Robert Beltran, best-known to Trek fans as Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager, will be starring in The Devil’s Advocate, a play about former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.

Set in 1989, The Devil’s Advocate is the story of the capture of Noriega by the Vatican’s “Devil’s Advocate” Archbishop Jose Sebastian Loboa, played by Jacob Witkin.

The Devil’s Advocate, directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela, will play at the Los Angeles Theater Center from March 23 through April 17. Ticket information can be found here.

Rick Berman answered more fan questions about his time working on various Star Trek series.

The questions in the second part of the Berman interview include the following topics: Gay characters in Star Trek, a lack of familiarity with the original series and how/if that impacted his work on Star Trek: Enterprise, favorite supporting characters, rethinking how he would do Star Trek and more.

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There will be six conventions, shows or appearances in March and April that feature Trek actors of interest to Star Trek fans. This listing of conventions and shows features actors from all five of the televised series and several of the Star Trek movies.

March kicks off with The Official Star Trek Convention: The Celebration of the 45th Anniversary. This convention will be held at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport from March 11-13, and features plenty of guests of interest to Trek fans. In attendance will be: Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Gwynyth Walsh, Barbara March, Connor Trinneer, Nana Visitor, Dominic Keating, Grace Lee Whitney, Rene Auberjonois, Eric Menyuk (Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s The Traveler) and Richard Arnold.

There will be plenty of events at the Official Star Trek Convention, including an optional photography seminar with Leonard Nimoy, and a special performance by Rene Auberjonois and Nana Visitor in a play.

Also in March will be MegaCon 2011 which will be held March 25-27 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. In attendance at MegaCon 2011 will be: William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, Robin Curtis and Marina Sirtis.

Two Australian Supanova Pop Culture Expos will start off the month of April. Brisbane 2011 will be held from April 1-3 at the RNA Showgrounds and Melbourne 2011 will be held from April 8-10 at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Guests of interests to Trek fans include Star Trek XI‘s Simon Pegg, and Christopher Lloyd.

On April 9, the two-day The Official Star Trek Convention: The Celebration of the 45th Anniversary will be held in Phoenix, Arizona at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel. In attendance will be: J.G. Hertzler, Max Grodenchik, Robert O’Reilly, Armin Shimerman, Gwynyth Walsh, Barbara March, Jeffrey Combs, Casey Biggs, and Vaughn Armstrong.

Events include an optional Star Trek “Rat Pack” performance by Grodenchik, Armstrong, Combs, Biggs and Shimerman; Breakfast with the Klingons, an on-stage makeup workshop, and a costume parade.

Wrapping up the month of April will be the Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con will be held April 29-May 1 at the Anaheim Convention Center. In attendance will be Robert Picardo, Chase Masterson, John de Lancie, Catherine Hicks, and Lee Arenberg.

Although those who regularly follow Jeri Ryan‘s Twitter feed already knew that she would be playing Sonya in a new series of the digital Mortal Kombat, a press release from Warner Premiere confirmed the news and provided more information on the project including which other actors have been cast.

“Kevin Tancharoen who directed and produced the popular, unofficial Mortal Kombat: Rebirth fan short that garnered over 10 million views worldwide,” said the press release, “is bringing the same immersive directing style to this live-action digital new media series. Fans will be able to delve deep into the history of the warriors they know and love including ‘Sub-Zero’ and ‘Scorpion.’ Shooting for Mortal Kombat is currently underway in Vancouver.”

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If Rick Berman had had his way, new Star Trek television series would have been spaced out a little better and not put right on top of each other, and Berman would not have done the Star Trek: Enterprise finale that angered many viewers.

Once Star Trek: The Next Generation ended, the network wanted more Trek, even though Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was still on air. “We asked them to wait a couple of years,” said Berman. “They said, ‘We have all these time slots available. We don’t want to lose them.’ They felt very strongly about a new series.”

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Star Trek: Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan will be playing Sonya Blade again in a new episode of the Mortal Kombat digital series.

Ryan played Sonya in 2010′s Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which featured an alternate version of the Mortal Kombat Universe.

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Amongst the casting decisions Ron Surma had to make, were finding suitable actors and actresses for the roles of the Borg Queen and Seven of Nine as well as finding a captain for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Alice Krige wasn’t available to reprise her role of the Borg Queen, and Surma had to find someone to do the job as well as Krige had done. “Alice wasn’t available and we had to find somebody else, and Susanna was really the only other choice for the role,” said Surma. “But that was not easy, for Susanna to come in and do that. Alice had set such a high standard and I think Susanna matched it.”

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There will be five conventions, shows or appearances in February and March that feature Trek actors of interest to Star Trek fans. This listing of conventions and shows features actors from all five of the televised series.

Three conventions of note will take place in February. First up is TrekTrax Atlanta, which bills itself as the “new Star Trek convention in Atlanta.” TrekTrax will take place during President’s Day weekend, February 18-20, and will be held at the Holiday Inn Atlanta Perimeter.

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Before we see the characters we grow to love on the Star Trek series and movies, they have to be cast. From Star Trek: The Next Generation on, that job belonged in part to Ron Surma.

Working with Junie Lowry-Johnson, Surma cast “everybody who spoke. We’d meet with them,” he said, “and we’d have the people we picked then meet with the producers and the director of that particular episode. And we had to move fast because we basically had about five days per episode.”

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For Manu Intiraymi, one of the perks of playing Icheb on Star Trek: Voyager was getting to work with Jeri Ryan.

Like many Trek fans, Intiraymi found Ryan to be attractive. “She was awesome,” he said. “I was a young man and I was full of angst because she was such a hot chick.”

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According to Brannon Braga, if a televised Star Trek show was being produced today, there would probably be a gay character in the show.

Braga, involved with three of the televised series and two Star Trek movies, explained why even though there were discussions on the matter, no gay character was included in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager or Enterprise. “It was a shame for a lot of us that … I’m talking about the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and there was a constant back and forth about well how do we portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing casually, you know, just two guys together in the background in Ten Forward.”

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Last month, Doug Drexler was part of a live interview on Trek Radio and this weekend, he will do it again.

The second live interview is a direct result of the first interview, which was “so successful that we had to wrap it up less than halfway through our list of talking topics,” according to Trek Radio.

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The pilot for Ron Moore‘s (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager) magic drama (with a working title of 17th Precinct) has been picked up by NBC.

17th Precinct is an ensemble police drama, set in the fictional town of Excelsior where the world is ruled by magic, not science. The drama has been described as an “adult Harry Potter-type” show.

Moore has other projects in the pipeline, including The McCulloch, about men and women on a fictional Coast Guard cutter who travel around the world.

Although Kate Mulgrew had no problem with Jeri Ryan, Ryan’s character and why that character was added to Star Trek: Voyager was a problem for Mulgrew.

From a woman’s viewpoint, having a character that she knew was added as “eye candy” was tough for Mulgrew to accept. “I found that that was hard, Jeri notwithstanding,” said Mulgrew. “Certainly, I could see with my own eyes that she was a va-va-va-voom and beautiful-beautiful bombshell of a girl. Sexuality was brought into Voyager, and that’s what I resented. I chose not to use sexuality.”

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In the first part of a two-part interview, Kate Mulgrew reminisced about her time on Star Trek: Voyager, giving her opinion on what worked, the importance of a female captain and Janeway herself.

Mulgrew credits Brannon Braga‘s writing for what worked best on Voyager, the relationships on the show. “Instantly, Brannon Braga comes to mind, because much of it was his writing. I think the cast was extraordinary. We were a very disciplined group. I was prepared.”

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