Keenser, Scotty's little loyal alien sidekick in 2009's Star Trek, was played by veteran genre actor Deep Roy. And in a new video interview, Roy talks about working with director JJ Abrams and his hopes for Keenser to return in the 2012 star Trek sequel. Watch it below.
Deep Roy on Keenser in the sequel
Deep Roy's long career includes many genre roles. Perhaps most famous for playing the many different Oompa-Loompas in Tim Burton's Willy Wonka, he is the only actor who has appeared in the Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises. Roy was recently a guest at the Sci-Fi Expo in Richardson, Texas where he was interviewed by the My Free Netflix Blog. The interview covers some of his roles and upcoming work. Regarding Star Trek. Here is what Deep Roy had to say about working with JJ Abrams and the sequel:
JJ Abrams is another talented director, writer, creator. I love him. And hopefully I will be in the sequel of the Star Trek, which is still writing at the moment. I am glad he put me on the starship, on the Enterprise. And let's see what happens in the sequel.
As noted by Roy, the final moments of Star Trek show Keenser on board the USS Enterprise in uniform, as a member of Scotty's engineering team. If we see Keenser in the sequel, perhaps we will learn more about him, like where he is from and how he ended up exiled with Scotty on Delta Vega.
One of the final scenes of "Star Trek" showed Deep Roy's Keenser as a member of the crew of the USS Enterprise
Here is the full video interview from the My Free Netflix Blog.
POLL: Keenser in the sequel?
Should JJ Abrams fulfill Deep Roy’s hopes and bring Keenser back back for the Star Trek sequel?
[poll=591]
Only as a real redshirt with one line ;)
He’s kinda cute, and I love his voice!
beegee beegee beegee whats up Buck!
His given name, Gordeep, means ‘God’s Light.’ From IMDB.
Do we really need another male member of the crew?
I see him as a welcome change to the new Star Trek universe,,
Its nice to see Scotty with a helper
:)
@NCC-73515 At this point, all the shirts are red….
set phasers to kill
– he’s there for the kids
A jar jar for the star trek universe
Forget Keenser…let’s bring in Yeoman Janice Rand! Who’s with me on that one???
nurse chapel and janice rand are more important characters than tiny novelty aliens
He might be the only one……
I didn’t think he really added anything to the movie. It kind of just seems like a forced in kids character. I’m really not sure what they could do with it at all and I’m not really a fan of a person being in a film strictly for the purposes of telling or being the butt end of jokes. I suppose if they were making a comedy that would be a different story.
Keenser was fine…Certainly not overdone, and a nice addition to Scotty’s ‘mess’ on Delta Vega. Keep him in, I say.
They made him and Scotty seem like such close friends that it’d be weird if he wasn’t in a sequel, even if he doesn’t get to do much.
I agree keep Keenser like what harm is he doing?
Not needed at all.
@Jeyl
“Do we really need another male member of the crew?”
He’s already on the crew per the end of the last movie. That ship has sailed. Are you suggesting they remove him because he’s male?
I think Keenser fits in with TAS only, we need Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand in the next movie!
This is the kinda character little kids love. I want more of him!
Get effing real – he’s as essential as an alarm clock in a funeral home.
I’ve said it before, he should be killed by the villian in the next movie. So yes he should be in the sequel, and he should be killed in the first half hour of the movie, along with a number of red shirts of course.
Light Bulb appears above my head! He should die early on saving Scotty’s life.
I’m all for more Keenser — more alien characters in general would be welcome — but only if they treat him with respect rather than infantilizing him because of his size.
Add me to the line waiting for Rand and Chapel… and Helen Noel and Carol Marcus and… oh wait, if all Kirk’s babes are in one movie, they’ll need more starships.
Anyway — Keenser was cute. PLEASE don’t feel compelled to repeat exactly what he did in the first movie. (That seems to be what happens to novelty characters, a la the b-list of the Pirates movies and the SW prequels.) One or two quick scenes will be fine. Yes, he can even die early saving Scotty’s life. Just remember, the focus is on Kirk/Spock/McCoy! With some Scotty et al.
Oh shudder … as if it wasn’t painful enough to have it in the first movie.
More Keenser! :-)
I like him and the Enterprise really needs more alien crew members. Otherwise the crew will be too human dominated in my opinion. So please give Keenser a role in the sequel, but not only has comic relief. Let him be useful. He could have a scene for example, where he repairs something together with Scotty.
@#3 & 8:
Spot on. If he actually served a purpose rather than to be Pegg’s comedy foil then fine.
Personally I thought they played far too much towards the pratfall, slapstick comedy side of things with Scotty. I hope they reign that in a bit in the sequel/ the one liners etc are fine but less of the Marx Brothers approach please, the guy is third in command of the ship (or at least will/ should be).
Thinking of that we actually need a scene in the new one with Kirk & Spock’s landing party trapped, with Scotty left in command to be his bad ass self as he was in TOS when he was in command!
Picture this –
In the next Star Trek film (after a battle sequence)- Scotty appears on the bridge, bloodied and distraught, holding Keenser in his arms, Uhura gasps, McCoy – “He’s dead, Jim.”
@16 Cap’n Calhoun: “Are you suggesting they remove him because he’s male?”
Star Trek needs more women. Period. And not just more of nice looking ladies who wear short skirts.
