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So did you think you had seen that TV show before? Chances are you had. Or maybe it was a reasonable facsimile thereof. But according to Arts and Entertainment Editor Bob Sokolsky, it really doesn't matter. It's simply a way of showing us that we are now in TV's Age of the Cliché.

He cites NBC's recent screening of "Meteor" as a latest example. That's the one that shows our planet narrowly escaping a renegade meteor that would have wiped out the entire world. And, Sokolsky says, if that seemed familiar, well, it was.

However, he points out, it was merely one more reworking of a series of clichés that have entrenched themselves in network programming.

And he offers a list that includes rampaging dinosaurs invading our century, mentalists and mind readers bringing criminals to justice, bad guys almost getting away because they find ways to slip out of handcuffs and romances involving silly young men and clever young women.

Sokolsky says he now fears that these clichés appear so often they might be mistaken for a state of normalcy. And if so, he asks, "What will those stodgy Vulcans think if they ever do pay us a visit?"