris Carter stated over and over and over again that though they loved each other, it wasn't that kind of love. The writers very, very rarely went anywhere near that kind of take on them, yet the shippers kept hammering away until they were forced to give in.

And it is hard. For every Han Solo/Princess Leia success, there are hundreds of Anakin/Padme scale failures waiting.

Oh and romance worked in Buffy for a simple reason - there were a lot more female writers on that show. Buffy is one of very few Sci-Fi series to have seasons where the number of episodes written by women outweighed those written by men.

 

[Mach5]

And when Brannon Braga decided he liked the idea of Troi and Worf, no-one bothers to either stop or help him (his episodes are the only ones featuring that particular romance).

That's hardly surprising. What the hell was that about anyway?

And what about Mulder and Scully, one of the most famous 'relationships' of them all? Chris Carter stated over and over and over again that though they loved each other, it wasn't that kind of love.

I was 100% with Chris on this, and I'm still pissed at him for giving in to shipper pressure. The damn shippers ruined my all time favorite (non-trek) tv show (Those frakking shippers raped my childhood )

And it is hard. For every Han Solo/Princess Leia success, there are hundreds of Anakin/Padme scale failures waiting.

As I previously pointed out, Larry Kasdan - success, George Lucas - FAIL

Oh and romance worked in Buffy for a simple reason - there were a lot more female writers on that show. Buffy is one of very few Sci-Fi series to have seasons where the number of episodes written by women outweighed those written by men.

Makes sense. I guess women are more in touch with their emotional side.

 

[commodore64]

Sadistro, I completely agree. I think romance usually succeeds when it's "in the audience's mind." That way, characters don't have to do stupid things or act out of character in order to find love. Usually when writers go with romance, they do it poorly. The tease, getting to romance, is usually the best.

On Buffy, Joss is actually the mastermind and is a guy. I heard an interview with him recently, and he seemed pro-romance. I think overall Joss has done a decent job -- he might be one of the exceptions.

 

[Sadistro]

Whedon is (and I say this with some affection, despite not really liking most of his work), 'a big girl of a man'. So yes, he is one of the few male sci-fi writers who actually doesn't seem to mind writing romance.

But I would point out that BTVS' early seasons were mostly all written by men. Back then, it was more X-Filesy. It's when Marti Noxon joins in the middle of Season Two, that the romance really starts. Right from her first episode 'What's my Line?', you can see the emphasis shift.

It's significant to our discussion here, because she was called in specifically to help out with 'all that romance stuff' by Howard Gordon. Gordon worked only briefly on Buffy, but he is one of the real heavyweights of TV Sci-Fi. Although the romance wasn't to his taste, he was savvy enough to realise that if Whedon was insisting on it, it was probably best to hire someone who could write it well.

Although often decried (unfairly I feel) on 'The X-Files' Howard Gordon has shown himself to be a man with his finger on the pulse. In the early 90's, he worked on 'The X-Files', late 90's Buffy, and through the noughties, he's been with '24' since it began. The man knows how to back a winner.

And regardless of how cloying the romance on Buffy became (it gained a huge female fanbase, but lost many male viewers), it did work for the series as Mach5 says.

What does this mean for us? Well it shows how having A-List writers and producers really helps a show out (i.e that 'Enterprise' could really have used a mind like Gordon's) and that even the most experienced and confident male writers know that it's a good idea to hire women to write romance.

'Enterprise' could have learned a lot from that example. But it should also serve as a cautionary tale. Like I said earlier, Buffy haemoragged male viewers when the horror and adventure started to be overwhelmed by the romance.

Shows which intend to appeal to male viewers are best served generally speaking, by keeping predominantly or exclusively male writing teams and sticking to subjects they like to write about and that their viewers want to see.

'The X-Files' and '24' are classic examples. Both shows employ almost exclusively male writers and rarely dwell on romance angles for any length of time. And both were absolutely huge hits with men of all ages. (The X-Files had around 205+ episodes - only 8 of which were written by women).

Now don't get me wrong - I am not saying that women should be banned from Sci-Fi. The point is that all writers are good at different things, write about different themes etc. It's matching the most appropriate writers to your show that spells whether or not you'll get 'the magic'.

