5. Forced "Youth Market"Alignment
The early 2000s were a time of a huge youth market explosion. There was Napster, there was the proliferation of iPods and cellphones, and there was the beginning of programming targeted at the 18-23 crowd. One of these successful youth-oriented shows was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The characters were always pairing off and developing interpersonal dramas that would carry the show in its later years. The result was that a lot of niche shows wanted to model themselves after Buffy and shows like it. Including Enterprise. Full Disclosure Pt. II: I am a huge Buffy fan. Any charge you can level against the average Buffy fan can be leveled against me: 'shipping, character self-identification, even overlooking some of Joss Whedon's greater sins and faults. that being said, Enterprise neither had the robustness nor the talented writing staff that could sustain the sort of twisting interpersonal relationships that Buffy had. In fact, a lot of the simplification of the writing and the inclusion of so... many... goddamn... love... triangles... were probably the choice of the studio to give Enterprise an edge with which to compete on the 18-23 level. Enterprise was a show that wanted to be sophisticated, but was hampered by its studio wanting to get a healthy cut of that precious youth market. Sadly, plotting was only the first stop for them.