2004 - September

TV Zone

Issue # 59

AUDITIONS, ENGAGEMENTS & GUINNESS

Dominic Keating plays weapons officer Lieutenant Malcolm Reed in the newest incarnation of Star Trek, Enterprise. However, being part of the show has not always been plain sailing, as the actor tells us, even if it does ensure him free Guinness...

When the production on Enterprise's third season wrapped, the cast knew its future was more than a little uncertain, and prepared themselves for the actor's eternal ordeal of seeking work. But while taking a short, but personally rather significant break back home in Europe, Dominic Keating got a stark reminder that his role as Lt. Malcolm Reed would always be with him even if the actual series ceased production.

"Back in England, obviously, I became all English again, and had a wonderful time, it was great. I went to Ireland and stayed with my Irish family, and went to Brussels to see my uncle, and went to Paris and Rome with my now fiancee. In Ireland, I was like a rock star. Every pub I went into, from the beginning to the end of the trip, someone there knew who I was and it was round the pub in a few minutes. The first one I went into in Dundalk, I went with my cousin and went to the bar to buy a drink. He was pouring my Guinness and as I reached for my wallet he said ' Your money's no good here'. And it was like that everywhere, everywhere we went 'You're fabulous, the show's great, we don't want your money!' And that was that."

While in Europe, Keating missed out on his co-star Jolene Blalock's wedding - "I missed it, I had another engagement. I was meant to be back in LA but I couldn't nip back for that either, so..." - but something was obviously in the air, as Keating followed suit by proposing to his girlfriend Jilana.

We'd been sort of hedging around the question for a year or more," he says, "and a good friend of mine's brother is a jeweller in London, so we went to see him about the possibility of him making wedding bands. Before I knew what was happening, my credit card was on the table. We walked out of the shop, into Hatton Garden in London, and before we'd done about 20 paces I went, ' I haven't actually proposed yet', so I thought I'd better get on with it, so we did it there and then."

And then Star Trek intervened. "Shortly after that, literally, I kid you not, I'd just asked the question and she's said 'Yes', it turned out a security guard for one of the jewellery firms was a big Star Trek fan, and before I knew he'd got his cellphone-photo thing out, and I was in a Star Trek moment again."

With the series' future in doubt, Keating spent the rest of the summer back in the old routine of auditions. "I got real close to some... I nearly did an episode of West Wing , as a journalist, I nearly did an episode of Monk ...I saw the director of that a few days ago, and he said 'Oh listen man, I really wanted you for that job, but they had to go older and they went with a 55-year-old, because the part wouldn't have made sense', I'd have been playing a record producer who gets turned over and eventually killed by Carmen Electra," he says with self-mocking cold-arrogance, "and why should she kill this?"

In the time honoured tradition that the actors are always the last to know anything about the show they're in Keating actually heard that Enterprise had been picked up after all though the rumour net. "My girlfriend, my fiancee now, rang me and said the series had been picked up and we were all wrong." Wrong he says because the cast suspected that they'd seen the writing was on the wall early on. "About episode 15, I thought we were all feeling 'You know what? This might be it'." He's philosophical about what that might have meant, "Well, it wouldn't have been the first time I got fired, or lost out on a good job - showbiz is a tough place, man. I suppose when I got this gig I thought 'Oh well, OK, we can retire now' and then about episode 16 it was 'Oh well, there we go.' But then I enjoy the part, and I enjoy going after the next job, and I enjoyed going after West Wing and Monk and was up for a Brian de Palma movie, Black Dahlia , which I believe I'm still being considered for, though it's not very likely, I think he's got a couple of people ahead of me."

He'd also have missed the people. "We're a tight cast, and the leader of the pack, Scott Bakula, just fantastic. He's a stand-up guy. I find myself in my own situations asking myself ' How would Scott react now?' He's like the big brother I never had. In some ways the Dad I never..." he pauses.

"My father died when I was young and Scott really has become that...he's somewhat of that figure in my life. He takes on things and just the way he handles himself, he's a good guy."

As for Season Three, Keating enjoyed the new opportunities the tougher tone of the mission against the Xindi offered Reed. "Reed got to be the action man, and I didn't mind that - it got me a date, that's for sure!" Keating puts a lot of the credit down to a particular new recruit to the writing staff, Manny Coto. "Last year he wrote four or five of the finest episodes we've done, like Similitude , the one where Trip is cloned. He's now running the show, which is great for Manny and a very good for us. He's bright and certainly the right man to pass the baton on to. Brannon [Braga] will still oversee the thing, but the actual nuts and bolts of running the show will have fresh blood and Manny's the right guy to hand it off to. He's bright, he can write and he's hungry.

