Miles O'Brien?

[Darth Thanos]

I have seen the episode "Unnatural selection" and there was some input from the teleporter technician... who looks a lot like Miles O'Brien, from Deep Space 9. Was that the same actor? Was it supposed to be the same character? His role in the story was trivial, just to provide some technical info for Picard, and I don't recall if they even named him.

 

[NCC-73515]

He was in the TNG pilot already and transferred from the D to DS9. A lot of background like his wife, his daughter, and his previous fights with the Cardassians come from TNG.

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[Finn]

Yes. He was a recurring character, until DS9 started. I believe he has the most appearances aside from the main cast.

His role in Unnatural Selection may have been ...."trivial", but he had more..."important" appearances in a bunch of episodes.

 

[Paul Weaver]

O'Brien had extended story lines in TNG, including getting married, having a child, dealing with his Cardassian past. He had a similar number of lines as Tasha, Pulaski, Q, and the computer and was in about 50 episodes.

 

[TheMurph]

Colm Meaney/O'Brien has always been one of my favorite Trek actors/characters. He embodied the everyman aspect that TNG sometimes lacked.

 

[Legate Duhmar]

Chief O'Brien was one of the best characters in TNG despite being a supporting player, which is a massive compliment to the acting of Colm Meaney. Many of my favorite episodes of TNG heavily feature the Chief including Power Play, The Wounded and Disaster. He was able to convey so much with very little, sometimes just a smile or hesitation of the transporter controls was enough to put a finishing touch on a scene.

 

[Mojochi]

O'Brien appeared in 52 of TNG's 176 episodes, always as the transporter chief, & got quite a bit of good development there imho.

 

[shivkala]

TV Tropes calls it an "Ascended Extra" and even uses the exchange between Q and O'Brien from DS9 on their page for it.

• The pilot features an unnamed, curly-haired conn officer played by Colm Meaney. It's clear he wasn't intended to become a major character at the time - when everyone is taken to Q's courtroom, he was notably absent. (Well, the redshirt's absence wasn't notable then.) That character would reappear on a regular basis in subsequent episodes as a gold-shirted (the 24th-century equivalent of Red Shirt) transporter operator. That operator eventually got a name and rank, Chief Miles O'Brien, and ended up becoming a semi-regular character with a wife and family who interacted regularly with the main cast. When it came time to create a spinoff of TNG, O'Brien went even further to become a main character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Miles O'Brien is the embodiment of a character working up from the Red Shirt Army to donning fullblown Plot Armor.

 

[Oddish]

Chief O'Brien was classic Trek's only main character who was in Starfleet but wasn't an officer.

 

[jackoverfull]

always as the transporter chief

not always: in early episodes he played a conn officer and a security officer.

 

[Oddish]

And I was actually wrong... he began as an officer, but was retconned into an enlisted man.

 

[jackoverfull]

And I was actually wrong... he began as an officer, but was retconned into an enlisted man.

In family. Absurdly while still wearing officer’s pips.

 

[Paul Weaver]

And being called lieutenant by Riker in one episode.
There’s plenty of explanations of course.

 

[Oddish]

It usually went the other way, of course. A particularly promising enlisted person would be sent to OCS and come out as an ensign/second lieutenant.

 

[Legate Duhmar]

And I was actually wrong... he began as an officer, but was retconned into an enlisted man.

TNG did not really feature the concept of NCOs very often, despite 'Chief' O'Briens eventual designation. It was DS9 that fleshed out the more logical structure of Starfleet as a fuctional quasi-military organization.

 

[Oddish]

For most of classic Trek, they seemed to have only two enlisted ranks: crewman and chief.

 

[Dukhat]

not always: in early episodes he played a conn officer and a security officer.

Actually, those appearances were never meant to be the same guy as O’Brien despite Meaney playing them. That was retconned later in ‘All Good Things…”

 

[tafkats]

O'Brien appeared in 52 of TNG's 176 episodes, always as the transporter chief, & got quite a bit of good development there imho.

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure the recurring character with the second most episodes was the conn officer Ensign Gates, whose actress was never credited and whose one line, I'm pretty sure, was spoken off-screen.

 

[Mojochi]

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure the recurring character with the second most episodes was the conn officer Ensign Gates, whose actress was never credited and whose one line, I'm pretty sure, was spoken off-screen.

Ensign Gates only has 46 appearances. Beverly Crusher had Lt. Martinez around on her medical team for 86 & 2 movie appearances. That's like half of all TNG episodes. That dude was everywhere, & I'm pretty sure his only line ever was "Yes Doctor"

 

[tafkats]

Ensign Gates only has 46 appearances. Beverly Crusher had Lt. Martinez around on her medical team for 86 & 2 movie appearances. That's like half of all TNG episodes. That dude was everywhere, & I'm pretty sure his only line ever was "Yes Doctor"

Dang ... I never realized that. That's impressive ... not only is he approaching Ayala territory, I didn't even think there were enough episodes with Sickbay scenes for a medical staffer to rack up that many appearances.

(And Ogawa is only in 16!)