The Operational Capacity of Deep Space Nine with EVERYONE: 100%. The Operational Capacity of Deep Space Nine with ONLY Miles O'Brien: 99.99%.

In Miles We Trust.

the thing i like about O'Brien is that he is not only the regular guy, but also the character shows what a regular can be in the Star Trek universe. What i mean is: Picard is the best example of humanity in 24th century, but also Picard seems to be greater than human, while O'Brien, still being a regular guy, shows how also a regular guy can fulfill the idea to be a better human being, in its own way

"O'Brien Must Suffer" was very much a trope on DS9. Poor guy.

O'Brien is likely the nicest significant male character in Trek - he never really did anything with negative intentions while most characters at various time acted douchebaggy at times. He kind of like the EVERYMAN of Trek.

I've always like Miles O'Brien, one of the best written characters especially in DS9

The thing i found interesting about O'Brien is that despite how nice he is the hostile feelings he has towards Cardassians which he never 100% gets over, some might see that as anti star trek but it is human and shows the psychological trauma of war.

My favorite Miles O'Brien moment was when he spotted Q on DS9. All we got was a "Bloody hell!", but while we'll never know the exact profanities he muttered on the way to tell Commander Sisko, we KNOW he muttered them 😆

O’Brien: *suffers* O’Brien: “BLOODY CARDASSIANS!”

O'Brien epitomizes Deep Space Nine's nature as not a Star Trek show, but a show about normal people living in the Star Trek universe. Like the episode were he is uncontrollably bouncing back and forth in time. Everyone treats it as annoying and it's not even the most important thing the captain is dealing with that morning.

O'brien was my favourite DS9 character. 'Hard time' was a superb p.t.s.d study and Colm knocked it out the park.

One of my favourite episodes is 'Honor Among Thieves.' I just felt so bad for O'Brien's moral dilemma, knowing what a decent man he is.

Hmm. I didn't know O'Brien was a NCO turned officer. I do wonder how many times you can put a character through hell until they stop being the everyman and become larger than life. I personally never saw O'Brien as the everyman since he had been through so much but keep pushing forward and the hell he went through never seem to leave lasting pain. So I saw him as unsung hero who could be counted on thick or thin.

Who doesn’t love O’Brien? I still can’t watch “The Wounded” from TNG and not get choked up when he and his former commander sing together. Colm Meaney was a real catch for Star Trek: he’s great in anything!

DS9 is by far my favorite Trek and O'Brien is a huge part of that. One of the best aspects of DS9 was how O'Brien and Sisko were both engineers, family men and really good fathers making them radically different than any of the other characters in Trek.

I’d love to see a piece on Legate Damar. His screen time with Weyoun was some of the most entertaining Star Trek of all time.

It was a very weird experience to see Colm Meany, then at the height of his TNG everyman status, suddenly pop up in Steven Seagal vehicle 'Under Siege' as Stereotypical Irish Bad Guy. Bit of a wrench at the time.

Colm Meaney got really lucky when was cast on TNG. The actor's arc parallels what happened with his character. An everyman schmo extra actor who just did the best he did with what he had and was liked by the powers that be and rode it to become one of the greats.

A great character. Miles has always been one of my favourites

I love the O'Brien and Bashir friendship. I.M.O one of the funniest scenes was when Nog let someone borrow the captains desk. Kira: "That's not the captains desk!"...Bashir: "He's going to paint it"! 😂

Its kind a sad that none of the main characters/heroes that we love. Could never find a solid relationship or were probably never meant to have a significant other. That's why I love Miles O'Brien relationship between him and Keiko. It was the best representation of most relationships between spouses. Plus his raport between him and Julian was pretty damn good.

They should have thrown him on Voyager. Activate the emergency engineering hologram, Miles appears and saves the day.

I like that there was at least an "everyman" character that wasn't an academy graduate to show more range in members of Starfleet. More proof that DS9 and it's creative team were the best, IMHO.

