Star Trek's Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) was the perfect character to move from Star Trek: The Next Generation to its first spin-off show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. O'Brien started on Star Trek: The Next Generation as a nameless helmsman in TNG's pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". After gaining a name and becoming the USS Enterprise-D's transporter chief, O'Brien's wedding to civilian botanist Keiko Ishikawa (Rosalind Chao) was a major part of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 12, "Data's Day". On TNG, O'Brien became a recurring, relatable family man with a strong work ethic.
Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 12, "The Wounded", introduced a new alien enemy to the Star Trek mythos: the Cardassians. In "The Wounded", the Federation-Cardassian War is retconned into the Star Trek timeline, with peace between the two powers being a relatively new development. That peace was tenuous at best throughout the rest of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which further developed the Cardassian Union as a strategic, coldly ruthless player among the Alpha Quadrant powers. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was created with the Cardassians in mind as the primary enemy.
Chief O’Brien Deserved To Become A Star Trek: DS9 Main Character After This TNG Moment
Interactions With Gul Macet In "The Wounded" Gave O'Brien New Depth
Chief Miles O'Brien deserved to become a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character after Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4, episode 12, "The Wounded", showed the potential complexity of O'Brien's character as a veteran of the Federation-Cardassian War. Instead of succumbing to a personal vendetta like Admiral Maxwell (Bob Gunton) did, O'Brien recognized that his fight was not with Gul Macet (Marc Alaimo), but with how the war changed both himself and Maxwell. The Federation and Cardassians were ostensibly at peace with one another, but that didn't eliminate O'Brien's ingrained hostility or PTSD. In Ten Forward, O'Brien tells Macet:
"The only people left alive were in an outlying district of the settlement. I was sent there with a squad to reinforce them. Cardassians were advancing on us, moving through the streets, destroying, killing. I was with a group of women and children when two Cardassian soldiers burst in. I stunned one of them. The other one jumped me. We struggled. One of the women threw me a phaser, and I fired. The phaser was set at maximum. The man just ... just incinerated, there before my eyes. I'd never killed anything before. When I was a kid, I'd worry about swatting at mosquitoes. It's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you."
That complicated history with the Cardassians made Miles O'Brien an ideal Star Trek: The Next Generation character to transfer to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. After "The Wounded" confirmed O'Brien could be a great Star Trek character, Miles was seen as a brilliant, quick-thinking transporter engineer and a family man. O'Brien's anti-Cardassian prejudice laid dormant for most of his time in TNG, but re-emerged in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Patching together a Cardassian space station and having regular interactions with Cardassian characters meant O'Brien had to confront the prejudices that had been ingrained in him from the war.
Why Chief O’Brien Was So Important To DS9’s Early Seasons
Miles O'Brien Connected TNG To DS9
Chief O'Brien was important to the early seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because O'Brien served as a bridge from Star Trek: The Next Generation to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Originally, Michelle Forbes was slated to return as Ensign Ro Laren, but Forbes declined a part on DS9.Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) was created to fill Ro's place, so Star Trek: Deep Space Nine still needed a TNG character who harbored resentment towards Cardassians. As a TNG recurring character fans already knew and loved, Miles O'Brien fit the bill perfectly, especially since he could bring his family with him.
Chief Miles O'Brien's status as an enlisted member of Starfleet sets him apart from the rest of TNG and DS9 's Starfleet characters, who are commissioned officers, and gives the audience a more down-to-earth perspective on events in Star Trek shows.
As a regular character, Chief Miles O'Brien's evolution in DS9 easily matched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's overall themes. DS9 never shied away from depicting how prejudice still influenced people, even in the 24th century. Miles' casually derogatory attitude towards "Cardies" showed that even people who are otherwise kind and open-minded can harbor racist tendencies, even when they don't mean to. By having O'Brien regularly confront his preconceptions, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine returned O'Brien to "The Wounded": the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that first hinted at the complexity of O'Brien's character.
