me227 said:
It just thats what the cameos really looked like to me. Pure cheese! It just seemed like they were running out of ideas and thought oh I know i'll bring in Brent Spiner.
It wasn't out of desperation, it was another tie-in. Those who know their Trek history will remember the augment episode from TOS (not to mention the Wrath of Khan), where it was stated that a Dr. Soong was responsible. Since Dr. Noonien Soong was played by Brent Spiner in TNG, it made good sense for him to play Arik.
I'm in complete agreement that S4 was somewhat lacking compared to S3, but the TV execs must take a lot of the blame for that after almost canning Enterprise at the end of S3.
Of course, the really lame episode was the whole Riker thing at the end. That's no way to finish a Trek series.