Thought I’d just let you know, Colm is pronounced Colum. Colm Meaney is a bit of a hero of mine. Enjoyed the video too

Miles is the guy who keeps the wheels turning behind the scenes. A part of the team, but not the person you meet/see when you walk in. He is the person who's presence you feel everywhere without knowing it.

1:20 Not to be "that guy", but Aloysius is actually pronounced "Allo-ish-us".

Poor Molly O'Brien. At some point both of her parents were mind-controlled by aliens who then threatened her life.

Lol. I loved how even Miles children would bust on him about his love of Julian.

O'Brien actually mentions his choice of changing from the red uniform of Command to the gold of Engineering, mostly due to his experience in the war against the Cardassians. Which works for his first appearance in the pilot episode of Next Gen.

The worst writers of DS9 did to the character of O'Brien was to make him deal with Keiko, luckily after so much suffering they moved Keiko and the kids off the station.

Note: Keiko was a Starfleet officer in sciences or medical on TNG, but at some point, she appears to have dropped out, probably to have her daughter, and so on DS9, she is frustrated with her options, and becomes a teacher. It would have been interesting if they'd kept her in Starfleet and she bounced around on various duties, while raising their kids, and perhaps she could have been leading more than one other teacher. She could've been given various assignments as needed, to have a non-redshirt character, or to show the heightened risk if supporting characters got threatened in an episode. It felt like she was shunted aside, as if a woman couldn't be a working mother. It could have introduced both stresses and strengths for Miles and Keiko, both struggling to get through their days, both as working officers and as a couple and as parents raising their children in a risky environment. (And be it noted, military or not, kids can and do get raised in very risky environments, whether military brats or everyday life, working class or well-off.)

thank you. Miles has always been one of my favorite characters

I always justified the discrepancy between his uniform rank and being called “chief” as more of a title, like Transporter Chief or Chief Engineer, and after a while the writers just went with it.

I think one of the greatest advices I have ever heard regarding writing is. Write how you see it not how someone else does. Having input is good, but ultimately it comes from your mind not theirs.

Indeed no secret to anyone. The reason Miles O'Brien is a fan favorite is that he is just us, the audience, a hard working, diligent everyday, family man. And the fact he went from a mere extra actor and background character to one of the most beloved actors and characters from the entire franchise makes us like him even more. His marital problems, his hate for the Cardassians, his guilty for killing, his initial loath and later friendship with Bashir, everything was brilliantly written, and superbly played by Colm. Also, I believe that his uniform change from red to gold was addressed (in the canon or on the expanded universe, not sure) as his own request of being decommissioned from his bridge position to take a more "hands-on" position as uncommissioned engineering officer.

The rank confusion of Chief O’Brien was a result of Gene Roddenberry, not wanting enlisted in Starfleet. I’m glad they finally came up with enlisted, rank, insignia in DS9.

O'brien was such a welcome change from the smug self satisfaction that infected so many TNG characters.

Of course now you need to update this to mention his love of sweet corn. He’s always got that stuff on his collar.

TNG and DS9 are Irish movies. The defining aspect of Irish movies are they star Colm Meaney

I always thought he was the same character, but unnamed until later. The changes in rank, you either have to hand-wave away, or else maybe he did something to get demoted, or something about his contract / commission changed. -- Apparently in TOS, Roddenberry had intended a loose rank structure, not a full military approach, with almost everyone graduating from Starfleet Academy, or some university, and having at least some minimum of astronaut / cosmonaut training, so that everyone graduated as an ensign (no stripe) or a lt. jr. grade or lt. sr. grade if they got an advanced (post-grad.) degree, such as doctors or some scientists and engineers. The TOS Starfleet Tech Manual (Franz Josef) shows a crew complement for the Enterprise, with "ensigns" as specialists and technicians and crewmen in the lowest positions, and lieutenants for officers and assistant chiefs of departments. This could be taken either way, as evidence for ensign as the lowest rank, or for a system for non-commissioned and enlisted officers such as we have today.

