Winrich Kolbe

Film director (1940–2012)

Winrich Ernst Rudolf Kolbe (1940 – September 2012) was a German American television director and television producer best known for directing 48 episodes of Star Trek across four television series. These included the Hugo Award winning "All Good Things ", which was the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also directed the series premiere of Star Trek: Voyager, "Caretaker", and was involved in the casting of the series.

Kolbe was born in 1940. and he was the associate producer for Battlestar Galactica. He also directed an episode of the series, "Baltar's Escape". Prior to his work on Star Trek, he worked on a variety of series including episodes of Knight Rider and Spenser: For Hire starring Avery Brooks, whom he would go on to direct once again in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Kolbe directed 48 episodes of Star Trek across four series, including The Next Generation (16 episodes), Voyager (18 episodes), Deep Space Nine (13 episodes) and Enterprise (1 episode). These included the series finale of TNG, "All Good Things ", which was awarded the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (long form). He directed the series premiere of Voyager, "Caretaker", for which he was involved in the casting. One of the most notable issues that he was involved in overseeing was the casting of the Captain, and was one of the staff members pushing for a female Captain against the wishes of Paramount Pictures. He said that "We did make some attempts to look at male actors for the part when time was running out and it seemed that we might have a problem, but every time a male read for Janeway, I couldn't quite get my head into it. There is a difference a woman would bring that we all felt was important." He later said of the casting of Kate Mulgrew after Geneviève Bujold dropped out of the role, "She is very feminine, but she can handle any situation. I would follow her. She really is wonderful."

During the early years of Voyager, he dated Kate Mulgrew for about three years.