"I was talking to Manny about that just the other day," Keating adds when asked about the third year's season-long arc, "and I have heard that trying to pull off another seasonal arc might just be too much to swallow. What they are going to do is several three -or -four-episode arcs,little mini-arcs, and then maybe if we get Season Five or Six or Seven - somewhere around Six would be a good idea for my money - we could end it all with another seasonal arc, but wait until then".

As for Brent Spiner's three-episode appearance, and William Shatner's rumoured guest spot, Keating shrugs. "There are all sorts of rumours that there are going to be old guys coming in. Eventually we'll be talking about whether me as an old guy will be coming in, the rumours'll go on that long."

Looking ahead to Season Four as a whole, Keating is enthusiastic. "I think it's going to be the one where we emerge phoenix-like from the ashes of...whatever. I think Manny Coto's going to really rock the boat. He's hungry, he's talented and he's capable...I think it's going to be a really good year and we're going to show up with the kind of numbers they never expected on a Friday night."

Breaking with Convention

Star Trek isn't just about acting. The conventions are almost obligatory - if while he show's on-air numbers might have been disappointing, its popularity isn't flagging in that arena. The reception I got at my first convention was spectacular. It was in London, at the Excel convention centre in Docklands, and there must have been about 10,000 people through the doors in a couple of days. Connor [Trinneer] came, from our cast, and there were some old alumni. Marina Sirtis of course, it wouldn't be a convention without Marina." laughs Keating. "Who else was there? I keep wanting to say Robbie Coltrane, but it was that chap from Voyager ...Robert Beltran,he was there, and very fun. That was from Star Trek , they had a bunch of other sci-fi related people. " At a convention", he continues, "the guys want to hear stories about the set,and I've got plenty of those, and they want to know about my real life, which is OK but you've got to draw the line somewhere, between your public and private lives."

2004 - September

SFX

Issue # 121

THE DOMINIC EFFECT

Stuffy uptight Brit, camp convention queen or Eastend hardnut - who's the real Dominic Keating? Ian Berriman questions the Enterprise star. 

"I CAN SEE YOUR THONG!"

Dominic Keating couldn't be less like his TV alter-ego, Enterprise's Armoury Officer, Malcolm Reed. One can't imagine stuffy Malcolm embarrassing our photographer by pointing out that, as she bends over her laptop, her pants are poking out. "It's not deliberate!" protests Katherine, flustered. Keating snorts in mock disbelief: "Yeah, you and 10,000 other women in London..."

Off screen, on stage or one-to-one, this self-confessed "convention queen" is a livewire, switching personas to entertain his audience - even if its only an audience of two or three. One minute he's pursed-lipped and camp as he recalls horsing around on set "I was late for a cue one time, and it was: 'Where were you?' ' So sorry Captain, I was just thinking about the new curtains for the ready room!' "

Next minute, he's venting is spleen about Californian surf dudes who object to him stealing their waves. "Given that they're meant to be all Zen, they can be real bastards!" Keating flips into Vinnie Jones mode, showing how he could scare 'em off with British grit. "Fuck off, ya bastards!" he snarls, like some EastEnd pitbull. Eyes popping, fists clenched, a vein standing out in his neck, he spits, " 'Ave it!"

He has reason to be ebullient. As we speak, it's only a few weeks since the dark cloud of cancellation was lifted and he found out that he still has a job. "Thank God for that! There was a time about two thirds of the way through the season, where..." Keating sighs wearily, "... I wasn't enjoying going to work. As well as being the cast's convention queen I am the worrywart. In some respects I managed to just let go. Towards the end of the run up to whether we were gonna get picked up I was really resigned to the fact that this might be it."

What fans forget while we fret about the abstract matters like "the continuation of the Trek universe", is that for actors like Keating it's all about the harsh economic realities. "When I got told that this was a seven year gig, I kind of believed that it was a seven year gig. Suddenly it was looking like it was gonna be a three year gig - and I've got a seven year gig house!" Keating laughs bleakly. "I was hoping that I haven't overstepped my financial mark." Keating was "fairly confident" of renewal, since a fourth season ensures a decent package of episodes to sell into syndication. "Politics can really get in the way of production and I think that there were some politics. But I couldn't see a group of studio and network executives, having invested all that money in our sets and the cast, not going the extra mile to get the syndication year."

You'd expect him to be elated about Enterprise's renewal. Instead, he's treating it as a stay of execution. "We're going to be doing 22 episodes, which will give them 98 episodes, which I figure they figure is enough to syndicate. Which kinda leads you on to going...'Well, y'know...' "Keating clicks his fingers, "That'll be that." And I'm banking monetarily, that that's what's gonna happen." It makes sense for him to assume the worst and hope to be pleasantly surprised. All the same, it's fairly depressing. I half-jokingly ask Keating whether he's considering getting a smaller house. When he answers earnestly, I can picture him laying out the bills and doing his sums. "I'm clever with the cash, always have been. I've done the math in my head and I reckon I can keep my life pretty much as it is, as long as I don't go Champagne Charlie."

