If you’ve watched Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you know how important Chief Miles O'Brien (played by Colm Meaney) was to keeping everyone alive. Whether it was fixing a turbolift or transporter, or solving any of the other many problems faced by his crewmates, O'Brien had his hands in everything technical on those shows.
Because he was so valuable to Starfleet in particular and the Trek universe as a whole, a recent episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks (the animated Star Trek series created by Mike McMahan now streaming on Paramount+) made a reference to Chief Miles O'Brien by calling him “the most important man in Starfleet history.” While it was a throwaway gag at the end of an episode, McMahan had previously explained why he thought O'Brien was an original Lower Decker and deserved the title:
“So why did we put that statue at the end of the episode? If you ask the common fan on the street to name the most important Star Trek character, they’ll probably say Picard or Kirk. Us Lower Deckers would like to offer a different answer... Chief O’Brien is the original Lower Decker, moving from an enlisted crewman all the way to professor of engineering at Starfleet Academy. We experienced his full life in Starfleet: his marriage and relationship with Keiko, being a dad and moving up in rank and location, the dynamic between enlisted crew and officers through his friendships with Bashir and Sisko, and the trauma he experienced being a veteran of the Federation-Cardassian War. One could argue Miles O’Brien is the most fully realized character in Star Trek, and we ask, no, demand he be given a statue. While a nod to Miles might be seen as slight by a casual fan, those of us who spent years watching him grow across two television series know he is, without a doubt, the most important person in Starfleet History.”
I can’t argue with anything Mike McMahan said.
The other day I got to speak with Colm Meaney for his new Ireland set crime story Pixie. While the interview covered numerous projects, and as I'm a huge fan of his work on Star Trek, we spent a good amount of time talking about his time on both series. One of the things I was curious about was whether he would ever be willing to play Chief O’Brien again on Picard or another Star Trek series. And the other thing I needed to bring up with him was the Lower Decks episode. While he didn’t know the reference, I think you’ll enjoy his response.
Check out what he said below along with the Lower Decks clip. Look for our full conversation very soon.