One of the more controversial elements of the four-year run of Star Trek: Enterprise was the series finale featuring TNG guest stars. In a new interview, Enterprise actor Dominic Keating breaks from his co-stars and expresses "love" for the often-derided episode. The actor also talks about his auditions for the 2009 Star Trek movie. Details below.
Keating on "These Are The Voyages" and Star Trek 2009 auditions.
In an interview with the official Star Trek site, Dominic Keating talks about how he was "very satisfied with his four years plaing Malcolm Reed on Star Trek: Enterprise. This optimism even extends to the series finale. Keating appears to be in the minority of both fans and his Enterpirse co-stars regarding "These Are the Voyages," saying:
I loved it. I’ve said this at the conventions many times, but I had no issue with it. It was such a treat to work with Marina (Sirtis), who’d become a chum over the years on the convention circuit. They were shooting Nemesis next door to us during our first season. And I loved Jonathan (Frakes). I had that one scene with him in the kitchen galley when he was playing the cook, the chef, and that was one of the funniest days I ever had filming the whole show. He is a crack-up, a funny, funny man. We laughed. There’s nothing like two actors when they’re just having a giggle in between takes. He’s as sharp as a tack, that lad.
Keating in "These Are The Voyages" – he actually liked it!
Keating also talked about how he auditioned for a role for the 2009 Star Trek movie:
I don’t think they knew who I was, to be honest. I went back twice. It was to play Kirk’s abusive father, which became a voiceover in the movie. They cut him out of it in the end, but there were a couple of scenes back at the ranch when he was knocking the kid around and Jim decides to haul ass and get out of dodge. And there was a great scene when he’s riding away from the father in the dirt. I don’t think they knew my work. I have a feeling they might have done their due diligence once there was some interest there and realized that I was on a Star Trek show. And it went away pretty quickly.
Keating auditioned for the role of Frank in "Star Trek" (pictured) – which went to Brad Henke (and was cut anyway)
For more from Keating on Star Trek and his other projects (and marraige) visit the offical site: Part 1 & Part 2.
First. Woo-hoo.
Sorry Dominic, mate. I can’t really agree with you about the ENT finale. It’s a solid enough idea to do a crossover between series, I suppose… but it just felt flat, coming right after “Terra Prime” and actually, most of Season 4.
In other words, he liked it from the point of view of his acting experience in it, but not actually from the point of view of the story. That’s a little one-sided, but undoubtedly not the whole of his opinion, so I’ll give him a break.
I do like his characterization of Malcolm Reed, and I think it would be fair for him to get a small part in the upcoming movie.
Oh, I get the whole full circle concept – bringing it back to the first series of ‘modern Trek’. But reducing the ENT cast to second banana (in favour of Riker & Troi, and the TNG era) during your final episode was not on.
Plus I generally feel if ENT needed to reach out to any other series, at the end of their adventures, it was the ORIGINAL and not the Next Generation.
They really ought to have pulled out all the stops and have secured Bill Shatner for a guest appearance. They came very close too.
Totally agree on the Shatner thing. I guess they were trying to round off their era as oposed to the franchise as a whole.
The changes I’d make:
None of the TNG holodeck nonsense. Keep it 22nd century based. Bill Shatner as Chef giving everyone advice – which is a nice link to TOS, even though he’s not Kirk, the audience still get that full circle vibe. No pointless Trip death
….and if I’m to be ultra picky – there was not enough difference in the general look, both set wise and actor appearance in terms of it being, what, five years after the previous episode? Sort all that out and then it may have made a decent end for both franchise and show.
The last year of ENT I thought was there best season with great story archs> I thought Many Coto did great job.
I remember watching last episode really feeling okay this is the end of our Trek era til they start over. ..and I also do feel that the ENT cast should have been just them in that episode too. Was it cool to see the Enterprise D again and Riker and Troi? Sure. But not for the last episode series finale though.
As for the Shatner. Yeah! I was really really hoping they could have come to a deal to have him on the show! Would have been really cool.
Would have love to have seen the Shat in Enterprise Fianle.
He could have played The Great Grandfather to James Kirk. That would have been fitting.
