If you watched any Star Trek in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, you've seen David Livingston's name countless times on the bottom of your TV screen. Working behind the scenes from the very first episode of The Next Generation, he quickly graduated to the role of producer for all seven seasons of The Next Generation and began directing in that series' fourth season, starting with The Mind's Eye.

He would go on to become the most prolific director in Star Trek history, with 62 episodes to his name across The Next Generation, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. The list of episodes he has directed reads like a rundown of some of Star Trek's greatest moments: we're talking Voyager's Scorpion, Equinox,  Future's End, and Deadlock; Deep Space Nine's The Visitor, The Die Is Cast, and You Are Cordially Invited; Enterprise's Regeneration...the list goes on.

We ostensibly invited David to the show to discuss two of the episodes he directed in Season 1 (The Nagus and The Storyteller), but it turned into a freewheeling conversation on everything from classic cinema (from westerns to film noir to dystopian sci-fi), to the all-time favorite scenes David directed, to the quiet rebellion he led as a producer on The Next Generation to try to make the show less perfect and more interesting.

We had the pleasure of speaking with him for two hours, and we can't bring ourselves to cut any of it. So we're posting the first half of our discussion now, and we'll be posting the second half next week. Enjoy!

🍷 Wine pairing: "NON5 Lemon Marmalade & Hibiscus" Non-alcoholic wine
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