Summary

  • Dominic Keating was not happy with the twist in Star Trek: Discovery's finale, calling it "a slap in the face."
  • Keating expressed resentment towards Enterprise's Temporal War storyline and the underuse of his character.
  • Keating would have preferred a reference like Captain Sisko's baseball rather than the reveal that Doctor Kovich is Agent Daniels in Discovery's finale.

Star Trek: Discovery's finale twist, saying,"That pissed me off." Discovery's series finale, "Life, Itself", saw the mysterious Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) reveal his true identity to Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green): Kovich is really Daniels, the temporal agent played by Matt Winston, on Star Trek: Enterprise. The Kovich-is-Daniels bombshell didn't land with Dominic Keating when he watched Star Trek: Discovery's series finale.

Kyle Hadyniak of TrekNews.net interviewed Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer about their new podcast, The D-Con Chamber, which will soon host Star Trek: Discovery's Sonequa Martin-Green as a guest. Regarding Doctor Kovich turning out to be Agent Daniels from Star Trek: Enterprise, Keating did not mince words, calling the reveal "a slap in the face." Dominic went on to explain his "resentment" over Enterprise's Temporal War storyline. Read his quote and watch the TrekNews.net video (Keating's comments are at the 31:00 mark) below:

Dominic Keating: That pissed me off, I gotta say. Well, only the last bit. [Kovich] turns out to be f—ing Daniels. I mean, really? That was a slap in the face. I’m gonna be honest with you. I mean, he was a lovely guy, that actor [Matt Winston] who came on to play the timeline guy… He was a sweetheart and a very good actor.

But if I’m gonna be honest, it kind of used to piss me off that they bring him back two or three times a season for really good episodes. And I’d get the ‘Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir’ lines. All right. I mean, I was surfing. But there was resentment there, I gotta be [honest]. I wasn’t as resentful as some. They underused us, I think. And Christ knows, I’ve watched Enterprise now twice, and if I can understand that temporal timeline storyline… I still haven’t got a clue what the f— was going on.

But the fact that they referenced Daniels at the end of Discovery was like, “Whatever.” (laughs) There you go. I’m being honest. I’d have rather had the baseball.

The baseball Dominic Keating refers to is the baseball belonging to Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which is one of the Easter eggs in Doctor Kovich's office in Star Trek: Discovery's series finale.

Scott Bakula as Captain Archer in front of the cast of Star Trek: Discovery
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2

Star Trek: Discovery's Kovich Is Daniels Enterprise Twist Explained

Discovery's homage to Enterprise missed with Dominic Keating

Doctor Kovich turning out to be Agent Daniels from Star Trek: Enterprise ingeniously answered the questions surrounding Star Trek: Discovery's mystery man. Since his introduction in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Kovich took a keen interest in the time-traveling crew of the USS Discovery. Kovich's expertise was the Temporal Wars and the dangerous effects of time and interdimensional travel. While Kovich kept nearly everything he knew top secret, he had a peculiar fascination with antiquities, like writing with a pen and paper. Kovich turning out to be Daniels pays off his mystery and nicely bonds Star Trek: Discovery with its immediate predecessor, Star Trek: Enterprise.

Kovich's true identity means a character from Enterprise has been part of Discovery since season 3.

It's disappointing that Dominic Keating doesn't see Star Trek: Discovery's Kovich reveal as it was intended: a nod toward the importance of Star Trek: Enterprise to the franchise. Kovich's true identity means a character from Enterprise has been part of Discovery since season 3, and has been sending Captain Burnham and the USS Discovery on missions ever since. However, Keating's reaction seems tied to his deeper "resentment" over how underutilized his character, Lt. Malcolm Reed, was on Enterprise. If anything, Kovich turning out to be Daniels makes the 22nd century of Star Trek: Enterprise vitally important to the 32nd century of Star Trek: Discovery and unifies the two opposite points of Star Trek's thousand-year saga.

A shocked Captain Burnham in Star Trek Discovery next to Captain Archer from Enterprise
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4

Star Trek: Discovery Has Homaged Enterprise Since Season 1

There has been lots of Disco love to Archer and Enterprise

In 2017, Star Trek: Discovery became the very next Star Trek series to premiere after Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005, and elements of Enterprise were baked into Discovery from its beginnings since the two prequels were only separated by 100 years in the Star Trek timeline. The original blue Starfleet uniforms on Star Trek: Discovery were a visual nod to the utilitarian blue Starfleet jumpsuits worn by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise. The Vulcan logic extremists who tried to kill Michael Burnham as a child are also rooted in the hostile and xenophobic Vulcans depicted in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Star Trek: Enterprise introduced the Denobulans via Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley).

When Star Trek: Discovery jumped to the 32nd century, the United Federation of Planets introduced the Archer Space Dock to rebuild and refurbish Starfleet's armada. The Archer Space Dock's unveiling came complete with the sound of "Archer's Theme" from Star Trek: Enterprise. In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, a Denobulan scientist, Dr. Hitoroshi Kreel, was one of the six 24th-century scientists who found and hid the Progenitors' technology, with Kreel using his science to help the water-deprived people of Halem'no. Doctor Kovich's reveal as Agent Daniels is just the final link between Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery.

Source: TrekNews.net