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

Biography

Winrich Kolbe was born in Germany. Kolbe first came to United States to study architecture, but he was drafted during the Vietnam War. He served as an artillery spotter in the army.

His career in television began during the 1970s, 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 Spenser: For Hire starring Avery Brooks, who 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, Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. 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." His sole episode of Enterprise was "Silent Enemy". He worked as a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design after he retired from directing in 2003 and retired from that post in 2007. He died in September 2012. Following his death, a Memorial Award in his name was awarded in 2013 as part of the Savannah College of Art and Design's film and television department's SCADemy Awards.