The question is as Commodore raised, how much romance does a show like 'Enterprise' really need? When you force men to write it, they rarely do a very good job of it. Women tend to fare better, but it often causes male viewers to shuffle uncomfortably, wondering when their show became 'Dawson's Creek'.

Look at the big Sci-Fi shows of the minute and you'll see that they are by and large still written by men. LOST, 24, Battlestar Galactica...

LOST and Galactica have flirted with having women on their writing staffs, but eventually they are left to be replaced with men. It's the same with most Sc-fi series (including Buffy actually) that when ratings start to slide, the producers return to their core base and hire staff to appeal to them - i.e to young and middle-aged men.

And 24 has never tried to hide that it is appealing primarily to a male audience. Running, jumping, fighting, shooting, exploding, torturing, gadgeting... It knows what its fan want and it gives it to them. And Howard Gordon and Robert Cochran et al have amassed a very impressive arsenal of writers - including Brannon Braga and Manny Coto!

It all just shows that however much I like Braga, some of his decisions as Showrunner were unfortunate and that he just didn't manage to hire enough heavy hitters to really give the show the boost it needed.

 

[Nimthim]

And then you have a masterpiece like "Farscape" that gives you all the action stuff along with great, if sometimes twisted, romance, quirky aliens, and weird plots. Even my husband was totally hooked on John/Aeryn and Dargo/Chiana. Unfortunately for both of us, we viewed ENT after Farscape and the higher expectations just made the flaws more visble.
For my part, I find Archer and T'Pol are great as friends and colleagues, but romance and chemistry is just not there - and I include 'Twilight' in that assessment - it all seems so forced and unnatural to me.
I do agree with you Sadisto that most scifi writers (or writers of most types of action drama for that matter) cannot do romance credibly. When they do try, it comes out like 'Home' - like they just finished Daytme Soap Opera 101 class.

 

[Mach5]

'Enterprise' could have learned a lot from that example. But it should also serve as a cautionary tale. Like I said earlier, Buffy haemoragged male viewers when the horror and adventure started to be overwhelmed by the romance.

But in my opinion, that was a good thing. Buffy should have never tried to be a serious horror show in a first place. It's a teen show after all, and I personally could never take it seriously.

'The X-Files' and '24' are classic examples. Both shows employ almost exclusively male writers and rarely dwell on romance angles for any length of time. And both were absolutely huge hits with men of all ages. (The X-Files had around 205+ episodes - only 8 of which were written by women).

Personally, I've never watched The X-Files for the character development, I was simply a sucker for paranormal back then, and all of that "Government denies knowledge / the truth is out there" stuff was simply awesome.

24 on the other hand is a ridiculous peace of garbage filled with such absurd naivety that young people should not be allowed to watch it (the danger of turning them into idiots is too big). To expect serous character development from such a show would be equally naive, and on-screen romance could never work unless the audience cares about the characters (which of course need to develop in order to be cared about).

Now don't get me wrong - I am not saying that women should be banned from Sci-Fi. The point is that all writers are good at different things, write about different themes etc. It's matching the most appropriate writers to your show that spells whether or not you'll get 'the magic'.

Women can write sci-fi, but men can't write romance, ergo we need more chicks in sci-fi. Simple as that.

The question is as Commodore raised, how much romance does a show like 'Enterprise' really need? When you force men to write it, they rarely do a very good job of it. Women tend to fare better, but it often causes male viewers to shuffle uncomfortably, wondering when their show became 'Dawson's Creek'.

Dawson's Creek, aww the memories. I watched that show for a while, got bored eventually, but I must say that every TV show could use some Pacey/Joey kind of magic, even Star Trek.

 

[commodore64]

What does this mean for us? Well it shows how having A-List writers and producers really helps a show out (i.e that 'Enterprise' could really have used a mind like Gordon's) and that even the most experienced and confident male writers know that it's a good idea to hire women to write romance.

What? I don't think that's necessarily true. I'm a chick, and though I think the romantic parts of shows are interesting, I'm not always about that. In TNG, I could've cared less if anyone had a relationship. In fact, I was rather glad they didn't.

I think writers should only introduce romance when it makes sense. For example, BSG is really annoying with their romance (to me). I think my like of various characters has fallen due to the will they/won't they factor. I kept telling the characters to act like adults.