Mr. Keating sounds like a class act and just a really cool, easy going guy. It always strikes me how almost all of the Trek alumni really appreciate the fandom and the chance to be on Trek. It’s a nice sort of two way relationship between us, the fans, and them, where we all are grateful to each other.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Enterprise but I did like the Malcolm character a lot. I liked the extra tension he threw into the crew with not fitting in right away and then slowly warming up. I also dug that he was, as he said, often the action man on the crew and yet wasn’t, physically, the stereotypical Hollywood TV action guy. Here’s this small-ish, not very macho looking or sounding Englishman who is the tactical officer on a prestigious and dangerous mission with a day job to kick ass, take names, and just be a cunning SOB.
Great stuff there.
And the more time passes since ENT went off the air, the more I wish the stars aligned to give it the 7 years that the other Trek shows had.
I would have liked 3 more seasons and a proper send off. The fourth season was the best by far and they were finally hitting a stride. Too bad they gave up on it.
I miss that show so dearly. It’s my second-favourite series, right after DS9 (wipe that shocked look off your face, now!). It was going so, so well that last season, with the mirror universe and the Klingons and Terra Prime.. everything was falling together.
And then with that finale, it fell apart. Mainly because they included Riker and Troi and because Trip “died”. Personally I like the novel interpretation by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels. Section 31 conspiracy! Jake and Nog looking into it! So awesome! ENT Relaunch was a fabulous idea.
If wikipedia isn’t wrong the next ENT relaunch book should be out in about 6 months.
Great stories and correcting lots of the finale mistakes and continuing with the awesome arcs of the season 4 otherwise.
Book 1: The Good That Men Do (2007)
Book 2: Kobayashi Maru (2008)
Book 3: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor’s Wing ( 2009)
Book 4: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm (November 2011)
The biggest mistake in the finale episode was to use “The Pegasus” as backgroud-story. Sirtis ans Frakes were much older as in “The Pegasus”. Obviously. But it was a chance to show the Titan or a part of it. And a new “Background-Story”, in the “present”. I think, Bermans intention was noble, but a real crossover-show AFTER the end of ENT would have been better. Of course it is much easier to write such things here but to argue against a non-trek Paramount-chief….
I get a sense that he liked working on it – and that’s fair enough. If he had fun, then cool. But the episode itself is utterly awful.
I’d love to work with Jonathan Frakes and be Marina Sirtis’ chum as well, just not in that episode!
These Are The Voyages was an OK idea for a stand alone episode. If Berman really wanted to send a Valentine to the fans he should have run it during the February sweeps. As a series finale it stank and killing off Tripp was STOOO-PID.
Keating seems like a nice enough guy but a little self absorbed. The one time I saw him at a convention he kept dropping F bombs and there were a lot of kids present. It made me cringe.
I can agree to a point with Dominic cause it is a bit refreshing that a series ending didn’t need to be of such of a life or death struggle, needs to be a grand spectacle. Just reminiscing about the good times and the bad times was nice. And reviewing history from Riker and Troi from the future was also a nice touch, but they fracked it up.
I would have loved it if Riker was preparing himself to become captain of the Titan, and having the Titan right there instead of messing with a beloved episode.
I wonder if he would have liked it if he had died instead of trip. I hate that episode and its one of 2 (the other being vgr:threshold) episodes I would like revoked from cannon.
16. Actually Reed’s really the one who might’ve gone out with a bang, isn’t he? Armoury Officer, head of Security, into munitions and all that.
He appeared to go out that way, in the Mirror Universe… walking into a explosive trap set by Slaar the Gorn. But they deliberately had a scene where Phlox was saying “his condition could go either way” and “some were betting whether he would expire or not”.
As a season finale, TATV would have worked – without the death of Trip of course. But as a series finale it was a major lost opportunity. I still feel they should have started the Romulan War in season 3 and left out the Xindi thing entirely!
Not a big surprise that ST09 didn’t even know he was in a Star Trek show. After JJ’s “I’ve never been a Star Trek fan before…” comment, nothing is real surprising.
Season 5 of ENT would have been great, but even better would have been a movie of the Romulan War featuring the ENT cast and Starfleet’s “new” Daedelus class starships. And real Romulan ships that look like birds, not like some barbed-wire squid.
“These are the Voyages..” was a huge disappointment. As a regular stand alone episode, I suppose it would have been fine, but it seems a real slap in the face to the Enterprise cast to be the final episode. They are really just holodeck characters.
