Star Trek: Deep Space Nine turns a beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation into a horror story. Rather than discounting the optimism of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pushes Star Trek's optimistic future into a darker corner. Nowhere is that more clear than in the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine puts TNG's first transfer to DS9, Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), in increasingly more horrific situations, with writers even coining the maxim "O'Brien must suffer."
Chief MIles O'Brien certainly suffers in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4, episode 19, "Hard Time", when the Argrathi wrongly sentence Miles to 20 years in prison on unfounded espionage charges. O'Brien's entire 20-year sentence is carried out in just hours through implanted memories that reflect the choices Miles would have actually made in prison — including killing his cellmate, Eechar (Craig Wasson). Contrast Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 25, "The Inner Light", where an alien probe causes Captain Jean-Luc Picard to experience an entire life as Kamin, a family man on a dying planet, in only minutes.
Star Trek: DS9's "Hard Time" Turns TNG's "The Inner Light" Into A Horror Story
TNG's "Inner Light" Technology Is Used To Punish Chief O'Brien
Using the concept of fast-forwarded, simulated memories like in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 25, "The Inner Light", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Hard Time" turns the beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard episode into a horror story. In "The Inner Light", Picard's simulated life on Kataan is based on Kamin's actual memories, which serve as a memorial to Kataan's people, and a warning to anyone passing through the dead planet's system. In DS9, implanting memories without consent is a punishment tailor-made for Miles O'Brien, as O'Brien still feels the effects of his prison experience even in the real world.
Instead of compartmentalizing the fake experience as easily as Picard did, O'Brien's implanted memories of being starved and tortured for twenty years are inescapable. Miles is haunted by visions of Eechar, the man he murdered for food scraps — as himself, not as another person from another time. Miles pushes away his wife Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind Chao), snaps at Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), and refuses therapy before O'Brien reaches the breaking point of nearly taking his own life. Chief O'Brien's desperate aftermath is a far cry from Captain Picard's "road not taken", as the husband and father Jean-Luc never believed he could be.
Star Trek: TNG's "Inner Light" Aliens Could Have Made Picard's Life Much Worse
Picard Isn't More Evolved Than O'Brien; They're Both Still Very Human
Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Inner Light" aliens could have made Captain Jean-Luc Picard's life much worse if they had been like the Argrathi from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. O'Brien suffers in "Hard Time" because the technology that allows someone to experience several years within moments is supposed to be torture, but Kamin's people used it to communicate with the future in the best way they knew how. If Picard had received PTSD and the ghost of the man he'd murdered as parting gifts instead of the Ressikan flute, Picard would be just as tormented as O'Brien.
The aftermath of "The Inner Light" is revisited in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 19, "Lessons", when Picard's skill with the flute prompts Jean-Luc to recount the experience to love interest Lt. Commander Nella Daren (Wendy Hughes).
Star Trek only says that humanity is far more likely to bend than break in the 24th century, not that we will be completely unbreakable. Even though Picard rebounded from the experience easily, and O'Brien was nearly broken by his false memories, both characters are fine examples of Star Trek's evolved humanity, even if O'Brien fears otherwise. The difference is the shows' intentions:Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Inner Light" isn't meant to break Jean-Luc, because it's about Picard's experience and reflection. By contrast, Miles O'Brien must suffer in the intentionally unsettling aftermath that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Hard Time" focuses on.