X-Files is a great example of letting romance live in the audience's mind. Chris Carter made it required that no one write a romance, and yet I betcha most people believe Scully and Mulder were in love (even before William was born). I did, and I'm not about the romance. Friendship between a male and female character has wonderful overtones of romance without anyone drawing a big cirle and arrow around it.

Now don't get me wrong - I am not saying that women should be banned from Sci-Fi. The point is that all writers are good at different things, write about different themes etc. It's matching the most appropriate writers to your show that spells whether or not you'll get 'the magic'.

I've known some dudes who wrote decent romance and some women who couldn't if their life depended on it. Although you raise some intriguing points, I'd hate to think women are stereotyped to write romance and men are stereotyped to not write them. In point of fact, you're right -- Joss is a big girly man. More over, he's a dude who writes women better than many women writers. What do I mean, he treats them mostly like men -- they have passions, interests, missions, objectives, hurts, loves, losses, etc.

LOST and Galactica have flirted with having women on their writing staffs, but eventually they are left to be replaced with men. It's the same with most Sc-fi series (including Buffy actually) that when ratings start to slide, the producers return to their core base and hire staff to appeal to them - i.e to young and middle-aged men.

And 24 has never tried to hide that it is appealing primarily to a male audience. Running, jumping, fighting, shooting, exploding, torturing, gadgeting... It knows what its fan want and it gives it to them. And Howard Gordon and Robert Cochran et al have amassed a very impressive arsenal of writers - including Brannon Braga and Manny Coto!

It all just shows that however much I like Braga, some of his decisions as Showrunner were unfortunate and that he just didn't manage to hire enough heavy hitters to really give the show the boost it needed.

Reeves/Stevens was a good attempt. I think had they been allowed to do their own stuff without major re-writes, we'd see even better stuff from them (which is saying a lot). Sussman I think had a gun to his head about the romance, so to speak. I think oddly enough and to prove my point, when he wrote Twilight he decided there was friendship between Archer and T'Pol ... and that's why the episode works. To those who only want to see friendship, it's there. And for those who want to see more, that's there too.

I think women would be happy not to have romance unless it's done well. I guess that was my point. I'll admit, I liked the chemistry between Archer and T'Pol. I guess in "shipper" speak, I'm a first-time shipper: Archer/T'Pol is the first couple I actively supported. And yet, I was perfectly satisfied never to see anything culminate or show up. In other words, I'm okay that they remained only friends. I would've been disappointed if they'd approached a relationship between them and then did so shoddily. Friendship between males and females on television usually has romantic overtones anyway.

 

[Penguin]

Sussman said in an interview that he always wanted to write a Archer-T-Pol romance and Twilight was that romance.

He indicated that he was pro A/T-pol. I believe that Bragga was also.

It is evident (to me at least) in the two polls I have seen on this board that there is a three to one in favor of Trip and t-Pol.

If this holds throughout the fan base then Bragga and Sussman would have been fools to go aginst that. they would have risked losing a large portion of their viewers and that is a death knell for a TV show.


So, they took the will they, won't they route to tease the fans into believeing that the romance would be allowed to grow and to keep their viewers.

As Jolene Blalock said in an interview "either have a relationship or don't."

Which is exactly what TPTB should have done. One way or the other.

No relationship would have been fine. a Archer/T-Pol relationship or a Trip/T-Pol relatinship. but make a choce and stick with it.

 

[commodore64]

It is evident (to me at least) in the two polls I have seen on this board that there is a three to one in favor of Trip and t-Pol.

Here. I think this is a Trip/T'Pol friendly board.

 

[Sadistro]

I did try and make the point that generalisations cannot stand in the face of individual talent as far as writers are concerned. I merely make the point that women tend to make better writers of romance than men (but then, they also write better crime novels too!)

Writers have a comfort zone that they do not like to move outside of. For men, this zone is usually action oriented to a greater or lesser degree. When required to do romance, they will usually default to will they/won't they, leaving any proper development to others.

I also didn't intend to imply that women wanted romance in shows all the time. But teen romance shows are usually aimed at women and as we've discussed, they tend to be much better at writing believeable romance. And the other side of that, most male viewers are quite happy to make their low tolerance for romance known.

But that doesn't mean they never care about it - it's all about context. Part of the problem is that TV, Hollywood etc writes such poor roles for women in general (they really are just 'love interest/ eye candy' in most shows and films), that the best connection male viewers usually make with them is 'they want to see the hero get the girl'.

