The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episodes "Borderland," "cold Station 12" and "The Augments."

Brent Spiner returns to Star Trek. Yep, Brent Spiner returns to Star Trek. How cool is that?

Pretty damn cool if you asked me ... I mean, even without the white makeup and yellow eyes, it's hard NOT to see Lt. Cmdr. Data, the character that Spiner portrayed for so long in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and four motion pictures. And yes, you could see a little bit of Data's father, Data's brother (come on, BOTH brothers).

And in the first 30 minutes of "Borderland" -- the first episode in this three-episode arc marking the beginning of the Manny Coto era -- I was impressed. Spiner showed that he can portray different characters, and make us forget about the android.

And it was a compelling story idea, too. After the Eugenics Wars, Earth -- like for many diseases -- decided to keep some embryos onhand for whatever reason, and Dr. Arik Soong (yep, an ancestor to Dr. Noonien Soong who created Data and Lore ... and, um, B-4) -- steals them, turns them into people, and raises them.

Of course, before he can fully raise them, he gets captured and arrested, and the little ones end up fending for themselves.

Well, the Augments are all grown up, and they decide it's time for action. They take over a Klingon battlecruiser, and start causing some major problems. Archer picks up Soong, and the rest is well ... history.

"Borderland" was a great setup episode. It gave us all the background we needed, an interesting look inside the Orion Syndicate that no one has ever seen in the 40 years that they have existed, and a chance to see what these Augments are up to.

When "Borderland" ended with Soong rejoining his superhuman children, I was excited. It seemed that Star Trek was back, and it was all thanks to our friend, Manny Coto.

But then we got "Cold Station 12." I know, I know ... the middle episode of any trilogy is supposed to blow. Look at "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back." Look at "The Matrix Reloaded." Look at "Spider-Man 2." Huh? There's no "Spider-Man 3" yet, so it's not really a trilogy? Well, there will be eventually, and when someone reads this review from an historical perspective, they'll understand.

Anyway, back to "Cold Station 12." The fact that they have a cool space station with these embryos and other bad diseases is a bit peculiar, but hey, this is television, and science-fiction television at that, so anything can happen.

But this episode moved nowhere. I thought the whole torture scene with the scientist in the convenient torture chamber was a bit gratuitous, and I was not impressed at all with the whole "Oh no, we're all going to die! Oh, yeah, we'll pick it up here next week."

I mean, come on. This isn't the 1930s where we're watching serials in the movie theater. We all know that the train is coming, and our hero is tied on the railroad tracks ... Oh my God! What's going to happen? Do we really have to wait until next week to see how he's going to be saved, I mean, he is going to be saved right?

Well, that's what we had. Malik (Alec Newman) decided it would be cool to watch everyone die from bad diseases on Cold Station 12, and waited until the end of the episode to do it.

So, then, finally, we get "The Augments" this past week, and no, it's not an episode about Seven of Nine's, er, breast implants. Did we get an exciting conclusion? Hell no. I don't even know why they even bothered to air this one. It was lame. It was lame. And did I mention? It was lame.

I mean, come on ... we get the fact that we're in a prequel, and that they have to make some funny references to things, so that we can be like, "Ooh!! Look!! They just mentioned [insert gratuitous reference here]!" You know, "The Briar Patch" (from "Star Trek: Insurrection"). "Botany Bay" and "Khan Noonien Singh" (from "The Space Seed" in the original "Star Trek" as well as "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"). And even worse, the horrible, horrible, horrible ending where not only Soong expresses an interest in cybernetics ... he even (rightfully) predicts that it will take a couple of generations for it to come to fruition. I'm surprised he didn't say, "Maybe he will look like me, and we can call him Data! And who knows, maybe he will be on an Enterprise all his own!"

Malik was a poor excuse for a bad guy. The references to him crawling around with facial injuries at the end similar to Ricardo Montalban's character in "Star Trek II" didn't feel like homage, it felt like a poor reference. His character never took off. You couldn't feel for his cause, because no one ever knew what the hell his cause was? World dominance? Of what? He wanted to start a war between the Klingons and Earth. What would be left? Probably the Klingons, and they are boring to rule. Trust me.

Spiner pulled of playing Soong ... a smart bad boy, who just wanted to leave a legacy. The writers had enough sense to make his character deceitful, yet three-dimensional ... knowing that he didn't want people to needlessly die, but at the same time, not being the most trusted one in the bunch.

While this trilogy was meant to be dark, at least some of the humor we found throughout "Borderland" should've continued into the other two episodes. Sure, there might have been some negatives to it, but Soong seems like the kind of character that would've remained confident no matter what ... and he showed that confidence with his use of humor, and taking a lackadaisical look on the world.

Sure, as his unity among the Augments broke apart, anyone would get nervous. But not Soong ... not the way they wrote him. This guy was confident to the core. He had been in worse situations, and as long as he took a breath, he knew he would make it. Unfortunately, that confidence was lost in the future episodes.

I really don't want Coto to dislike me as Brannon Braga does/did. I mean, we all know his veiled death threat he sent me in an "Enterprise" arc (hehehehe .. OK, this is an inside joke ... he made Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) from Tarpon Springs, Fla., which coincidentally was where I was living at the time ... and then had the Xindi destroy it) ... so, I'm sure that things will improve.

But in the annals of Star Trek's best, the Brent Spiner trilogy of "Star Trek: Enterprise" will not be included. And that's sad. Just like everything else created by Braga and Rick Berman, there's potential ... but then they lose focus and, in the end, it all just comes crashing down.

Michael Hinman is the news coordinator for Airlock Alpha, contributing from Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at michael@airlockalpha.com.

Borderland
Star Trek: Enterprise

Grade: B

This episode was written by Ken Lazebnik and directed by David Livingston.

Cold Station 12
Star Trek: Enterprise

Grade: B-

This episode was written by Alan Brennert and directed by Mike Vejar.

The Augments
Star Trek: Enterprise

Grade: D

This episode was written by Mike Sussman and directed by LeVar Burton.

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