These are the voyages...

[Tyyr]

I honestly doubt B&B thought it was a Valentine to the fans. They might say that but come on, how do you write a Valentine without even once expressing affection? Tucker and T'Pol, nothing. Founding of the Federation, skipped. Shran, made a petty criminal. They didn't give the fans anything they wanted to see so how could it have been a Valentine. Sure Trip died but it wasn't in a stupid and ironic way so again, how is it a Valentine. I have a feeling they knew just what they were doing.

[USSEnterprise]

A true valentine would have been having Porthos rip out Archers throat...

[Tyyr]

I was thinking more Hoshi on T'pol action.

[Lighthawk]

I was thinking more Hoshi on T'pol action.

I approve of this line of thinking.

[Tsukiyumi]

As do I.

[Mikey]

I'd feel left out.

Anyway, Tyyr - what in all of ENT and most of VOY would lead you to believe that B&B were capable of expressing anything for the fans other than a big flip of the bird?

[Mark]

These guys believed that the fans would like what they told us to like.

[Mikey]

These guys believed that the fans would like what they told us to like.

Worse - they didn't care.

[Tyyr]

I'd feel left out.

Anyway, Tyyr - what in all of ENT and most of VOY would lead you to believe that B&B were capable of expressing anything for the fans other than a big flip of the bird?

That's what I'm saying. They don't give a shit about the fans so when they claim it's a Valentine I can't help but think its with a wink and a nod to each other.

[Mikey]

Right - on Valentine's Day, I usually get kissed first.

[Graham Kennedy]

Seems to me that it's a classic case of Executive Thinking. I've long thought that it is a basic requirement of the job of movie or TV executive that you have to have absolutely no idea what makes a good movie of TV show. The idea that it might be good writing or a strong story... these things just don't register. So instead, you sieze on random elements. Absolutely typical of this line of thinking is stuff like "People like Star Wars... Star Wars is a sci fi movie with robots in it... so if I make a sci fi movie with robots in it, people will like that too." And I'm not being figurative here, Kevin Smith tells a story of when he worked on the Superman movie and an executive suggested putting Chewbacca in the story "so Superman could have a sidekick like Han Solo".

Look at it through these eyes. "One of Trek's greatest moments was when Spock died in ST II... so if we kill a major character like Trip, people will love that! People loved it when Sisko and the DS9 crew were put into TOS... so if we put Riker and Troi into Enterprise they will obviously love that too. Wow, we're aping some of Trek's greatest moments here, this episode will surely ROCK!"

No understanding of WHY people liked those things, what actually made those moments great. Simple monkey see, monkey do thinking. That kind of thinking is ALL OVER Enterprise's first few seasons.

[Mikey]

That's a fault of the system as much as of the executive(s) in question, the system being commercial television/revenue-driven media. While it may seem fairly self-evident that good products will engender good returns, the fact is that the people who make the calls on what gets made or not don't want to take chances - they will buy something that can be pitched to them with some sort of basis. Unfortunately, that basis is all too often exactly what you describe above.

In other words, the people above B&B - if given the choice - would almost certainly have opted for the rehash of tropes that have been successful in the past, rather than for something new (even if it were better.)