Star Trek Magazine

Enterprise's weapons officer is British, and a little stilted, naive, and shy. But he's also a professional, in charge of an array of high-tech weaponry aboard Jonathan Archer's new vessel.

Described by Rick Berman as a person who "loves blowing things up," Lieutenant Malcolm Reed will be responsible for defending Enterprise as it embarks on its groundbreaking mission.

So far, Dominic Keating as been given a lot of freedom in playing the role. "I've got real free rein at the moment, " he says. "But Reed was described in the breakdown as being 'buttoned-down wry, dry and shy around women,' and I thought, I'm so not like that!

"When they'd given me the role, I sat with Brannon and Rick and said, 'I'm thrilled to get the job; I'm really happy - just please don't make him the English guy on STAR TREK! Brannon said, 'What, you don't want us to write things like 'My dear old mum?!' But I think the main focus this season is going to be on Scott and Jolene and Connor, so there's plenty of time for us to look at Reed down the line.

"For the time being, I'm just trying to make him close to me, I think, because actually I can be shy around the girls. And when I was 17 I was going to leave school and go to Sandhurst [army training college] and join the army, and that's who Reed is. He's slightly naive going into space; he's exactly as I was. The more I look at him, the more I see I can actually be him. It's a subtle thing as an actor; you go, 'Oh, yeah, I can see how that would work for me."'

Dominic had watched the original STAR TREK series back home in England and had also see plenty of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episodes, and is delighted to be on the show. "I haven't thought about the responsibility of being in STAR TREK, but I have thought about how lucky we are that the show's got this added selling point! And the fact that they've got Scott Bakula as the captain is just terrific.

Unusually, Rick Berman had earmarked Dominic for a future STAR TREK role some time earlier. "We wanted our armory officer to be a character who was rather shy and staid, but at the same time loved to blow things up," he says. There was just something about it that screamed out for an English actor. I had seen Dominic when he read for me for something else, and I kept his picture on my desk for over a year, thinking he'd be the perfect guy for the role; and he ended up getting it."

Culttimes

By Thomasina Gibson

Reeding Between the Lines 

Enterprise star Dominic Keating unzips his flight suit and slips into something more comfortable to chat about his role as Lieutenant Malcolm Reed in Star Trek’s new, exciting fifth series!

The year is 2151 – some while before James T. boldly went where no man had – and a few bright, inquisitive souls are paving the way for he illustrious Captain Kirk aboard their very own Enterprise. British-to-the-core actor Dominic Keating is one of the intrepid crew members striking off for stars unknown in Paramount’s latest addition to the Star Trek universe.

"When I first read the breakdown for the part of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, I thought I wouldn’t be in with much of a chance," he begins. "Malcolm was written as a very buttoned down, by-the-book, tight-arsed Englishman and personally I’m not like that at all." Certainly when we speak, Keating couldn’t appear further from the quintessential stiff-upper-lipped fusspot he portrays. It’s American Thanksgiving and he is bursting full of the joys of the season. As well as shouting advice to his girlfriend on the best way to baste a turkey, laughing uproariously when she yells back what he can do with his instructions, at the same time he’s bawling out an apology to a friend who turns up unexpectedly to invite him to trek to the infamous Hollywood sign for a bit of fresh air. "I can’t, love! I have to do the veggies and talk to this nice woman from the UK. They want to hear about the show. It’s very exciting."

Clearly delighted that the series is generating as much interest in his homeland as it has in his adopted land, Keating reins in his excitement enough to explain, "Given that it’s an American television show, the producers had quite a strong picture of a certain type of Englishman in mind, which is why I first thought that perhaps it wasn’t really my bag. I do come from ‘that sort’ of background and had the classic kind of public schooling but I’ve never wanted to be seen in that stereotypical sort of way. I was pleasantly surprised when the word came back after the first audition that I was the only guy in the frame for the role. I think they felt that because Enterprise is set in the next century they probably wanted someone a bit looser that the stereotype but with enough of that public school image still evident. I’ve been in the States for years but I guess that persona has stayed with me." He laughs. "It’s like being Catholic. You never lose it. However, almost everything else is a real acting challenge for me."

Sarcastically, he adds, "Take this shyness with women for instance. When I read that in the breakdown, I went ‘Aw, s**t. I’ll walk through this one then.’ Even my girlfriend would agree that I am at my most relaxed around the female contingent in this galaxy. Then there’s the munitions thing. Malcolm is supposed to be obsessed with weaponry, but that’s not me at all. Truth be known, when I was 17-amd-a-half I was considering joining the Army. My mother’s side of the family is army and my grandfather fought in two World Wars; would have been knighted but he didn’t get on with King George and got the OBE for his services instead. I was even an under-officer in the cadet force at school and was part of a special force called ‘Tactics’, so I know quite a lot about the military background from which Malcolm stems. But now, in later life, I’ve never fired anything other than the weapons I use in Enterprise." Bursting into laughter again, he splutters, "I get asked all these questions about guns and other weapons at conventions and all I can do is look at the fans and shrug. ‘Look! They’re grey! What can I tell you?’ I have absolutely no idea."

