The REAL purpose of Miles O’Brien?

[Garak007]

I could be looking too much into this and viewing all this in hindsight but it seems to me from O'Brien's humble beginnings from the pilot of TNG he seemed to there for a purpose. Did Colm Meaney strike a deal with the producers as he had been turned down a main casting role (perhaps?) from TNG and become a re-occurring character knowing down the line there will be a spin off series DS9 where he will become a main character?

Seems to me it was quite convenient that Colm Meaney aka O'Brien was the only character we knew before DS9 started (OK we had Doctor Bashir and Keiko but we only had a brief back story with them if anything). Seems to me quite a lot was put on the character of O'Brien to launch the new series. A familiar face so to speak.

All this fuss about his rank was this due to the fact they were planning his move to DS9 and could not settle what to select for the new role on the space station? How many times was it changed? The pips changed quite a few times just on TNG if I remember.

Any views on this? or just everything with the Miles O'Brien was just a character they had at the right time?

 

[Nerys Myk]

To crush him, see him driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of his woman.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Actually I'd rather they skip that last part.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I could be looking too much into this and viewing all this in hindsight but it seems to me from O'Brien's humble beginnings from the pilot of TNG he seemed to there for a purpose. Did Colm Meaney strike a deal with the producers as he had been turned down a main casting role (perhaps?) from TNG and become a re-occurring character knowing down the line there will be a spin off series DS9 where he will become a main character?

Seems to me it was quite convenient that Colm Meaney aka O'Brien was the only character we knew before DS9 started (OK we had Doctor Bashir and Keiko but we only had a brief back story with them if anything). Seems to me quite a lot was put on the character of O'Brien to launch the new series. A familiar face so to speak.

All this fuss about his rank was this due to the fact they were planning his move to DS9 and could not settle what to select for the new role on the space station? How many times was it changed? The pips changed quite a few times just on TNG if I remember.

Any views on this? or just everything with the Miles O'Brien was just a character they had at the right time?

Eh, you're reading too much into it. First of all, planning for a spin-off series didn't start until when? 1991 at the earliest? As far as we know, they didn't even remotely considering doing another show at the time the O'Brien character was first introduced in TNG.

It's not like Roddenberry & Co. were saying when filming "Encounter at Farpoint": "Hey, this guy was great as the unnamed helmsman of the week, let's bring him back as a recurring character named O'Brien in Season 2 and then in maybe five or six years we'll do a spin-off show with him in a main role". You simply don't plan that far ahead. That's like saying that eventually bringing Worf into DS9 was planned all along from the beginning of the show in early 1993.

In O'Brien's case it was more like a natural development. Colm Meany was probably good enough in "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Lonely Among Us" that they decided to give him a recurring role as transporter chief from Season 2 onwards. Because of Meany's acting abilities and the popularity of the character, the role was then gradually expanded throughout the show (until his character finally played central roles in episodes like "The Wounded").

This probably convinced TPTB that O'Brien/Meany had enough potential for becoming a main character. And when they considered doing a spin-off they wanted to have a previously established face on the new show. At first, they wanted Ro Laren/Michelle Forbes, but she turned them down. So they took Meany instead (or did they actually consider transferring BOTH Ro and O'Brien to DS9 at some point? I'm a bit uncertain about that part myself.)

 

[Therin of Andor]

I could be looking too much into this and viewing all this in hindsight but it seems to me from O'Brien's humble beginnings from the pilot of TNG he seemed to there for a purpose.

Colm Meaney came to "Encounter at Farpoint" as a reliable background actor, trying desperately to get a foothold in Hollywood, but the producers and directors quickly noted that he was an excellent actor and a very agreeable person to work with. The staff writers made a point to beef up his role to a semi-regular, as a way of thanking him for his reliability, eventually giving the character a surname, a first name, a middle name and a wife.

Did Colm Meaney strike a deal with the producers as he had been turned down a main casting role (perhaps?) from TNG and become a re-occurring character knowing down the line there will be a spin off series DS9 where he will become a main character?

