Faced with steady ratings decline and a terrible new timeslot, challenged by faults in leadership and imagination, the announcement comes that season four of "Enterprise" will be graced not once, not twice, but three times with the guest starring appearance of Brent Spiner. The Temporal Cold Bath apparently no longer a serious matter, we'll now turn away from time travel nonsense by first focusing on Hitler in Times Square. Then after that we'll break to a new character that appeals to no one, exploring the staggeringly uninteresting lineage of Dr. Noonien Soong. The foundation of the Federation can just take a back seat.

In an already reduced season, why are three out of twenty-four (twelve percent, more than the tradition tithe of ten) episodes being devoted to this deluge of a single character? Heck, it seems three episodes is more coverage than Mayweather gets anyway! And with whispers of scraping the Eugenics Wars for material, God only knows what ire will develop should they confuse Soong with Singh. (Do I think this magnitude of error is beyond them? Do I think the Klingon homeworld is located only a few light years away?)

Is there a silk purse here at all? Sure. They could salvage this move by exploiting the connection this column made earlier about Soong and Flint being one and the same. But since we're on a separate timeline anyway, a parallel thread of the Trekverse, perhaps it no longer matters. And maybe I'm alone in not clamoring for a TNG tie-in but after dominating the recent failing movies Brent Spiner wouldn't have been my first choice anyway. TOS certainly faced a small but significant danger of becoming "that show about the guy with the pointed ears," a danger held in check by the scruples of Leonard Nimoy. Spock's return to TNG served an excellent story. That's a high standard for "Enterprise" to hold up.

I understand the appeal of occasional crossovers but this simply strains credibility and smacks of self-cannibalism. Must Trek now draw strength from the solitary well of guest stars? (Puts a whole new and unsavory spin to "Star" Trek.) No matter how many snarky titles may fit, the plain truth is that A Nose By Any Other Name would smell as bad, and boy does this smell (of previous contractual arrangements?). It may be too Soong to tell, but for all the talk about shuffling the powers to improve the show, judging by these sorts of decisions it doesn't look like enough has been done.