Brian Benben vs. Scott Bakula
Battle of the Rugged Retreads

When the producers of the new Star Trek series Enterprise went about casting a new captain, they clearly wanted to return to a kind of rugged, rough-and-tumble character, like, say, Captain Kirk, as opposed to the more thoughtful, cerebral kind of captain, like Captain Janeway or that black one. Well, we think they've really got their man. As Captain Jonathan Archer, that guy from Quantum Leap is the perfect choice -- sci-fi fans already know his face from all those Leap reruns on cable, and he's amply proven that he can play a rough-hewn rogue in such sports-themed films as Necessary Roughness and Major League III: Back to the Minors.

Plus, if they're hoping to make Captain Archer a little, shall we say, randier than his predecessors...well, this actor has shown that he's no stranger to ribaldry. Remember when he starred in that HBO series for awhile, the one in which funny stuff would happen in his head and there was also lots of sex stuff as well? You know, the one where FOX ripped it off and cast a woman in the lead and called it Ally McBeal? Oh yeah -- Dream On. That was it. He was good in that show. Of course, as Captain Archer, you can bet that he won't be tempted to engage in any real-life alien hanky-panky -- not with a hottie like wife Madeleine Stowe waiting for him back in his real-life boudoir!

Of course, he might have been drawn to doing Star Trek because his later project, The Brian Benben Show, didn't do so well when it aired on CBS in 1998. We've always thought that show was a little strange, partly because we thought that you had to be famous before you got an eponymous TV show -- you know, like Dick Van Dyke -- and partly because it was weird that they called it The Brian Benben Show when his name was actually Scott Bakula. Or at least it used to be when he was back on Quantum Leap. But with these actors these days -- who can keep up? Is it Pamela Anderson? Or Pamela Anderson Lee? Who knows?

Secretly, we always hoped that he'd do a show were he played a minstrel vampire in blackface who traveled through time, and it could be called Blakula. Oh well -- we'll have to satisfy ourselves with this new Star Trek show. Here's hoping that when the going gets rough, Dean Stockwell shows up with some well-timed advice for our new captain! Or maybe that wife of his, Madeleine Stowe. Rrrrrrr!

Advantage: The one who is actually Scott Bakula, and not the one who is "Isn't that Scott Bakula?"