A seven-year veteran of the popular paranormal drama The X-Files will be conspiring with a different brand of aliens next season when he joins the staff of Enterprise as writer and co-executive producer.

John Shiban will dock with the latest Star Trek show after The X-Files concludes its final season on TV, according to Daily Variety. He'll work with series creators/executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who will continue to serve as showrunners of the UPN hit.

Also, Chris Black, writer and supervising producer of Enterprise during its first season, will be promoted to co-executive producer. Black wrote last week's episode "Rogue Planet."

Berman said landing Shiban was a coup for the show. "The single hardest thing for us to do after all these years is to find great writers who understand Star Trek," Berman told Variety. "It's always been a problem."

But Berman said Shiban seems to have a feel for what he and Braga are trying to achieve with Enterprise and the larger Trek franchise.

Shiban started his X-Files career in 1995 as a writer. He was upped to producer in 1997 and later worked with Chris Carter to create and produce the spinoff series The Lone Gunman.

Discuss this at the Enterprise message board!