We pick up on our coverage of Creation Entertainment's Official Star Trek Las Vegas Convention with Saturday morning and early afternoon, when we heard from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine stars Armin Shimerman and Alexander Siddig, and Star Trek: Voyager stars Roxann Dawson and Robert Beltran.

Armin Shimerman

The actor behind the lobes of the most famous Ferengi just flew in that morning, but was very much in character when he declared Vegas to be "My kind of town." He reminded people to frequent Quark's Bar there in the Hilton Hotel. "I don't see a penny of it, but I like to think my restaurant is doing well." Some were surprised to see him sporting a goatee. Pointing to it, he said, "I think all of us have grown one of these. Sid has one, Rene has one, I have one — I think we all want to be Avery Brooks, is what it is."

Responding to fans' questions, Shimerman talked of his favorite and least favorite episodes of DS9. He cited "Far Beyond the Stars" as his favorite, "which I believe is perfect science fiction," he said. "We pull back the curtain and show you who the real heroes of the show are — the writers. And we use the idea that we are all just figments of the imagination of the writer. It's wonderful, wonderful science fiction. But what's more important is the enormously sensitive and moving portrayal of racism. One of the reasons I was always a Star Trek fan, and one of the reasons I am proud to be part of the franchise, is that Star Trek, unlike most shows on television, risks asking the really hard questions. We don't necessarily come up with an answer — we don't try to come up with an answer — but we ask the questions. And 'Far Beyond the Stars' is a phenomenal episode that makes it the kind of show I'm proud to be part of." After a round of applause, he added, "We also got to get out of makeup, which wasn't bad either!"

As for his least favorite, he's loathe to even remember the episode title. "It's the one where Quark was in drag." Reminded it was called "Profit and Lace," he explained, "Somebody had a brilliant idea: Why don't we put Quark in drag — wouldn't that be funny? And I was left holding the bag, literally." He went on, "Once I put on the female body, everybody, everybody, needed to pinch me! Everybody! They could not pass me without going, 'Honk, honk'! And ladies — I know now what it's like to walk in high heels. My apologies. Whatever man designed that for you, he should be strung up and lynched."

Armin also mentioned one of his favorite co-stars, Mary Kay Adams (his Klingon wife, Grilka), and how proud he was that she was now a qualified teacher of the deaf. "But she's also a hell of a kisser," he joked.

For his on-screen look, he credited makeup artist Karen Westerfield for helping Quark succeed as a character. "Without Karen I couldn't have gotten the close-ups I did. Just brilliant, brilliant makeup artistry. I'd love a round of applause for her work." The audience gladly complied.

Many of his stories involved how uncomfortable and stifling that makeup was for the seven years he wore it, but when he catches himself complaining, he recalls his wife's words: "You wanted to be an actor, you wanted to be on Star Trek. It's like being a knight — you have to wear the armor." His wife, by the way, is Kitty Swink, who played two roles in DS9 — a Bajoran in "Sanctuary" and a Vorta in "Tacking Into the Wind."  She was there, and Shimerman took the opportunity to introduce her.

Roxann Dawson

Now becoming known as much for her directorial work as for her acting, the "B'Elanna Torres" thespian talked at least as much about Enterprise as Voyager. Mostly she discussed her latest aired episode, "Bounty," which has proven to be controversial among the fans for its T'Pol/pon farr "B"-story. (No one even brought up the Tellarite/Archer "A" storyline.) Despite the controversy, Dawson felt it was a worthy exploration of the T'Pol character. "I thought it showed another dimension of her. I think it was nice to see her really struggle with her emotions. Jolene [Blalock] and I had a nice talk before we shot that, because what she was being asked to do was actually kind of risky and vulnerable, and I wanted to make sure that she as an actress felt comfortable with that." She described some of the directorial choices she made in those scenes, such as a moving camera, and how difficult it was to pull off in the small Decon Chamber set. She praised John Billingsley ("Dr. Phlox") for working well with Blalock in those scenes. "It was wonderful how he tried to ward off her advances and maintain a certain amount of integrity. Which would be hard to do, I think, for most men — I think they all questioned, 'Why? Save her life, now! We want to see it! You fool, you fool.'"

Dawson said she would be returning to Paramount the following week to begin pre-production on another Enterprise episode. (Stay tuned for future Production Reports in the News section of STARTREK.COM.)

