When Star Trek’s George Takei arrives in D.C. this week, he’ll boldly go where he’s never gone before: When Takei performs at the Washington Shakespeare Company’s By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon, it will be the first time he’s performed live in a Klingon Shakespeare event.

“There are so many Klingon conventions, can you believe that? I don’t speak Klingon, so I’ve never done a convention,” says Takei. “I guess this can be considered in part, a convention... You have to qualify, and I am afraid I don’t qualify. When Marc [Okrand, creator of the Klingon language, and president of the WSC’s board] called to ask me to do them a favor, I love Shakespeare, so I said I’d be happy to make a contribution.”

Enterprising Star Trek fans have long forged the connection between Shakespeare and Star Trek, for which the Bard’s work inspired plot twists and quotations. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon said, “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” So the Klingon Language Institute happily made this a reality, translating Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing in full. Takei, however, will be doing a monologue from Julius Caesar in English.

“I haven’t got the time to learn it in Klingon. The people who are doing it have some working knowledge, but it’s a foreign language to me,” says Takei. “I think it’s a comment on [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry’s integrity. He could have had gibberish, because this is an alien life form, and could have made up sounds, but he was fastidious to the last detail.”

Takei will be playing Cassius in the scene where he tries to convince Brutus that Caesar has grown too mighty.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,” says Takei, his voice booming over the phone. “I think that is so true. Most people depend on great leaders to show us the way, but leaders are hollow. I thought it was particularly important in Washington.”

Takei loves Washington, he says.

“I’ve been there many times. The first time was in the 50's, when my parents took me there as tourists, but subsequently I’m active in the political arena,” says Takei, who served Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, and lobbied Congress in this role.

“I am a theater buff, and every time I’m in D.C., I go to Arena Stage. There was a time when D.C. was a backwater town when it came to culture, particularly theater. Today it is a proud cultural capital, as well as our political center,” he says.

When he visits, Takei often goes running on the Mall.

“Generally when I’m running, I don’t get stopped, but on the street, there are requests for autographs,” he says of D.C. fans. “There was a time when there weren’t that many requests for photos, but nowadays everyone carries these newfangled devices that you can talk into and take photos. We had this futuristic technology in Star Trek.”

Still, he says that the amount of Star Trek fandom continues to amaze him, and that he’s always grateful for the enthusiasm and intelligence of his fans - especially, as a Shakespeare buff, the fans that will attend Saturday’s event.

“That’s one of the many elements that contributes to the show’s longevity,” says Takei, of the connection between Shakespeare and Star Trek. “There are so many levels. On the surface, it’s a rip-snortin space opera, and can be enjoyed that way.... Those who wanted to dig deeper could see sci-fi as a metaphor for the Cold War or Vietnam. The Undiscovered Country is about Chernobyl and the Soviet System breaking down. There were layers that intelligent people could find in Star Trek TV episodes, and Shakespeare fans recognize the Shakespearean quotes.”