Pretty short, but it sure does get to the point! Great video as usual man!

O'Brien is a great character and it made total sense to put him on DS9.

TNG's episode "The Wounded" is one of my favorites, probably in my Top Five TNG episodes. I go back to it frequently.

LOVE a good synth wave. Just went and followed Gunship. I think you might love the group Dance With The Dead. They’ve got a similar 80s synth vibe with some more modern spins.

He also convinced DS9 writers to include him saying "bollox" in one episode. Legend!

I checked out Gunship based on your answer to the music question. So glad I did. It soothes the 80’s cyberpunk fantasist in me.

All hail O’Brian!

So excited for your episode in The Sojourn, Rowan! The crew has sung it's praises a lot so I'm sure it'll be fantastic!

0:12 Yes! The best part of the end of that episode.

Dunno why but i always enjoyed seeing Miles and that he moved, like Worf - trough the ranks ships and seasons - maybe because im also an electromechanical enginee? - it took me a while to understand what a NCO is because in switzerland with our militia system we have by that definition basically ONLY NCO's in our army, everybody starts out as a NCO and some very few that choose to join the prof. Military will be "Commissioned Officers" as they then go trough the additional training. Since Starfleet mostly only has CO's having a guy that is quick in adapting to new situations bounce arround as a nco... why not? If i was a captain and i had a person in my crew that could fill various key roles with a high reliability, i would always choose him to fill those roles unless i had someone dedicated.

re: The Sojourn, Rowan, you were right it was a good episode

They never figured out O’Brien’s rank insignia in TNG. He was usually a lieutenant in TNG, according to his pips.

Just wanna say that M O'B rules.

DS9 is easily not only my favorite Trek, it’s one of my favorites of all TV. Miles is a good share of the reasons. I remember that Colm wanted a larger role on TNG. Worf and Geordi weren’t going anywhere, so security chief and chief engineer were out. When DS9 cane around and they worked out that he’d become Chief. It was a risk since if DS9 didn’t work out it might have been hard to return him to the Enterprise. Fortunately, partly due to Miles himself, it was a smash hit

He was a good man, a union man. CHIEF MILES FOOKIN O'BRIEN

I think that Miles is the Star Trek character that I would get along best with ... probably because I am most like Julian (but without all that genetically engineered super human stuff).

I just rewatched STNG... I am pretty sure they called him Lieutenant in the Far Point episodes. Can't remember which one. They called him Chief, but he was always treated as an officer would be treated, with the apparent same responsibilities etc... I also heard somewhere he requested his uniform on DS9 be cut in a way he could roll up his sleeves, they are almost always up in the show...to show he was a "workin man".

O'Brien does some incredible things as chief engineer on a refitted cardassian space station. He figures out how to transport between universes, well his counterpart does. But he is just as impressive as any other chief engineer.

Crow: How much Brien is in this? Tom: Miles o'Brien!

O`Brian was so Irish. I loved finally seeing Irish in space, that were not drunk or with terrible accents.

Tuvok's rank also seems to bounce around from episode to episode...between Lt Cmdr and Lt

Perfect timing! Looking forward to watching this! :) Finished DS9 for the 'who know's how many' time this evening and was thinking about what an awesome character O'Brien is, both in Next Gen and DS9. Love him, brings so much to the show :) X

All lover’s of O Brien should check out a Facebook group “Roddy Doyle’s Star Trek”, which takes traits of the characters Meaney played in adaptations of that novelists works, and transposes them into the Star Trek setting.

That's hilarious, it took me a minute to realize that the video wasn't about Data's brother!

Ngl but a spin off Prequel showing O'Brien's experiences during the Federation Cardassian war would be amazing

Did you ever notice that whenever there was a TNG movie, writers would have elaborate explanations to justify Worfs presence but not O'Brien's? Not only was he excluded but nobody would even ask Worf how O'Brien was doing or tell him I said"hello". The Defiant, EMH and Janeway were allowed cameos in a TNG movie but Miles burned every bridge apparently on the enterprise.

