Star Trek veteran Colm Meaney discovered one facet of O’Brien “wearying”

Once you undergo the record of Star Trek‘s nice actors, it doesn’t take too lengthy earlier than you get to Colm Meaney. Throughout Star Trek TNG and later DS9, Colm Meaney starred as the most effective Star Trek characters within the franchise’s historical past: Miles O’Brien.

Meaney joined the Star Trek The Subsequent Era forged within the collection’ very first episode, and would proceed to look all through TNG in a supporting function. Step by step, O’Brien was given extra display time and because the writers fleshed him out he finally would grow to be a strong fan-favorite. Meaney then made the soar to the spin-off Star Trek collection DS9, this time with O’Brien as a major character.

His look throughout the 2 reveals imply that Meaney has the excellence of being the Star Trek actor with the second most credit, solely behind Michael Dorn. So, Meaney spent quite a lot of time in O’Brien’s firm, and there’s one facet of the character which Meaney did finally discover tiresome.

Talking with IGN about DS9, and its impression, Meaney was requested how he felt about O’Brien’s portrayal as a extra right down to earth, common, ‘blue collar’ character. “I used to be very conscious of it. It was all the time hammered residence, to a wearying extent generally, the entire ‘blue collar’ factor.”

He continued, “And , I used to be positive with it. It wasn’t an issue. That’s who he was. However I simply discovered it a bit odd the way in which individuals went on about it a lot generally. There have been clearly all ranges and echelons in an organisation like Starfleet. However yeah, I used to be very aware of that, and the writers have been aware of it, and the followers have been aware of it: he was, , an on a regular basis Joe.”

All through TNG and DS9, O’Brien’s relative simplicity was a core facet of his character, as was his relatable and rocky home life. The truth that he loved spending his free time in Quark’s bar ingesting together with his mates, and that his relationship with Keiko was by no means excellent helped to make him extra relatable; not essentially flawed, however human in a means that another Star Trek characters won’t have been.

This, although, was contrasted together with his immense competence and functionality. He was one of the crucial in a position and shrewd engineers in Starfleet, and after the occasions of the Dominion Battle O’Brien turned a professor of engineering at Starfleet Academy. So, although Meaney may need discovered the give attention to O’Brien’s relatability to be tiring, it definitely by no means outlined O’Brien. He was all the time extra advanced than that, which is what made him one of many best characters within the franchise’s historical past.

Not like the remainder of the TNG forged, Meaney didn’t reprise his function as O’Brien within the current Picard season 3. However, he has stated he’d be inquisitive about participating in a brand new Star Trek collection focussed on Worf. Certainly, nobody might say no to that. Each TNG and DS9 are actually accessible to stream on Paramount Plus, if you wish to revisit Meaney’s O’Brien in all his glory.

For extra on Star Trek, try our ideas on one of the simplest ways to observe the Star Trek motion pictures so as, and see our breakdown of the Star Trek timeline. You may as well be taught in regards to the TNG episode Jonathan Frakes needs banned, earlier than trying out what’s new on Paramount Plus, and seeing our picks for the very best TV collection of all time (spoilers: each TNG and DS9 are on there).