I happened upon season 4, episode 3 of Numbers (Velocity) which features a MER in one scene. I was impressed that the gung ho engineer in the scene bore a resemblance to one of our favorite rover drivers. The scene starts at 8 minutes.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
I thought "fell into a shallow crater" referred to Spirit's unfortunate run in with Scamander Crater,
however the episode first aired in October 2007, a year and a half before Spirit got stuck...
....Cue the Twilight zone theme.