October 2001

Phoenix, Arizona

On October 21, 2001, Dominic Keating did his very first Star Trek convention here in Phoenix. He had the distinction of being the first cast member from the new show to do a convention. After he was introduced by Adam Malin of Creation Entertainment, Dominic bounded on to the stage, and quickly pronounced himself a "con virgin." He launched into a description of how he got the part on the show. Apparently about two years ago he had auditioned for the part of an alien on Voyager. The audition went SO well, that he called his agent and said "I think I got this one...you should be getting a call." He was baffled and disappointed when the call didn’t come through. What he didn’t realize was that Rick Berman was SO impressed with him, that he saved his photo and kept it on his desk for two years because he knew he was going to be casting a new series and he didn’t want to "waste" him on a guest star part. Dominic and also John Billingsley were the first people to be cast on the show. They met with the producers on the same day. Dominic said he was SO nervous that he about had an "out of body" experience right there in front of the producers....his mind just sort of "left." He forced himself to keep it together and must have done well as soon he was on his way out and Berman and Braga said something like "welcome to the family" to them both and then took off. Dominic and Billingsley were chasing after them but couldn’t catch up...so they ran into Ron Surma (casting director) in the hall and said "Did we get it?" Surma replied "You didn’t hear it from me but..." and then gave them a "thumbs up" signal.

I had been trying to think of good questions all week, but the one I asked came to me just before I went to the microphone. I told him that the Voyager cast had a reputation for playing a lot of practical jokes while the DS9 cast had a reputation for being very serious. Did he have any sense yet of how his cast was going to be on this dimension? He first replied that this was very interesting and something he hadn’t heard before. Then he pointed out that time is money on a show and they are all working pretty hard to keep things on schedule. He acted out Brad Yacobian (Line producer...same job as Steve Oster had on DS9) saying something to the effect that "Someone’s having a good time here" in a stern and disapproving voice. I guess the message thus far was that no one had quite dared do anything like that yet. Then he quipped "I once told Anthony Montgomery that he’s a great actor...does that qualify as a practical joke?" He laughed and indicated that he was, of course, kidding around. But earlier he had portrayed the cast giving Jolene Blalock a hard time for her "Maxim" covers (suggestive poses, if you haven’t seen them), so I suspect that there are plenty of laughs around the Enterprise set....just not during the actual shooting!

I also asked him to portray his hometown accent, a question that had been suggested to me by Claire Phillips, one of our members who is also from Leicester. He went into an "Oliver" orphan or Eliza Doolittle (those were the associations I made anyway) style patter with his mother saying "I didn’t send you to that posh school to sound like that....!" It was pretty funny so if you hear him at a convention, ask him to do it!

My last question was about his part in Jungle 2 Jungle which prompted yet another display of his talent with accents...if you haven’t seen that movie, he played a rather flamboyant video producer with platinum blonde hair. The accent for that part was a bit different from the one he has for Enterprise although still English. He acknowledged that when it comes to accents he’s pretty good. He once went to audition for a part that required him to have a Brooklyn accent.....he did it so well that he got the part and when he walked onto the set the first day and talked "normally" they were all shocked! They thought he was really from Brooklyn! He also mentioned that Tim Allen was a great guy to work with and that they are still in touch and friends.

He explained that he wasn’t crazy about the name "Malcolm" for his character and was a bit chagrined when Rick Berman said "you looked like a Malcolm." I gather that wasn’t taken as a compliment. (I thought immediately of Malcolm McDowell whom I think is pretty cool). :-)

One young lady asked Dominic if he thought Reed would end up with the Vulcan. He laughed so hard at that, that he ended up rolling around on the floor holding his sides. I guess that means he doesn’t think so....

Overall this was one of the most entertaining Q and A’s that I’ve seen in a long time (and I just saw a BUNCH of them at the big supercovention in Vegas!). If you see Dominic Keating is coming to convention near you....go! You won’t regret it! :-)