They didn't plan that far ahead, no, but when DS9 was first mooted, the carryover character was planned to be Ensign Ro. The actress refused the opportunity, preferring to try her luck with feature films, so Ro was rewritten as Kira, and her Starfleet connection was dropped. That meant that they still needed a familiar Starfleet character to relate to Sisko, so they realised that the whole O'Brien family would do that very well. Hence, O'Brien suddenly had a background with Cardassians written into a TNG script. Note also that Keiko's introductory scenes in the DS9 novelization of "Emissary", the pilot episode, were held over until they could become a subplot in the episode "A Man Alone" (IIRC).

(OK we had Doctor Bashir and Keiko but we only had a brief back story with them if anything).

Umm, although Dr Bashir made a guest appearance in an episode of TNG, this was well after his debut in DS9, and was a similar cross-pollination of the two series to promote DS9. As were the early appearances of the Duras sisters, Q and Vash in DS9.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

They didn't plan that far ahead, no, but when DS9 was first mooted, the carryover character was planned to be Ensign Ro. The actress refused the opportunity, preferring to try her luck with feature films, so Ro was rewritten as Kira, and her Starfleet connection was dropped. That meant that they still needed a familiar Starfleet character to relate to Sisko, so they realised that the whole O'Brien family would do that very well. Hence, O'Brien suddenly had a background with Cardassians written into a TNG script.

I think you've got a minor mix-up here: This sounds as if "The Wounded" was specifically written to set up O'Brien as a main character after Michelle Forbes turned down a role on DS9. However, Ensign Ro wasn't introduced into TNG until after O'Brien's connection with the Cardassians had been established in "The Wounded".

Also keep in mind that Cardassians were first introduced in "The Wounded". Wouldn't this mean that they were meant to become the adversaries for DS9 from the start?

I think it went more that way:
1) TPTB decide to do a spin-off.
2) Because the Cardassians worked so well on TNG, they decide to use them as main villains on DS9.
3) TPTB also want a previously established character on the new show. Because of Ro's connection to Bajor and the Cardassians, they consider to use her.
4) After Michelle Forbes turns them down, they decide to use O'Brien instead, because he's another previously established character with a history with the Cardassians.

 

[Romtehretard]

I think it made sense for both the character O'Brian and for the story that he took the DS9 assignment.
It was also a good move for the actor Com Meany since TNG already had a established main cast with much more limited opportunities for recurring characters like DS9 had with Garak,Dukat etc.
In regard to O'Brian's ever changing rank,it could be that when he was assigned to the enterprise he was given a field commison of lieutenant.Protocol and rank is much more important on board a starship than a space station.

 

[Danny99]

O'Brien and Meaney is the everyman character, even in the 24th century he's a relatable character for the viewer who goes to work every day, goes out for a drink with his friends and comes home to a loving family.

 

[Anwar]

And also, it's nice to have a character who isn't ethnically just a bland American without giving into much of a stereotype. Yes, he's Irish but he's not a "Oireland" stereotype.

 

[Myasishchev]

To crush him, see him driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of his woman.

Excellent.

 

[Therin of Andor]

This sounds as if "The Wounded" was specifically written to set up O'Brien as a main character after Michelle Forbes turned down a role on DS9.

That wasn't quite my intention. Sorry. "The Wounded" was the first TNG episode featuring O'Brien prominently in the story of the episode and happened to introduce a new recurring enemy race designed to be threatening and intelligent rather than comical or bizarre. It was more a sign of the improvement of Colm Meaney's participation as a recurring character, and the producers' approval of his acting skills, than anything else.

And yes, it wasn't that much later that the Bajorans and Ro were introduced as potential sparring partners for the Cardassians.

 

[Ablative_Oberth]

Heh. Reading some of this reminds me of my friend Devon. He's convinced that there is a master plan laid out by Gene back in the 1960s. Everything is based off this master plan down to the smallest detail.

Shows like Enterprise and last two movies in his opinion "show what happen when you ignore the master plan and go off on your own."

He's one of those people who anguishes over the little mistakes and lapses in "canon." He has fits when something from a previous episode doesn't solve a problem in a later episode... He can't accept that someone in Voyager might not know every detail of Kirk's five year mission... why aren't they using X to solve Y when Kirk used it here...


Yeah, he's one of THOSE.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Must be kept in the same place as the master plan Siegel and Shuster laid out for Superman. ( And the nine Star Wars novels by Lucas)