O'Briens dark secrets. Was he actually demoted?

I've been looking at Miles O'Brien's career in Starfleet and I get the impression that he must have been demoted at some time in his career. I've been trying to sort it out with the help of Memory Alpha but haven't found the definite answer yet.

In the first season of TNG he's actually an ensign with one pip.

In season 2 of TNG he has two pips on his collar and is adressed by Riker as Lieutenant.

he wears the pips of Lieutenant until season 6 of TNG when he all of a sudden is wearing a single hollow pip whic obviously is the rank of a Warrant Officer!

He continues to wear that single hollow pip during the first seasons of DS9, actually joking that "if Nog graduates from Starfleet Academy, I must adress him as Sir".

In season 4 of DS9 he gets a new rank insignia, reminding of a Sergeant's insignia.

So what did poor Miles do to be demoted? Did he spike Picards Earl Grey with Irish Whiskey? Or did he reveal Riker having an affair with some married female Ensign?

And why that new rank insignia in Hippocratic Oath. Was he demoted to Sergeant by Sisko for throwing some tool at Jake when Jake failed to obey him or what? Or did he cough in the wrong tune on a Friday morning briefing:

Miles, Miles, Miles, what have you done?

 

Lower Decks explained it: the pip inconsistency is just due to O'Brian and other Starfleet officers love of cream corn.

 

I find that explanation plausible!

 

Maybe when he went in to Starfleet he only trained with them in the specialist role of Transporter Operator, a similar type of role to that which the guy Uhura made hide in a closet in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had. After school though he might have trained to be a proficient engineer becoming part of the Federations Corps of Engineers joining Starfleet later in life, but Starfleet at first wouldn’t recognise this training and give him a proper engineering job as the training wasn’t done through them, so instead they stuck him on the transporter of the Rutledge under command of Maxwell. Later he moved on to the Enterprise (still stuck on the boring transporter) regardless of the fact that he was still just as good and well trained as Geordie is. He might have been the guy that had all of the solutions to technical problems on the Enterprise but every time he tried to suggest the resolution he was told to shut up? Can you imagine that? One of the Federations best and brightest stuck all day in a transporter room bored sh*tless twiddling his thumbs with nothing much to do? I bet he had to resort to playing mobile games on his PADD and playing practical jokes on the crew by beaming random items around the ship for sh*ts and giggles to take away some of the boredom and monotony. O’Brien wasn’t quite what Starfleet wanted qualifications wise but because of his experience and unique skills they might have seconded/TUPE’d him in to Starfleet as they needed the best that they could get to help Bandage DS9 together. He was probably the closest that Starfleet had to being a specialist in Cardassian technology too because of his experience in the Cardassian war. Starfleet’s ‘by the book’ Academy trained engineers probably just couldn’t get their heads around the Cardassian tech as they are used to fixing things with a one size fits all mentality. Starfleet tech is relatively modular, hot swappable and interchangeable so it’s quite easy to switch out an isolinear rod or bio-neural gel pack and if need be it’s easy to get back up support via the Starfleet tech support call centre (If the Enterprise first line response didn’t successfully close the support ticket that had been raised). Self sealing stem bolts pretty much solve most Starfleet tech issues on Federation ships anyway.

 

Star Trek has always had trouble dealing with enlisted ranks.

They were always sort of implied, (There were several characters referred to as 'chief' in TOS) but never directly addressed until Chief O'Brien came along, and then it was still a bit convoluted. We've never really gotten any information on what sort of training starfleet's enlisted crewmembers go through, since the implication is that it's not starfleet academy.

Over the years people have come up with all sorts of clever uniform and rank-insignia modifications that could be used to clearly delineate enlisted personnel in starfleet, but in the actual productions they never bother.

This is actually something that SNW could address at some point, if it chooses to.

As for the question posed in the OP: I doubt the intent was to indicate that O'Brien was ever demoted. His rank just kept getting retconned. Over and over.

 

In TOS they had people dressed in Red or Blue "crew" uniforms who were clearly enlisted men but TNG did an awful job with ranks, seemingly removing enlisted men with ensigns being the new lowest rank shown on screen. Then later in TNG enlisted men come up again and are directly referenced, not sure if this was partly because of head writer Ron Moores experience as an ROTC Naval volunteer but it made the ship and Starfleet make a little more sense. The shift is awkward and DS9 expanded the concept it a bit with Chief O'Brien and other references but still overall it remains something not fully explained in the shows.

As for O'Brien himself, he was always an enlisted man in my opinion. He was first a security officer under Captain Maxwell, later transferring to operations in TNG and then engineering DS9, presumably after having enough with combat during the Cardassian War. The ranking inconsistency is just that, an inconsistency that was later papered over in DS9 and honestly made the Chief a more interesting and nuanced character.

 

Despite the fact O'Brien was wearing Lieutenant's pips in TNG Family, Sergei Rozhenko still recognized him as a Chief Petty Officer.

