June/July 2005

Star Trek Magazine (UK Edition) 

Issue 121

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK 

Abbie Bernstein catches up with Dominic Keating - Star Trek: Enterprise's Security Officer Malcolm Reed 

At the time of this interview, the bad news hadn't officially broken, but Dominic Keating already seemed adjusted to the idea that after four years, his tenure playing Lt. Malcolm Reed on Star Trek:Enterprise was drawing to a close. "There's a definite sense that this could easily be it," he says, philosophically. "There's no one at Paramount any more that has any interest in the show. There's no one at UPN who has any interest in the show, there's no one at Paramount who could talk to anyone at UPN, even if they did have an interest in the show, in having it remain. I'm planning my life that we're off. Financially and 
otherwise, I'm moving ahead like [a fifth season is] not going to happen." 

Keating is happy with the fourth season so far: "It's going good. I've finally got a little bit more to do, which is nice. About the first 10 or 11 episodes, I'm not doing very much at all, just perfunctory stuff, and then it hots up. I've got quite a nice little four-episode, five-episode run." 

What's been the hardest thing Keating's had to do this season? "Wear the blessed spacesuit!" he laughs, referring to the Romulan arc stories. "I did two episodes, back to back, four or five days in a row in that spacesuit. Man, I tell you, it grates! A long day in that spacesuit is a long day." 

Even after the spacesuit has been physically doffed, it continues to plague the actors in post-production, Keating reveals: "Even when you take the helmets off, the suits themselves are so thick, with the rubber they use, they creak and crinkle, so you have to loop it [re-record the dialogue] anyway. If you move at all in that suit, you're looping. I just looped United today - it took two hours!" 

The spacesuit episodes - Babel One and United - see a return to the Shuttlepod One dynamics of Reed and Connor Trinneer's Trip finding themselves facing life-threatening jeopardy while separated from their colleagues. Keating still finds this a blast : "Oh, definitely. Connor's my mate now. We got the dynamic more than ever, because we're friends 
outside of the show now. We live around the corner from each other. We're chums. He's the guy I rang to help me take my car to the shop today - it's got to that," he laughs. "So yeah, the chemistry - we don't even have to think about that now." 

Keating is pleased with the turns the series has taken since Writer/Producer Manny Coto has taken on Show-runner responsibilities : "Manny's really stepped up," he feels. "In some ways - I'm not the one best really to say this - but I understand that he has righted some of the wrongs that some of the stalwart fans felt were made by the show in our early episodes. Some fans felt that we took certain liberties and apparently he's righted those and made it look like the liberties were taken for a reason. So that's fairly clever. And some of the stuff he's given us to do - the two episodes I just got to play were some of the best I've ever done on the show, and they were Manny's stories." 

There's also enjoyment to be had in the Mirror Universe two-part arc, In a Mirror Darkly, with a first episode scripted by Mike Sussman. "We're in this [parallel] universe where we're all bad mother******s. I played my first scene as a badass Reed with aspirations to - I can't tell you what - and it was great fun!" 

This called for a slight alteration in Reed's usual look, Keating adds: "I accentuated the scar I already have on my lip - a dog bit me when I was 17 - and I slicked my hair down a bit more severely than usual. Anthony [ Montgomery] went through a transformation - he looks amazing. Scott, too." 

Although it hasn't happened on ST:ENT, Keating reveals "I have a dream to direct, so whenever I'm not in a scene, you'll generally find me behind the monitor, watching what's going on." 

What are some of the things he's learned through observation? "Trust the Director of Photography and just be interested in the story and direct the story. I got very immersed in shot-making. That comes with experience. But let the Director of Photography make the shot. Ask the actors to come somewhere with you and have a vision, obviously, but when 
you actually think about the myriad and multitude of choices you've got, let the Director of Photography be that guy choosing the lenses. That's his job. You'll have a much better run, too, if you give the DP something to do, because he's involved. It's a consensus, with one guy - the Director - steering the ship." 

Does Keating have an ST:ENT Director he' d especially like to emulate? "That's a very difficult question," he considers. "They're all so unique. If I could pinch a bit from here and steal a bit from there...I like the way David Straiton is on the set. He has a lovely way with him. I like the passion that LeVar Burton has on set. I like the attention to detail that David Livingston has, and I like the efficiency and workmanlike attitude - that's not to say that he doesn't have all of the above as well or that the others don't have all of the above, either. Jim Conway has a very efficient, workmanlike attitude that threw me for a bit of a loop during the filming of the pilot, but he's actually directing again today, and it was very refreshing to be around that no-nonsense style. 

"When you've done a show for four years, I want to come to work, get it done and go home," Keating adds. "I have a great time doing it, but I don't need to spend three extra hours!" he laughs. 

What does Keating see himself doing next? "Lining up other work,"! he says. "Going out auditioning like a nutter!"