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O'Brien always gets the shaft?

T

thisisdanzo

Ensign
Newbie
Is there some kind of inside joke among the writers that makes them always screw O'Brien over?

-He gets wrongly tried by the Cardassians, gets stripped, gets a tooth ripped out, and almost gets executed.

-As a clone, everyone treats him like crap, his daughter hates him, and he gets killed.

-He gets put in a "mind prison" for 20 years, kills someone in cold blood while there, and has to live with the PTSD afterwards.

I'm sure I'm missing some others as well. I just feel so bad for the guy...
 
I'll just quote Memory Alpha, themselves quoting the DVD special features:

The DS9 writing staff had a running joke with a semi-annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode. Among these were "Whispers", "Tribunal", "Visionary", "Hard Time", "Honor Among Thieves" and "Prodigal Daughter". (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) According to Ira Behr, "Every year in one or two shows we try to make his life miserable, because you empathize with him." Robert Hewitt Wolfe further explains, "If O'Brien went through something torturous and horrible, the audience was going to feel that, in a way they wouldn't feel it with any of the other characters. Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn't say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O'Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story." (Crew Dossier: Miles O'Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)
Click to expand...
 
thisisdanzo said:
aaaand in the episode where he keeps flashing into the near future, he gets radiation poisoning and dies.
Click to expand...

"They killed O'Brien! ...You bastards!"

O'Brien is the improved 'Red Shirt' that takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!


...Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn't say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O'Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story[/I]." (Crew Dossier: Miles O'Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)
Click to expand...

"Vell, O'Brien's just zis guy, you know?"
 
I too was thinking this while watching "Honor Among Thieves" last night. The mind prison had to be the worst though.
 
It's a Trek Tradition for there to be one character who always gets abused more than anyone else.

In TOS, it was usually Chekov.

TNG was Geordi.

DS9 was O'Brien.

VOY had Kim, one of the dying-est Ensigns ever.

ENT, I'm pretty sure "Designated Abuse Guy" was Archer.
 
Tosk said:
I'll just quote Memory Alpha, themselves quoting the DVD special features:

The DS9 writing staff had a running joke with a semi-annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode. Among these were "Whispers", "Tribunal", "Visionary", "Hard Time", "Honor Among Thieves" and "Prodigal Daughter". (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) According to Ira Behr, "Every year in one or two shows we try to make his life miserable, because you empathize with him." Robert Hewitt Wolfe further explains, "If O'Brien went through something torturous and horrible, the audience was going to feel that, in a way they wouldn't feel it with any of the other characters. Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn't say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O'Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story." (Crew Dossier: Miles O'Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yup, they are even selling a shirt on Star Trek's web-site that says, "O'Brien must suffer at least once per season."
 
As Tosk quoted, these were the O'Brien must suffer episodes.

And of course they had a decent actor with Colm Meany in which to do them.
 
I don't know whether Colm Meaney enjoyed playing it, when Miles O'Brien got shit on ... but he always delivered. I don't think O'Brien ever gave a dishonest performance, in his entire history with STAR TREK. I was always impressed with how solid his performances were. I wondered what kind of actor he was, I thought he was like one of the "method" actors, he had to be - surely. But no, he said his acting was much more "superficial" than that. Amazing.
 
And just remember O'Brien was there from the start of TNG, not to bad character development from what was basically an extra with a few lines.
 
thisisdanzo said:
Is there some kind of inside joke among the writers that makes them always screw O'Brien over?

-He gets wrongly tried by the Cardassians, gets stripped, gets a tooth ripped out, and almost gets executed.

-As a clone, everyone treats him like crap, his daughter hates him, and he gets killed.

-He gets put in a "mind prison" for 20 years, kills someone in cold blood while there, and has to live with the PTSD afterwards.

I'm sure I'm missing some others as well. I just feel so bad for the guy...
Click to expand...

The writers were not kind for sure.
 
What makes it even worse for O'Brien is the fact his love ones where often involved. Geordi suffered sure, but it was just him. Keiko and his daughter made it that much more painful.

I presume most of you have seen Colm's response to his suffering character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxoJk57jI1g

Maybe he didn't watch the show, so he thought everyone was getting the same treatment.
 
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