But that's only looking at it from the man's perspective, like the female character is the trophy he gets at the end. It's much rarer to find a female character that male viewers en masse actually like for anything other than aesthetic reasons alone.

It's a vicious circle really. The industry gives us legions of underwritten female characters, which only 'confirms' to viewers that that is what female characters are and should be about. And though female writers do try to correct this, it usually meets with little success.

Look at the example of Janeway in Voyager. The appointment of a female captain is still being criticised as a disgraceful move, awful decision, the end of Star Trek by many. And though she is an important character in all 7 seasons, how many writers can you say really engaged with the character and how many put her in because she was the Captain and they had to?

To my mind, only Joe Menosky, Jeri Taylor and Micheal Piller ever expressed all that much affection for the character. The other writers all have their own favourites, largely from among the male cast members. (Kenneth Biller and Brannon Braga are obviously Chakotay fans, Robert Doherty has a fondness for Paris, pretty much everyone loves the Doctor etc etc).

And let's face it - most writers whose work gets picked up for TV/films etc are still men. The vast majority of directors of TV and film are still men. And they will default to writing about men and a male perspective, because it's what comes naturally; it's what they know.

Like the producers of LOST have said in interviews, they all get along famously because put a group of guys in Star Wars T-Shirts together in a room, having never met each other before and it'll be like they've known each other forever. Or as Paul Alexander, a writer for Red Dwarf once pointed out, leave any group of men in a room for long enough and they'll start talking about James Bond.

So, I did not mean to say every women wants and writes romance well, and that men do not. But that is how the industry views it and the constant need to find talent quickly, produce marketable shows quicky, means they will and do use these kinds of generalisations. Writers like Whedon with his mindset are comparitvely rare.

Women are likely to continue being simply eye candy in sci-fi and until that changes, it's unlikely the attitude to romance in sci-fi will either. Male writers and male fans still view Sci-Fi largely as their domain - it's still very rare for female writers to be truly accepted into this particular men's club.

And when it's a men's club, it's men's rules. Besides the writers, unless women suddenly start watching sci-fi a whole lot more, the genre is going to continue to cater to what men want to see, inserting 'female friendly' segments now and then to try and win some female viewers over.

Going back to the writers, it tends to be women like Judith Reeves Stevens, Jane Espenson etc who get such passes, because they seem quirky and oddball enough to forgive their unfortunate female status (I don't agree with it; I'm just telling it like I see it).

And in this regard, they are much like the handful of truly accepted female characters - 24's Chloe O Brien being a good example. But she is not the main character, and it's hard to see a main female character being truly embraced by male writers and audiences.

How many episodes of The X-Files really focus on Scully over Mulder for example? The show marched to Mulder's drum - it's his opinions that were focused on in mostly every episode. Scully was the Watson to his Holmes, the sounding board for ideas, the character who said 'What's that?' so Mulder had an excuse to fill us in on the paranormal details.

Just to finish with a British example, the Doctor from our series 'Doctor Who' recently had to be re-cast (the character can regenerate from death, but alters appearence each time he does so). It was mooted that he could regenerate into a woman this time.

You have never *heard* so much gnashing of teeth and stomping of feet - you thought it was bad when they cast Janeway? You had it easy...

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Or as Paul Alexander, a writer for Red Dwarf once pointed out, leave any group of men in a room for long enough and they'll start talking about James Bond.

That's true enough.

All this makes you appreciate women who can write effective action scenes, or men who can write strong female characters and credible, mature romance.

How many episodes of The X-Files really focus on Scully over Mulder for example? The show marched to Mulder's drum - it's his opinions that were focused on in mostly every episode. Scully was the Watson to his Holmes, the sounding board for ideas, the character who said 'What's that?' so Mulder had an excuse to fill us in on the paranormal details.

There's also something to be said for the ability to write a..."romantic feel" into a show, for want of a better term. I thought Mulder's ongoing quest for the truth had a sweeping romantic feel to it. And his and Scully's devotion to each other as partners, their climbing mountains and breaking down doors to save each other, was very romantic, though it almost never had anything to do with huggy-kissy-mushy stuff. When a mere hand-hold between two people in a creepy paranormal/action/MOTW show is enough to make female audiences swoon, a certain atmosphere has been created in the minds of that audience.