 

Time for the DS9 version of "Why does Harry Kim never get promoted?"

 

His conversation with worfs adopted dad implies O'Brien was always enlisted and proud of it. I just chalk up the early insignia as costuming issues.i mean they've screwed up main cast's insignia before
Data had lt pips in all good things

 

And that was the first time Star Trek ever explicitly established enlisted characters. "Chief" was more a title than a rank. Enlisted ranks were designed by costumers, but never featured.

Roddenberry's original intent was for everyone serving in Starfleet to be an officer, highly trained and educated. The way that Naval aviators are (almost exclusively) all officers, or that all astronauts have college degrees.

 

I should say the first time I ever noticed Star Trek Star Trek ever explicitly established the existence of enlisted characters."

We all know that original intent didn't always make it to screen, as in the everybody-wears-the-delta continuity mess.

 

Enlisted personal were referred to as "crewman" as far back as TOS.

There was just no differentiation as far as enlisted levels until O'Brien AFAIK. It was still "Crewman" Simon Tarses in The Drumhead.

 

It is clear that originally O'Brien was intended to be indeed be enlisted, but then this was changed, hoping the audience would not notice.

One might as well debate the strange nature of Fermat's last theorem being unproven during some time.

Two more years till the Bell Riots, in any case.

 

Yes, but "Crewman" wasn't ever clearly established as a rank back then.

"The Drumhead" was after "Family", wasn't it? That was IIRC the second reference, where we learn that enlisted personnel also attend Starfleet Academy, just not the full course.

 

Not really, I think it just meant "not an officer". Even in a quasi-military organization () I think that means enlisted personnel.

Yep, later in the same season (4). But there has always been sloppiness when it comes to rank and insignia. Remember that Tuvok had Lt.Cdr. pips in the beginning of VOY, then was an Lt., then got a promotion (over Harry???) later on.

 

A lot of good comments here. But still, it seems strange that someone with the skill that O'Brien had should actually be demoted, ever if it were only for bureaucratic reasons like being enlisted and whatsoever.

And he should definitely had been promoted on deep Space nine for his excellent work on the station. I mean, the man is a genius.

Which is also a reason why I couldn't understand why he left in that last episode. If I had been Sisko, I would have done everything possible to make him stay on the station.

Yes, but I always found all that about Starfleet Academy and how difficult it is not only to be qualified but to graduate as well a bit weird. I mean, which such high demands on the cadets for entering the Academy and later on graduate, they wouldn't even manage to get enough personel for 10 starships.

I can accept that the officers must come from the Academy and be highly trained and prepared. But what about ordinary crewmen? I guess such people are needed to, those who do the boring jobs on a Starship

As a notorius nitpicker and a person being almost manic to come up with explanations for all odd things and all mysteries in Star Trek (see the Kes Website and the page Voyager Mysteries-and how to solve them for logical explanations for a lot of odd things about Voyager), I do have a solution for the constant changes of Tuvok's rank and why harry Kim never was promoted.

Janeway and Tuvok used to play the Vulcan game of Kal-Toh in her ready room. Every time Janeway lost, she lost her temper and demoted Tuvok. The next time Tuvok let Janeway win and got his rank back. In the end, Tuvok simply gave up and let janeway win all games so he could keep his rank as Lt.Cdr.

As for Harry never being promoted, it was all about his awful musical taste:

As for Harry never being promoted on Voyager, first a briefing in Janeway's ready room.

I'm sorry Mr Kim but I can't give you a promotion because your musical taste is AWFUL!

and then some hours later when Harry is going to drown his sorrows at Quark's bar at Deep Space Nine.

Sorry Harry!
Here's the reason why I was promoted last week and you weren't!

But O'Brien? I just can't come up with any good solution to the problem other than spiking Picards Earl Grey with Irish Wiskey during the reception for the Andorian delegation and being demoted for that.

The same for him never being promoted on Deep Space Nine. I'm sure that he never did beat Sisko in baseball and that he liked iron Maiden as well. Or at least Thin Lizzy!

 

I don’t think O’Brien was ever demoted. That one line by Riker notwithstanding, it seems clear that O’Brien was never an officer, and in fact took great pride in being a career enlisted man.

So Riker calling him “Lieutenant” is obviously an error, and can - and will - be ignored.

 

There was a nitpicker's guide that had "Changed Premises" as one of its categories.

That seems to apply here - O'Brien was a lieutenant until a writer decided that they wanted to make his enlisted status important to a script, and so the premise was changed.

 

Evidence!
Look at this picture!


O'Brien with the two pips rank of Lieutenant!
So Riker's line was right, O'Brien was a Lieutenant on the Enterprise.
Obviously he must have been demoted. But why?

That explanation may be true in the alternate universe where we live, The Gray Universe.
But it's our duty to find the truth in the Star Trek Universe.

 

Um, okay.

Something something Captain Maxwell something something took the blame.