By Joshua Tyler | Published
Science fiction is often at its best, when unusual science fiction situations are used to highlight real-world problems. One of the best examples of this is the way science fiction handles PTSD and the horrific reality of torture.
Star Trek, in particular, has never shied away from dealing with violence. One of the Star Trek: The Next Generation The very best episode, “Chain of Command”, revolves around this, and sparks a number of discussions about the number of lights. Still, no one in the franchise, and perhaps not in the entire history of the human race, has had more than one major sci-fi character suffer as much as characters like Picard or Kirk.
He was not an officer. He was not a scientist. He is an enlisted man without rank. He is a man who rolls up his sleeves and gets to work in the dirt.
His name is Miles O’Brien. And he is a union man.
Miles Edward O’Brien (Colum Meaney) was introduced. Star Trek: The Next Generation Returned as a supporting cast member in the first episode and as a recurring character. He was regularly featured throughout of the next generation Run as the Transporter Chief of the Enterprise.
His artisan-like stance endeared him to both fans and the show’s creators. So, when it came time for the first Star Trek spin-off, Star Trek: Deep Space NineO’Brien was cast as the character who would serve as the show’s chief of operations. I suspect he would never have accepted the transfer, had he known what was to follow.
After his arrival in the first episode, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Fast forward a week later on a mission to break Miles O’Brien’s body, his soul and his mind. There were even times when the show succeeded, though it usually bounced back. Mostly
At first his torments were more minor annoyances like the station always breaking down, being constantly teased by his wife, or being forced to hunt from a crawlspace for wolves. However, Miles O’Brien’s agony soon took on a deeper tone. After seeing his character in full, there is now no question that Miles O’Brien is the most tortured man in the history of the Federation. And perhaps in all fiction.
What follows is an account of the most horrible ways in which this dear working hard was cruelly persecuted.
And no, we’re not talking about marrying Keiko. Although, it would be very bad.
The Doom of Miles O’Brien
A visionary hell
i Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In the Season 3 episode “Visionary,” Miles runs into a future version of himself before actually dying. Again, actually, die.
This wasn’t one of those fake sci-fi shows, he would be fine in the final death. Deep Space Nine Totally kills the miles. Then to add insult to injury, he is replaced by his future self. Since then, everyone pretends the real miles, miles that were killed, never existed.
Miles who replaces him likely endures constant, existential dread. He’s doomed to spend the rest of his life wondering if he’s really who everyone thinks he is, or if he’s just a weird clone from the future.
A tribunal of humiliation and pain
i Deep Space Nine Episode “Tribunal,” it seems like Miles has finally caught a break. He is going on a nice vacation with his wife, at least until he is tortured and falsely imprisoned by the Cardassians.
The Cardassians are particularly good at violence, and they do everything they can to hurt Chief O’Brien. It ends with the helpless Starfleet officer, having a tooth knocked out by a pair of pliers, before being told that he has already been convicted and will soon be executed.
Eventually, his friends prove that he has been imprisoned and he is freed, but the fact that he spent an entire week being physically abused in the brutal Cardassian prison system, While he was hoping to die, all because he wanted to go on vacation, he had to leave something behind. A type of lasting, psychological damage.
The Orphan of Time made the Chief destroy his daughter.
Sometimes the suffering Miles endures is because of what happens to others. Miles O’Brien, prides himself on being a devoted family man and an excellent father. So, of course, in the Season 6 episode “Time’s Orphan,” his daughter Molly enters a time portal.
By the time Miles brings Molly back, she is ten years old and has spent that time living alone as a wild animal. Her little girl is gone and in her place is a kind of crazed savage. This forces her to be sent back into the time portal and presumed dead, as she is so damaged that she can no longer live in the normal world.
In the end, a younger version of Molly comes out of the portal, and Miles brings her back, but he still has to spend weeks dealing with the psychotic older version and the pain any parent goes through when they have to. It feels like their child is gone. .
Demented whispers
i Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In the Season 2 episode “Whispers”, Chief Miles O’Brien returns to the space station after completing an engineering job on another planet, only to find that his crewmates and family are treating him strangely. . Everyone is strangely distant and suspicious.