One Word- NO
One of the things I didn’t like about the movie was the casual depiction of alien species I’m pretty sure we hadn’t seen before, like the lady with the big eyes who delivered James Kirk and the one with the green/scaly face who turns to look when Sulu can’t make the ship go. Using known aliens could have been a means of driving home the point that, yes, this movie with an alternate-timeline storyline does take place in the familiar Star Trek universe. I didn’t mind the use of a new alien (Keenser) as a relatively substantive character, but the ones who were just “passing through,” I thought, would have been better if they had been familiar. (Yes, I understand that because history diverged at the point where Nero attacked the Kelvin, it’s possible the Federation encountered some species they didn’t encounter in the “real” timeline, but I’m talking about audience comfort and satisfaction, not canon.) I also wasn’t happy that in the prequel series, “Enterprise,” they introduced a species (Denobulan) I’m also pretty sure we’d never seen before. No doubt the implicit explanation is that Denobulans are known to and possibly even members of the Federation in Kirk’s time and Picard’s time — we just didn’t see any. Just as Archer had a ready room and Picard had a ready room but Kirk didn’t have a ready room — oops, he probably did, we just didn’t see it. But now Denobulans are part of the canon — would it have killed them to make the two alien characters I referred to above members of species we already knew about, such as Denobulans or Bynar or whatever?
Please god no…..i hate attempts at comic relief characters…
#27 hahahhahahhahahhahaahah!! that’s the funniest thing I’ve read in months!! Yeah he’s a jar jar, A bat mite, A wonderdog, an orbity, Snarf!!, A robin, A gleek, I could go on but I can’t recall any more names of mascots, sidekicks, super pals..etc…
30:
The films, especially TMP and TVH, always had some new aliens hanging around we had never seen before or since. TMP had ‘Big Head Guy’ on the Bridge, and some new ones during the mission briefing, and TVH had a peanut gallery of both knowns and unknowns during Kirk’s “trial” at the end. (Panther Guy, and Bald Seal-Chirping guy). It adds a bit of mystery to the background, and shows there’s more to the Federation than just a couple of races.
I thought he was a nice addition to the crew, and it would be nice for him to come back helping scotty save something or whatever (you can see why I’m no on the storyline comittee) but I think if he died it would be kinda sad and he hasn’t really done anything wrong, he’s just kinda hung around being all cute and innocent.
hey thats an idea! He could be some kind of Ferengi in disguise! (’cause when I saw his little black shadow bouncing down the hall for a milisecond I almost thought he was one).
Acually now that I think of it its kind of a stupid idea…..
I don’t see the complaining about Keenser. He’s there briefly, and he doesn’t do anything that I personally found annoying. His exchange with Scotty about food was funny (“You could eat…a bean…and be done”). Isn’t the only word he says is “Me!”?
hey, seems like a nice guy, I say keep him… If not Keenser, Balok’s brother…
Keenser is just what Star Trek needs! To make it more accessible to the children, we need a character like this. Give him a bigger role with lots of funny scenes!
As we have been told before, the JJ Abrams ST is another/alternate universe. So he may or may not have been in the Prime timeline, he just may be a bigger character in the JJ timeline. Who knows where they will go with him?
The character belongs in Star Wars, i.e. Jar Jar,
NOT IN STAR TREK !! He was placed in the movie for the kiddies.
I see no need for the character.
I kind of groaned when I saw him in movie
I wouldnt miss him.
No offense to the actor- work is work
Ugh
Keenser is one of the elements of the new film I had no complaints with; he was un-stuffy and pleasant (or at worst, harmless). Thumbs up for Keenser.
Keenser is cool. Nothing remotely similar to Jar Jar Binks at all. I’d like to see him in the sequel.
If the crew is too “human” they should have used the vast array of aliens that were introduced in TOS. From memory there were Humans, Vulcans/Romulans, and Orion Slave Women.
Throw in a few Andorians and Tellarites. After all they’re all founding members of the Federation. Perhaps a few Denobulans or Rigelians thrown in there too.
Beyond that, give Keenser a cameo with him working in the background.
i agree comparisons of Keenser to Jar Jar are silly. Keenser is in the film far less and is also not over the top stereotype annoying. Sure he may be overly cute, but it is just a bit of fun. I liked his interactions with Scotty, especially his little whimper when Scotty beamed away. I am cool with more Keenser in the sequel, but did vote for ‘a little keenser goes a long way’, which appears to be the majority viewpoint.
Maybe in a Star Trek book or comic we can find out more about Keenser, and also how he and Spock Prime got off Delta Vega and found their way back to Earth (and what possible adventures the two had on the way).
I think it makes more sense to have a mostly human crew in the new movie. During this time we saw that other ships in Star Fleet were of one species. (Intrepid being manned by Vulcans) It’s sensible for the sake of logistics for the crew replacements and leave to have the crew being regional. If the Enterprise were to spend days running crew members home all the time they would get nothing done. Spock was known to be the first Vulcan serving with a human crew. I’d like to think that the time frame during the original series showed the beginning of more species serving with other species on starships. Keeping in mind that Star Fleet was an Earth organization, I expected to see mostly humans. But as was mentioned earlier, we saw plenty of other species shown during Federation gatherings. Perhaps some of these species chose not to be part of the policing arm of the Federation.
#45: “I liked his interactions with Scotty, especially his little whimper when Scotty beamed away.”
Exactly this. That tiny moment of sadness made me care (which brings the grand total of moments I cared about anyone in the film to two, the first time being the excellent pre-credits sequence).
I don’t get the Jar-Jar comparisons at all … :/
At first, I didn’t like Spinach dude. Then, he kinda grew on me. I hope he’ll be back.
Scotty doesn’t need a helper. He needs booze and his engine room and to stay away from strippers on Argellius III.
His face reminds me of the aliens in insurrection- Chasing Picard – Worf- Data in that Starfleet dune buggy (He IS a lot shorter though!)