Draft:Malcolm Reed (Star Trek)

Malcolm Reed is a fictional character in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise portayed by British actor Dominic Keating. In the show Reed is, at different times, the armory and tactical officer aboard the starship Enterprise.

Character Biography
Reed, born 2117, is English. His parents are Stuart and Mary, and he has a sister, Madeline. They appeared on-screen in the episode "Silent Enemy" while communicating with Enterprise. In addition to his parents and sister, other relatives also known are an Uncle Archie and "two spinster aunts."

Reed's great-uncle was in the British Royal Navy on Earth, but was killed in action while chief engineer of HMS Clement (a submarine that struck a mine, a leftover from an unmentioned war). Reed has a strong appreciation for his uncle, not only because of his relative's heroics, but because they both share a common condition: aquaphobia, or the fear of drowning. He is one of the few men in his family who did not join the Royal Navy, a fact which led to some friction with his father, who is also a Royal Navy veteran. Reed is also an Eagle Scout, obtaining 28 Merit Badges, two more than his commanding officer, Jonathan Archer.

Reed is responsible for the development of or contributing to the development of procedures that are used throughout the Star Trek timeline. In the episode Singularity, Reed develops what would be known as the Tactical Alert which would bring the ship to battle readiness at a moment's notice. This was jokingly referred to by Commander Tucker as the "Reed Alert". Reed initially liked the idea but then decided it was "a bit narcissistic". The Tactical Alert would evolve into the condition "Red Alert" and "Yellow Alert" used in all other Star Trek series.

Reed has an almost suicidal sense of self-sacrifice, and can also be consumed at times with regret over paths not followed in his love life, due to his inability to "get close" to women; he and Trip Tucker have at least one ex-girlfriend in common. In one alternate timeline seen during the Xindi mission in which Enterprise becomes a generational ship unable to return to Earth, Reed dies without leaving any heirs, having been unable or unwilling to find a mate. The episode "Shuttlepod One" revealed that Reed has an apparent crush on T'Pol, but this was never expanded upon further in future episodes.

The episode "Divergence" revealed that in 2149, Reed, then an Ensign, had been recruited as an operative for a mysterious offshoot of Starfleet Intelligence, which in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would be identified as Section 31. He believed he had left Section 31 behind when he was posted aboard Enterprise in 2151; however, in 2154, he was reactivated as an agent during a mission to recover Phlox, who had been kidnapped by a group of Klingons trying to stop a genetically engineered virus running rampant in the Empire. Part of his mission involved sabotaging a piece of evidence that might have assisted Enterprise in tracking down the Klingons faster. For this, Reed was temporarily relieved of duty and incarcerated in the brig by Archer, although Archer later reinstated Reed after determining that he had been placed in what Archer called "an impossible situation" by his Section 31 superior, Harris.

Following the Klingon mission, Reed demanded that Harris never communicate with him again. Harris, however, replied that Reed had committed himself to a cause he could never simply walk away from. Reed would later re-establish contact with Harris under orders from Archer during the Terra Prime incident in the penultimate episode of the series.

Production
Reed was created by series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, with Berman saying of the character: "We wanted our armory officer to be a character who was rather shy and staid". Originally Reed was planned to hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander but it was changed to Lieutenant before the pilot episode aired.

The series bible created for Star Trek: Enterprise, characterized Reed as: "British, male, late twenties. Armory Officer. In the new age of humanity's enlightenment, Reed is a bit of a throwback. He's a 22nd century 'soldier,' all spit and polish and by-the-book. His hair is cut razor-short. He maintains a rigorous daily schedule; when he isn't on duty, he's working out on a futuristic exercise apparatus he keeps in his quarters, or toiling in the munitions lab, perfecting some new kind of torpedo […] Reed is always trying to expand his weapons inventory, storing ammunition in parts of the ship designated to Engineering […] Reed is filled with contradictions. Despite his near-obsession with regulations and munitions, he's also soft spoken, shy, and awkward around women. When testing a new photon weapon, he's liable to put on a pair of space age ear-plugs because he doesn't like loud noises."

In a 2013 interview Keating said he had played Reed as gay, saying "I played him so gay [...] I mean, it was always rumored that Malcolm was gay, wasn't it? [...] It was that one line of his three-line bio, 'Shy around women,' that just shockwaved across the gay community."

Reception
In 2018, The Wrap ranked Reed as the 31st best character of Star Trek overall, noting he developed the Tactical Alert (i.e. Red Alert) of Star Trek lore. In 2016, the character was ranked as the 29th most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe by Wired magazine.

Den of Geek recommended the following episodes for the character, "Singularity" and "Affliction." They were "fascinated" by the character's development of starship security.