O’Brien is no fool and is quick to notice subtle changes in the station’s operations. When he tries to uncover the reason for this sudden change, his paranoia grows, prompting him to investigate further.
Tensions rise, when O’Brien decides to flee the station on the run, convinced that everyone is part of a conspiracy to change or harm him. Pursued by his friends, he heads to a meeting of Federation ambassadors, believing he must warn them of a possible infiltration on DS9.
However, in a dramatic twist, it is revealed that O’Brien is actually a replicant, created by an unknown entity, and the real Chief O’Brien is safely undergoing surgery at the station. The episode ends tragically for the impersonator O’Brien, who is shot just as he begins to realize his identity.
This episode may sound like a rare win for the real O’Brien, but it’s not. O’Brien has been left unsettled by the whole ordeal. He is particularly moved by the replicant’s desperate attempts to connect with his family and crew, highlighting the struggle for identity and belonging. The real Mel tries to reconcile the fact that his clone, though not really him, shares many of his memories and emotions through conversations with those he cares about.
20 years of doom in hard times
What Miles O’Brien Endured in Season 4 Deep Space Nine The episode “Hard Times”, may be the worst torture anyone has ever experienced.
It begins when Chief O’Brien shows interest in some alien technology and falsely accuses him of being a spy. He is sentenced to 20 years and put in prison.
In case you haven’t noticed, Miles spends a lot of time in prison. This time he didn’t get out.
During this episode, we watch the decades go by as the now former Chief of Operations spends the rest of his life in a horrible prison cell. He is often on the verge of starvation. He is not allowed visitors or contact with the outside world. His only socialization is with another inmate, who eventually becomes his best friend.
Things get so bad, both O’Brien and his friend start to lose their minds. The guards abandon them and stop feeding them, on the brink of complete starvation, with their wits half gone, Miles and his friends begin fighting over the few scraps of food they have left. . In the ensuing struggle, Mel deliberately and brutally kills his best friend.
It sounds bad enough, but this is no ordinary prison. It is a prison simulation, which only happens in his mind. Miles that seemed to take decades were actually mere seconds.
To Chief Miles O’Brien it is, and always will be, real. Even so, the twenty years he spent there were not real, and when it was over he returned to his normal life as if it had never happened. Only, it happened to him.
The things he believes he did and endured feed severe PTSD, causing him to attempt suicide rather than continue. Dr. Bashir talks to him and gets him into therapy, but Miles O’Brien never quite recovers.
Chief O’Brien’s Endless Torment
We could change this throughout the book, there are a lot of scary things in the Chief’s story.
It was then that Starfleet intelligence forced Miles to go undercover and pressured him to kill his friend on purpose.
He has a distant past that has been haunting and tormenting him even before he met her. Before we knew Miles on TNG, he was a soldier fighting in a brutal conflict against the Cardassians, barely surviving to tell the tale. So of course he is forced to serve on an old Cardassian space station and befriend enemies who kill his comrades.
There is more. Like the time he almost died from an ancient biogenic weapon.
Or the strange incident when an alien takes over his wife’s body and threatens to kill her, provided she doesn’t sabotage the station. Miles is left to protect his daughter from her own mother, a terrifying prospect for any father to bear.
Chief O’Brien is the most important person in Star Trek.
If there is any consolation, it seems that Miles was finally recognized for his bravery and perseverance. In the not too distant future Star Trek: Deep Space NineMiles O’Brien is recognized as one of the most important people in Starfleet history.
He has become immortal in the third. Star Trek: The Lower Decks The episode, “Provisional Order”, during a scene from “The Far Future” where a classroom learns about notable people in the Federation’s history. The scene ends with the unveiling of a gigantic golden statue, immortalizing Chief O’Brien as one of Starfleet’s greatest figures.
Why was O’Brien chosen for this honor? It’s never stated, but it could very well be, that after surviving all these torments he becomes the perfect Starfleet officer.
Or it could just be that he’s the best, because Miles O’Brien, like his ancestor Sean, is more than a hero. He is a union man.