Ah well, if season four is Enterprise's last, at least it will go out in a blaze of glory. Trek overlords Braga and Berman are stepping back to develop other projects. Enterprise writer Manny Coto is taking over the day-to-day running of the show. The qualities Keating admires in Coto are intelligence and a determined self-assurance. "I remember ringing him up about a couple of scenes I had in his first episode. The other writers are much more open to my rather emphatic suggestions about changing my words or the tone of the scene, but I remember Manny not being so open and actually having a bloody good argument why it should stay the same." What, did he bark, "Just read the fucking lines, Keating!" down the phone? Keating laughs. "It wasn't quite that blunt! But I realised this guy was no walkover and he really thought about what he'd written. I remember putting the phone down and going 'hmph...okay .' "So that was your sex scene with T'Pol... "...nixed!", Keating cackles mischievously. "That's what happened! If it happens, I'm wearing the catsuit!"

Keating is pleased with the third season, which he considers an improvement. "I think 95% of it was damn good. In the first two seasons we might have been accused of turning in two clunkers and three okay-eys." Considering how many episodes the production team churns out - 26 a year initially, 24 least year - maintaining a high standard is tough. "For me 26 is a good number because its 26 episode fees and 26 repeat fees!" he grins. "But for the writers, the production and the crew...it's gruelling man! That crew works 80-85 hours a week most weeks - that's alot of hours." 

Keating's grin fades as he remembers the death of one of Enterprise's first assistant directors. "Dear Jerry Fleck - God bless him - passed away, just coming up to retirement. My heart goes out to his wife and his family, it was a terrible time. I have to say I think the workload contributed." Keating shakes his head. "Y'know the poor man suffered from hypertension and, er..." He trails off. Suddenly, I feel lousy for every snippy review we've ever printed. The Enterprise production team is flogging it's guts out, and we moan if every episodes isn't 24-carat gold.

Changing tack, I ask what it's like being the only Brit on the cast. He responds with wry self-deprecation. " don't know if you have noticed, but \I only do token! I was the token honky in Desmond's [ the 90's black sitcom] and now I'm the token Brit in an American science fiction show. I wanna be the straight guy in a gay play next!"

Nowadays Malcolm seems to have loosened up, but to begin with, he was more of a repressed, bug-up-his-ass Brit. "hat's what they wrote! The three-line bio that they gave him was 'buttoned-down Brit, shy around women,very much a jobsworthy man'. Let's talk plainly;it's an hour long science fiction show and you've got an American writing for a British part. I think they did a pretty good job. There's a dialogue that goes on. I make my notes and by and large the writers are receptive. I ring the up and go 'You know what? This is hokey.' I mean...I don't know if they ever wrote the word 'bloke', but they'll write something like 'bleemy blimey blonky' - 1930's stuff!"

What like, "Cor blimey, the hull plating is down 25%"?

"Yeah, exactly! So I push them gently into a more realistic approach. The other process that goes on is : actors want to 'act', and by and large they don't have to. This is something that I have learnt on this job. Malcolm Reed is not Dominic Keating, but where I feel comfortable that's its not going to leap out at you, I nudge Dominic in there, rather than just playing it within the box; lets make him a little idiosyncratic, a bit more enigmatic, not as predictable. I used to think of I didn't fit the proviso of the three-line box I wasn't acting the character correctly, and that was a mistake on my behalf. I feel a lot more comfortable sprinkling Dominic over Malcolm and the two come together and there's a ...goulash of a performance!"

As the solitary Brit on-set, does he get picked on?

"Not as much as I did on Desmond's -they used to play 'fuck the white boy' on Desmond's. Keating roars with laughter. "They don't play 'fuck the Brit' on Star Trek . Robbie Gee and Geff Francis, they'd look at me queer on the set and go, ' It's time to fuck the white boy!' " He fakes a distraught sob. "They were mean to me, man!"

Keating's been in LA for ten years now, and he's become pretty Americanised. "You capitulate. I say 'side-walk' and 'hood' and 'trunk' and I say 'water' in the American way at a restaurant because if you say 'water' in a British way it's gonna take you another 20 seconds. I'm all about speed, honey!

It's funny coming home. You have dinner with English friends and they'll ask you those stereotypical questions about their preconceived ideas about Americans and Los Angeles, and you know what? It's just another big city. Once you get past the veneer of cultural difference people are people mate, the world over. So, I haven't got an axe to grind. I love Americans in LA. I love Londoners in London and I feel blessed that I've got this bi-city life."

Let's hope that Keating's intuition about the end being nigh for Enterprise is wrong; and that he'll be able to carry on living that blessed lifestyle for the full seven years. "I like working and I really love going through the gates of Paramount, and I'd like to do the full stint. I ain't done with the experience!"