I agree with 9. Pocketbooks rarely contradicts something on screen, but in this case they made the wise decision to undo some of the last episode. Michael Martin and Andy Mangels did a good job tieing up lose ends and trying to explain the conspiracy as best as possible.
I only wish the next Romulan War book came out sooner than 2 years after the last. I almost have to reread the last to remember what happened so far.
20–It would have been interesting to see what happened with Eric Jendersen’s script for his 11th movie which would have covered the Romulan War. There is an article about it in Memory-Alpha. However, the Enterprise crew was on Risa when the war began in his story and were not really a factor in the war. That would have been tough to follow, since the Enterprise was Starfleet’s most advanced ship. The novels did a much better job and were much more believable since the Enterprise is at the forefront of the war. (However, in all fairness, Jendersen’s script never made it past the 1st draft, so undoubtedly there would have been changes made before it was filmed).
22. Yes, that going to feature a United Earth Space Navy. You just think, no. What the heck is the writer thinking? That should be Starfleet shouldn’t it? Then again, MACOs were unheard of until Season 3.
I disliked much of the stuff I’ve read about Star Trek: The Beginning. The NX-01 stuck at Risa is insulting. While the film basically steals Shran, and uses him in the film. The thing about that character, is his in debt/debt repayed friendship with Captain Archer.
@21: Margaret Clark and Pocket didn’t exactly contradict what was on screen–they still aren’t allowed to do that. It’s just that the premise of the episode gave them a very helpful loophole. I really enjoyed the bit when they’re plotting Trip’s fake death and he worries that nobody will believe such a ridiculous story. An experienced officer has to deal with intruders on a ship loaded with MACOs and Starfleet security and all he can think of is to blow himself up? Pfaw.
I never got to watch the later series of Enterprise and I got tired of the Xindi and the Temporal time whatevers. However, I think I am seeing a pattern emerging with the Rick Berman era, and that is the killing off of key characters, eg Captain Kirk in Generations, Trip and it appears Admiral Archer has died. Although, in real life, death is an inevitability for everyone, surely key FICTIONAL characters could remain alive.
I like Malcolm Reed and that lovely British accent. It would be nice to see Dominic Keating in the next Star Trek movie, not necessarily playing Malcolm Reed.
25. If you ever get the opportunity to watch Season 4, Enterprise’s last, you might be pleasantly surprised and disappointed where they had to leave off. The quality really shot up, once they actually began exploring important Star Trek backstory. Barring the opening two-parter (more Temporal shananigans – but I found it fun, in a pulp sci-fi way) and the finale of course.
Big Dom might well have enjoyed himself in the last episode with Big Jon and Little Marina, but I’ll tell you this for nothing: his character stank and so did his acting.
pwwweeeeee!
Well at least some one liked the last Enterprise episode. :-)) LOL
Re: Romulan War
Perhaps the medium of video games would be the best place to tell that chapter of Trek history.
An epic RPG trilogy perhaps? Unlikely I know…..
…….I’ve got such a craving for a decent Trek game – none of the newer stuff floats my boat, to be honest.
23–Have to agree. Again, his script was only the 1st draft and like any other would have went through many rewrites. But other than the fact that it would finally cover the Romulan War, much of what I read did not sit well. Starfleet would have to be involved and the Enterprise, as the most advanced ship (along with Columbia) would have to have been involved.
The premise of the books seems much better with Enterprise at the forefront. They also do a pretty good job explaining why they took a step back in technology (attempting to explain how the original series looked less advanced than it should of in universe). I realize to follow the same premise in a movie would have required a movie that featured the Enterprise cast, something Paramount was not interested in doing.
I agree with some other comments that Dominic is reflecting on how he enjoyed working with Marina and Jonathan – and he is careful not to talk about the content of the episode itself.
I just rewatched the entire Enterprise Series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having watched all the different iterations of Star Trek again, in many respects Star Trek Enterprise is my favorite. But I agree with the majority that the final episode left a lot to be desired. Its not that it is bad, but rather that it was simply not suitable as the final episode, notwithstanding what they did to tie it into the lore with the final moments. And I thought the death of Trip was completely needless – and Shram, all the sudden he just abruptly exits from the story – some poor editing.
I wish someone like AMC or another quality cable network would pick up Star Trek Enterprise and give it a 2nd chance with Season 5. On the right network (anything but the majors and Syfy) I believe it would do well.