She was gratified to hear that the character of Torres has been an inspiration to many people who see much of themselves in her. "One of the things that attracted me to doing the character when I first read the script was that struggle B'Elanna has between being human and being Klingon," she related. She described it as a metaphor for what a lot of people deal with. "I think we all have those dualities and we all have those struggles, and what I loved about this character is that she personified that in a very tangible way. And I loved her progress, in how she learned to get along but still retained her own personality — she learned how to share her life with another person, but still retain her own ideas. It was a great character to be able to play."

Alexander Siddig

The Sudan-born, England-raised "Julian Bashir" actor, who is called "Sid" by his friends, was put to task by a fan for changing his name from Siddig El Fadil mid-course through DS9 just when people were getting used to it. He said his real name is still El Fadil, but decided to take on Alexander Siddig as his stage name. "There are lots of reasons why I changed the name — and I keep inventing new ones, when I have no stories to tell!" he laughed. "But primarily my mum wanted me to be called a European name and an Arab name, because my dad was Arab and she's European. So I kind of gave a bit of a nod to that." His second reason, he joked, was just the fun of messing with people. "Paramount had done all this merchandising with our names on it and everything like that, and to change it meant they had to re-do it all. That was kinda fun!"

"Also, people would introduce me as, 'Uh ...'" He was always hearing things like, "'Jack, I'd love you to meet, um ... um ... um ...' And I'd have to bail them out. So rather than leaving them squirming around in that mess of embarrassment, I changed my name. Of course, now everybody's getting really good at Arab names, you know. But my name isn't Saddam or Osama, it's Siddig. And I think people would still have trouble."

Siddig talked about the evolution of his character through the run of DS9. "I love the fact that he was an immature squirming little puppy for the first couple of years. He was reflective of a lot of people that way. People are like that when they've just left college — we're all kinda crazy, everything's possible, everything's doable. It's that whole invulnerability to being a young guy, and the fact that you can end up being a pain in the backside as a result — I loved doing that." But it also paved the way to allowing the character of Bashir to "grow up a bit, eventually."

Robert Beltran

The "Chakotay" actor has become known for his dry and often cynical sense of humor that puts people in stitches, even though it can get him in trouble sometimes. For instance, when asked whom would he rather see his character date, Janeway or Seven of Nine, he put on a "fabulous" affectation and said, "Why are the boys left out of the equation? Hel-lo-o!" Then he went on, "I would've liked to have kept up the relationship with that weird lady who was actually a Species 976754321-90210, whatever that species was. Because when she turned into that big praying mantis, whoo! I gotta tell ya! Oh, man!" (Referring to "In the Flesh.")

The subject of romance for Chakotay was foremost among the topics raised, in particular the potential between him and Janeway that many fans wished had come to fruition. At one point Beltran related (seriously or not, it's your guess): "Kate used to be sitting [in the captain's chair] at 7:00 in the morning, and I'd be on her left side and she would sometimes turn to me and say something provocative like" — going into his Mulgrew voice — "'Robert...you think Chakotay and Janeway should get it on?' How do you respond to that?" More to the point, he added, "I was not against it, and I was not for it. I was totally 'whatever the writers wanted to do.' I could've seen it working, and I can see why maybe they didn't want to do it. But I mean, poor Chakotay was like, 'Don't you love me yet? What do I have to do? You won't even accept my watch!!'" ("Year of Hell, Part I")

But he said he was very happy to have a woman captain. "I think a bald head too long is a little blinding. And Shatner — y'know, great captain, however..." — and he goes into a Shatnerian staccato — "I ... don't ... think ... that ... I ... would ... have ... been ... able ... to ... put ... up ... with ... this ... for ... too ... long." He qualified, "Bill and I go way back," so he's only joking around.

During the talk Beltran had some very harsh words about the gubernatorial recall effort taking place in California right now, particularly toward the conservative politician who bankrolled it. A fan pointed out that for $3,500 and a handful of signatures, he could place himself on the ballot. "You know what? I'm gonna consider that, man," Beltran replied.

COMING UP:  A plethora of stars from all the series, including Walter Koenig, Michael Dorn, Nicole deBoer, Ethan Phillips, Dominic Keating, and the two captains Robert Beltran most loves to impersonate, Kate Mulgrew and William Shatner!