"In a perfect realistic world I would segue into a really snappy comedy," said Dominic Keating of of his plans now that Star Trek: Enterprise has wrapped shooting. "I would like to do a comedy. But, realistically, unless it was a completely horrible script, I'd do anything. I want to work. Actors want to act. It's what we do. It's how we make our money."

Speaking to Starburst (via DominicKeating.com), the Malcolm Reed actor explained that he was reading a script for a television comedy where he might play a series regular, a gay psychologist "who steals the lead husband away from his wife - who he is also the therapist for." The "very witty" show is called Don't Ask, and Keating was hopeful at the time of the interview of auditioning. "I don't think anyone is cast yet. So I'm already looking ahead. You have to."

Before Enterprise premiered, the character of Reed was at one time rumoured to be Star Trek's first gay crewmember. Though Keating had said that it was probably just as well that wasn't pursued (story), he noted that he does not mind that Reed's position on the ship did not evolve a great deal over the course of the series. "They played him as a type," he observed. "This last run with Harris (Eric Pierpoint), the Special Ops guy, was fun. I guess he's just not as green as he was at the beginning...I kind of made my peace back at the end of season one that this show was never going to be about Malcolm Reed in any kind of in-depth way. It was always going to be about the captain (Scott Bakula) and Trip (Connor Trinneer) and T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), the babe."

Thus Keating can be philosophical about a final episode that some fans felt shunted the Enterprise cast aside for guest stars from The Next Generation. "It's a tie-up of 18 years of Star Trek, of a grand piece of work...they've nicely woven our series into a bigger picture," he said of "These Are the Voyages...". Keating felt it was understandable from the producers' point of view, but "if I were maybe the captain I'd be a bit more disconcerted by this episode not really being my series finale."

As for his personal favourite episodes, Keating cites "Shuttlepod One", because it was fun, "just that little mini-play in a shuttlepod with Connor." He enjoyed "Minefield" because it was his first time working intensely with Bakula, "such a good actor and we had a blast doing that", and he enjoyed the conflict between Reed and Hayes in season three. Now he would like to do a comedy, like the film he did with Tim Allen, Jungle 2 Jungle, "for which I got a bit of notice. The respected American film critic Janet Maslin actually said I was the funniest thing in the movie...Tim Allen paid to have her shot!" he joked.

The original article is in the May 2005 issue of Starburst. A transcript may be found here.

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