Miles O'Brien: The Most Important Man in Starfleet

The most important man in Starfleet history is… Miles O’Brien?

Star Trek: Lower Decks swings big with this one in “Temporal Edict,” the third episode of the animated series. You may know and love Star Trek’s Irish ‘everyman,’ Chief O’Brien, who served on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Deep Space 9space station, and the U.S.S. Defiant during his runs on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but did you ever think he’d earn himself a statue?

StarTrek.com asked series creator Mike McMahan to give us a little insight into what makes Miles O’Brien so important, and why he wanted to honor the chief engineer on Lower Decks.

“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," shares McMahan. "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," continued McMahan, "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.”

Can't argue with that! Want to know more about Miles? You can read about his career, friendships, his famed mishaps, and more, right here on StarTrek.com.

This article was originally published on August 21, 2020.