Malcolm Reed

And this dual legacy that the show inherited, it took on a new importance, not to mention baggage, when the series debuted exactly 15 days after 9-11, at the dawn of a complicated era of international turmoil.

In the end, the U.S. and U.K. models for Star Trek find embodiment in the enterprise characters of Captain Jonathan Archer and Armory Officer Lieutenant Malcolm Reed.

respectively.

Archer, portrayed by Scott Bakula, the son of Starfleet and, by implication, the U.S. space program, reflects at first an often naive, childlike, and problematic tie to U.S. identity, complete with a sense of fate and entitlement.

Malcolm Reed, portrayed by Dominic Keating, the British son of the Royal Navy, seems equally poised to embody a duty-driven sense of service to empire by the book, as the Enterprise Bible for the series explains of him.

It is through the thoughtful, even subversive, development of Malcolm Reed's character, however, that Enterprise ultimately rewards viewers.

So yes, I am talking today about Malcolm Reed.

I'm drawing in part on my essay, Beyond the Wilds and the Wades, Re-evaluating Archer, the Armory, and Enterprise, from the 2023 academic anthology, Star Trek Essays Exploring the Final Frontier.

pretty good with kids, you know? Some of those Enterprise actors, if you put them in a room with a kid, it's like, I don't know particularly how well it would go, but Connor Tredeo does pretty good with it.

Yeah, somehow I don't think he would have the same chemistry if he'd tried to befriend Malcolm Reed.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

But it is where it is.

The Communicator.

During an investigation of a pre-warp alien planet, Reed accidentally leaves his communicator behind.

When he returns with Archer to get the piece of technology, they are captured by soldiers who accuse them of being enemy spies.

mean, I've just recently been watching some mid-season two Enterprise episodes.

I think you guys know that Malcolm Reed is not one of my top five Trek characters anyway.

But I think you could say he's definitely also on that kind of... on that vibe.

He's

I see

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed.

Malcolm Reed, thank you.

Thank you.

Travis

When they couldn't find anything else to do with this character, you give them a job in Section 31.

I mean, that's the Malcolm Reed model, with apologies to everyone's favorite armory officer on the Enterprise NX-01.

Malcolm Reed was a character that they were constantly trying different things with because they could never quite figure out where he fit in the show, where they fit in the cast.

And eventually, they just seemed to give up on writing stuff for the character.

And one of the desperate measures they took is they had him be a secret operative for Section 31 in that show.

Here's an alternative theory about Malcolm Reed.

Welcome to Warp Factor 5, a Star Trek rewatch podcast brought to you by TrekCore.com.

I am your host, Alex Perry.

Enterprise would have been screwed so many times without Hoshi.

So I got to give her a little call out in this one.

And, you know, I have come to a new appreciation of Malcolm Reed having done my podcast.

We're about halfway through season four at this point.

This man is really good at his job, right? Like Malcolm Reed is good at his job.

No, no,

no, no. Kybosh, that is Trip and what's his name? Malcolm.

Malcolm Reed down on the planet trying to fuck as many women as possible.

It's sex comedy of the worst kind.

Yeah, awful.