American actor turned director who directed The Galileo Seven, the first-season original Star Trek episode that tests Spock's first command when a shuttlecraft crashes on Taurus II.
Robert Gist was a character actor in films and television of the 1950s who moved into directing in the following decade, working on series including Peter Gunn and The Naked City.
His only Star Trek episode is The Galileo Seven. Spock, McCoy, Scott and four others are stranded on Taurus II when the shuttlecraft Galileo is pulled off course, and Spock's strictly logical decisions cost lives and provoke open resentment as giant spear-throwing creatures close in. Kirk, pressed by Commissioner Ferris to abandon the search, plays for time.
The episode was the first to feature the full-size shuttlecraft and its hangar deck, and is a key early study of Spock's character.