Douglas E. Wise

Douglas "Doug" Edwin Wise was an assistant director who has worked on five of the first six. In fact, he started his Hollywood career as Second Assistant Director (2nd AD) on, credited as Doug Wise. He is the nephew of the film's director, Robert Wise, who gave the son of his brother David his first break in the motion picture industry in March 1978. Robert in doing so, returned the favor, his brother, who at the time was handling his business affairs, did for him, when he arranged for Robert his first employment at RKO studios in the Depression Era. (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, pp. 77, 79)

Wise has two in-universe characters named after him, a 23rd century Starfleet Commander D. Wise, and a 23rd century Starfleet, commanding officer of the USS Endeavour (NCC-1895).

Career outside Star Trek
After the first Star Trek film, Wise served as 2nd AD on the 1980 science fiction film The Final Countdown. He has since worked as First Assistant Director (1st AD) on many films, including, (along with Pat Kehoe, who worked with Wise as a 1st AD on The Final Countdown), , and. His other film credits include the action thriller Hard to Kill, 's Funny About Love, the 1992 Disney hit The Mighty Ducks, the 1993 comedy Grumpy Old Men, and the 1996 comic book based Barb Wire. Randy Suhr, an assistant director under Wise on Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI, worked with Wise on several of these films. In addition, Wise and Star Trek VI's Second Assistant Director, Katy E. Garretson, worked together a second time on the 1994 film Clifford.

In addition to his film work, Wise was a First Assistant Director on a number of television productions, including the hit 1980s detective series Magnum, P.I., the cult science fiction series Babylon 5 (as well as two Babylon 5 TV movies), and the short-lived NBC series Freaks and Geeks. He also worked on the 1982 TV movie Bare Essence, a CBS drama starring Jonathan Frakes, John Larroquette, and Byron Morrow. Wise has even tried his hand at directing – a seventh season episode of Trapper John, M.D. and a fifth season episode of Babylon 5 were helmed by Wise. The Babylon 5 episode in question, entitled "The Fall of Centauri Prime", featured a number of veteran Star Trek performers: besides Babylon 5 regulars Andreas Katsulas and Bill Mumy, the episode guest-starred Simon Billig, Patricia Tallman, and Robin Sachs.

Wise's most recent credit is the martial arts comedy ''Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, released in 2002, and the television series Undeclared'' from the same time period.

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Douglas E. Wise