Pretending to hang his head in shame, Keating does admit that he shares some of Lt. Reed’s character traits. "I am a bit of a neat freak! Always have been. No amount of therapy seems to be able to correct the balance that is so very in keeping." Reverting to hushed tones, he whispers, "I don’t like to use the words anally retentive but some ex-girlfriends might," before yelling out, "Don’t print that or I’ll kill you." Oops…

Keating also feels that his BA (Hons) Degree in History "came in handy because I knew how to effectively undertake the research for the character. One thing that I am always grateful for," he confides, "is my good education. I really have to thank my mother and father for giving me that. They really sacrificed a lot to make sure that I got properly schooled and I’m always indebted. As an actor, the one thing you can’t learn at drama school is the years of training to make your mind work in an academic way."

Changing topics for a moment, the mercurial Mr. Keating expounds, "London was fantastic during my university years. I adored my three years as a student. I was on full maintenance grant because my father had passed away and it gave me the freedom to know the city. I ended up living in London after uni and eventually became an actor there. I still have an apartment in the Portobello Road."

Keen to go wherever the work takes him, Keating has lived all over the place, loving every minute of the nomadic life. "I spent quite some time in Vancouver and have a great relationship with that place. I went up there originally to do Poltergeist: The Legacy and liked the place so much I lived there for a little bit. The funny thing about Vancouver is that you’ve got to live in Los Angeles to get cast in shows in Vancouver. It’s a weird conundrum. When you go for a job they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re a local actor – no, we’re not interested’. Then they cast in LA. So I went back there and was immediately sent back up to Canada to do The Immortal."

Just a wee bit sad to be leaving the role of malevolent madman Mallos, Keating smiles. "We shot off to Prague to film two episodes of The Immortal and it was crazy. I had my own castle, got to wear all the medieval gear and got to throw peasants to wild boar. Real ones." Wickedly insisting that no mammals were harmed during the making of the episodes, Keating goes on to say, "Actually I had a wonderful end of last year. I went to Eastern Europe with The Immortal and spent some time in Spain making 13 episodes of a show called Chromium Blue.com." In keeping with the actor’s irreverent approach to life, Keating exclaims, "It’s Zalman King’s new gig and I play a bisexual ghost. I have no idea what the show is going to look like but it has real elements of Zalman erotica thrown in with some of the zaniest, most bizarre comedy sketches you’ve ever seen. Ian Abercrombie (Seinfeld) and I were cast together as Sir George, the gay butler and his dead ex-lover – the bisexual ghost. It was hilarious. We camped up a storm." Waving his wrist about, Keating lisps, "By the time I got back to LA it was pilot season again and I thought, ‘Oh God! I’ve got to put my little black dress on and trawl around the networks.’ Thankfully, along came Enterprise and put paid to all that."

Manfully accepting remarks that he might not get offered fey parts if he dressed in something other than a little black dress, the actor reels off yet another example of his effeminate experiences. "I did a play up in Edinburgh with a fantastic actor named Tim Spall. It was a comedy called Screamers and I played this apprentice who got a job at the Cut and Cum Again salon. Tim played the chief charge hand who was this deeply unattractive character with the responsibility for taking me in hand, so to speak. We had a whale of a time."

Unperturbed by the fact that he has played a few such characters, Keating is highly amused by reports that Malcolm Reed might be the first gay in Space: "I read that in the TV Guide." With superb comic timing, he chortles. "I was in the supermarket and there we all were in the front cover, so I picked it up to read and inside it said something like ‘Dominic Keating… turn to page 56… who reportedly is going to be the first gay character in Star Trek.’ I thought, ‘What?’ I rang Brannon Braga (executive producer), who told me not to believe everything I read in print.

Very sound advice indeed! Now, about this Enterprise show. Can we believe all we read about it being the greatest thing since sliced bread? "Absolutely!" announces the actor. "You just know when something is going to work. Right from the read-through, there was a simpatico and an understanding and a generosity that has not always been apparent in some jobs I’ve had in the past. Scott Bakula is such a trouper. He sets the tone and makes us all feel valued and very happy. I shouldn’t say this but I also have a sneaking suspicion the Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, the two executive producers, are actually extremely well-paid full-on Trekkies. They have to be. They put so much dedication and enthusiasm into this show. They don’t have to do it for the money so I truly believe they love the genre and the show they make, which is why Enterprise makes such good television. I’ve been watching the show religiously since it started because I need to get educated. John Gielgud used to say, ‘Know the style of the thing that you’re in and act accordingly.’ It’s very important to me."

As far as the episodes are concerned, Keating has a couple of favourites. "Given the initial brief, I never thought for a moment that Malcolm would turn into an action hero, but it seems to be looking that way and I love it, although we’ve just finished an episode entitled The Raptor which was great, except I got the you-know-what kicked out of me by a Klingon woman."

The episode that’s really dear to his heart is a ‘two-hander’ currently called Shuttlepod One. "I get the feeling that this is going to be the one I look back on years from now with pride and amazement. It’s basically 50 pages of Connor Trinneer and me in a shuttlepod with 10 hours of air left to breathe. The script is extraordinary and it will be the first time in my acting career, in front of a camera that is, where I get to do some no-holds-barred, playing from the hip, straight talking, intense acting."

Shuttlepod One comes midway through Enterprise’s first season, so we’ll certainly have a while to wait as the show only started airing on Sky 1 in January. In the meantime, our beloved Mr. Keating was planning to make a triumphant return to the UK in late December. "We’re coming on a press junket and I have to admit I makes my tummy go funny to think about it. One of the reasons I came to America was because I always dreamt of coming back home as part of a hugely successful television show. Returning in Enterprise is like my dream come true."

Submitted by: Caresse