Remember "Beauty and the Beast"? Same thing. Romance/action/vigilante show. Male writing staff, female core audience. The romance was heart-stoppingly romantic, though hardly anything ever really happened between Catherine and Vincent onscreen.

With Star Trek...the most romantic pairing for me was Kira and Odo, mainly because of the way it was written during the "unrequited" period. I'd have to look up the writers who contributed to that (I'll bet you know them ), but that one really drew me in, so much so that I can't watch the finale again. There were so many other potential pairings that were compelling--and clearly hinted at--but then nobody did anything compelling with them. Frustrating as hell to watch, rather than intriguing or satisfying.

I never needed Trek to become "As the Starship Turns"...but it's too bad there weren't people on staff who could have taken the connections that naturally evolved between characters (such as Odo and Kira) and nurtured them a bit more, to give their respective shows that extra layer of richness.

 

[commodore64]

Sadistro, very interesting response. I appreciate the males perspective in particular. For example, I have often wondered whether guys associate themselves with Trip and see T'Pol as a trophy. I think what you're telling me is, in general: yup.

I also think every writer has his/her favorites and tends to write episodes in that slant.

I have never really liked any of the Star Trek romances. Even Odo and Kira, which had a nice start, got a bit melodramatic for me. Unrequited love is in many ways lovely to watch, but after a while, I felt Odo should just get over it. (I'm harsh!)

And I still think typically the best romances are the ones unwritten or eventually written (at the end of the show). It gives the writers more time to focus on the character and why someone should/would love them. I think T'Pol, for example, suffered a lot because the writers were in a sense forcing a romance -- she lied to Trip, seduced him and then rejected him, rejected him again because of her race, etc. Seems like a rocky relationship. Showing people care about each other is -- when they're male and female -- romantic. In fact, I would hazzard a guess that homosexuals like when there's caring between men/men and women/women. I think a few folks have expressed interest in Archer/Trip or Trip/Malcolm. Caring = good stuff. And, let's not forget the Kirk/Spockers.

I will say there have been a few exceptions, written by men -- John Crichton and Aeryn Soong, for example, were fun to watch. Even though it may've been melodramatic, I really enjoyed when there were two Crichtons. (Great plotline.) Maybe because it was about caring. Sex, a natural act of romance and caring, seemed not to be as important.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

So Sadistro, have you finished Season 3 yet? I've been thinking that you've been at a bit of a disadvantage, analyzing with one hand tied behind your back, given the stylistic and character-development overhaul the show got during that season. Season 4 doesn't really reflect the results, IMHO, since TPTB seemed to have jettisoned much of the consequences of Season 3 in order to cram what they could into Season 4 before the show was canned.

 

[trj]

Sadistro, very interesting response. I appreciate the males perspective in particular. For example, I have often wondered whether guys associate themselves with Trip and see T'Pol as a trophy. I think what you're telling me is, in general: yup.

its always nice when people make generalizations

 

[Penguin]

I read somewhere, I thought it was on this board, but I cannot find the quote to cite it.

anyway, it concerned romance and writing.

the person writing the post said that the network that owned the book publishing decided that romance sells books so the books "the good that men do" and Kobashi Maru had Trip and t-Pol romance in them and they appreently were right as the book sales were good.

It that is so, the people who bought these books were the same people who watched the series. So romance should have sold on the series (raise in ratings)

Harlequin books have made a fortune out of bodice rippers and romance. Great romances have always sold very well. It would follow that romance in a series would also.

I remember when the fans pushed ffor a paring of the characters played by Bruce willis and a female whose name I cannot remember so the PTB made them a couple. this worked well with a lot of chemistry although wilis and the female hated one another in real life.

A long time ago in a decade far way there were two TV shows (in the ear where there were no E-mails or text messaging or cheap long distance phone calls. Only letters, post cards and telegrams.)

Two shows had the fans clamoring for pairings of the two lead characters. One show listened to the fans and started the next season with a mariage the other ignored the fans. the first saw a bounce in its rating and the other didn't make it to mid season befor it wass canceled. Fans voted with yheir feet and abandonded the show.

I believe that a romance between two of the characters on Enterprise would have helped with the ratings but B ignored the fans.