And then when I saw him in “Get him to the Greek”, it shattered everything

I think Colm Meaney is the best actor that ever appeared in Trek (and yes, I am including Christopher Plummer and Whoopi Goldberg in that list). Apart from O'Brien, his performance in "The Snapper" is one of the finest things I have ever seen.

Just how many traumatic ptsd inducing experiences did O’Brien go through

In Star Trek history we always love the engineers from the original series to Deep Space Nine to I believe even discovery

Great video about a great character

LOVE Gunship - especially The Mountain :-)

He is the most likable charakter in ALL of Star Trek. He deserved better than be tormented by each and everyone else. Especially by his wife.

I love how you didn’t read *any* of the quotes correctly word for word 😅

I wonder, was O'Brian the inspiration for Chief Tyrol in the BSG rebooted series?

O'Brien was an awesome character. I hated how the writers got their jollies out of constantly putting him through the ringer. The B5 writers did the same thing to Garibaldi.

I love Gunship too! They are awesome. So glad to find a fellow fan! 😎

I can picture Al Bundy playing Miles O'Brien

O'Brien ... the Only Enlisted Man in Star Fleet!

Miles Stan for life, thanks for the video.

Alternate title: ''Why Miles O'Brien Is Awesome''

@10:30 when you start addressing the question of 'pleasing the fans' there's a big difference between worrying about constant fan service which would be terrible for everyone involved and 'writing for yourself' when you're working on someone else's property. It takes a special kind of narcissist to think their pet idea is worth trading the characters and the impact of the story that came before them. I don't know many who think freeing the horse cats was a good trade for the arcs of Anakin and Luke, but that's about the most valuable thing we got out of that new trilogy.

Gunship is a great shoutout! Nice!

It was nice to finally see a Star Trek Character from the Ranks, as a retired Senior NCO (Non Commission Officer) I always laughed at Star Trek depiction of the Officers being the experts, with them being able to be a Soldier one day, a Scientist the Next and a Mechanic the day after that. When anyone who has ever served will tell you that the Officers may give the Orders, but it is the NCO's that get the work done. Officers are just there to get in the way and to take the credit when the work is finished. Lawrence Tierney Warrant Officer (Ret) Canadian Armed Forces.

Wouldn't it be nice too get him back, perhaps running DS9 or something?

Anytime I hit something out of frustration to make it work and my wife says that's not gonna work, I show her the scene where Miles hits the top of some computer in DS9 and it magically starts working.

Most important man in Star Fleet.

It's hilarious that the actor that played o'brien and the actress who played keiko hated each other guys lol

Hey we have Rabbi Yossel Koslov (Theodore Bikel) playing worf father I never noticed that till just now

I've always thought one of STar Treks failings was every one is an officer. That just cannot work. One element of why I liked the movies is the Enlisted crew members on set. Granted it turns out most of those wer officers. Which is dumb, but they still had them.

Miles "can I have food" obrien

0:50 - the different uniforms can be explained with the Season 2 color swaps done on Geordi and Worf. The different rank insignia could have just as well been due to starfleet not having thought through enlisted ranks with their overabundance of officers.

O’Brian & Bashir were not equals. Bashir was a ranking officer and could and did give O’Brian orders.

Smiles O'Byron always was my favourite. ofc i have ultrasafe transporter to toshley's station.

Re: regular friendship on Star Trek - they must have forgotten Geordi and Data.

The second best friendship in ST history is Quark and his profit. Just try and pull them apart!

"GEORGIE FUCKIN BURGESS" , better O Brien never said that 🤣

I'm still convinced that Colm Meaneys hell on wheels Durant and chief O'Brien are related...just waiting on some star trek canon to confirm

You mean his evolution from transporter chief to a chief engineer who must suffer.

Why was it so important to keep O'Brien non-commissioned? Sisko could have granted him a commission to either Lieutenant or Lt. Commander at any time - especially since he was the Chief Engineer of a space station and a ship at the same time.