Bowman started directing for television while doing second unit work for Stephen Cannell Productions in 1982. After leaving Cannell's company in 1987, he sent out videos of his work, looking for a job. Impressed by one of Bowman's "Stringray" episodes, producer Robert H. Justman hired him to direct for ' during its first season. Bowman was only 27 years old at the time, and in his first meeting with executive producer Rick Berman, Berman mistook him for the pizza delivery boy. He was originally slated to direct the 10th episode of "Star Treks first season, but one of the series' directors, Donald Petrie, dropped out early to direct the film "Mystic Pizza". This gave Bowman the opportunity to direct the fourth episode of the season, "Where No One Has Gone Before". Bowman investigated the sets two weeks early to begin prepping the episode. Bowman told "Starlog" magazine, "Walking through those empty sets was very intimidating for me. I kept asking myself how I was going to do justice to these sets, tell the story and still get the performances from the cast." "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry was so impressed with the dailies for the episode, that he made an appearance on set to praise Bowman in front of the cast and crew. Immediately following directing "Where No One Has Gone Before", Bowman directed an episode of the Fox Broadcasting Company's television series "Werewolf". Berman and Justman had planned to hire Bowman for only a single episode, but his agent worked out a two-episode deal, leading to Bowman directing the ninth "Star Trek" episode, "".