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Science fiction is often at its best when unusual science fiction situations are used to highlight real-world issues. One of the best examples of this is the way science fiction deals with the horrifying reality of PTSD and torture.
Star Trek in particular has never shied away from torture. one of Star Trek: The Next Generation The best episode, “Chain of Command,” revolved around it and generated a lot of discussion about counting the lights. But no one in this series, and perhaps in the history of humanity as a whole, has had more than two important sci-fi characters suffer as much as characters like Picard and Kirk have suffered.
He wasn’t an officer. He wasn’t a scientist. He is a non-commissioned officer with no rank. He’s a guy who rolls up his sleeves and gets to work in the dirt.
His name is Miles O’Brien. And he’s a trade unionist.
Miles Edward O’Brien (Colm Meaney) Star Trek: The Next Generation In the very first episode, she returned as a recurring supporting cast member. he appeared regularly next generation Serves as the transport chief of the Enterprise.
His workman-like stance endeared him to both fans and the show’s creators. So when it came time for Star Trek’s first spinoff, Star Trek: Deep Space NineO’Brien was chosen for the character who serves as the show’s chief of operations. I don’t think he would have accepted the transfer if he had known the hell that was about to happen.
After his appearance in the first episode, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine He immediately set out on a weekly mission to destroy Miles O’Brien, body, mind, and spirit. Sometimes the show was a success, but it usually bounced back. generally.
At first, his troubles were more minor annoyances, like the train station always breaking down, his wife constantly nagging him, and having to search in tight spaces for voles. However, Miles O’Brien’s torture soon took on a much darker tone. After seeing his complete character arc, there’s no question that Miles O’Brien is the most tormented figure in Federation history. And perhaps in all fiction as well.
What follows is an account of the most horrifying ways in which this beloved working hard man was viciously persecuted.
No, we’re not talking about marrying Keiko. However, that would be pretty bad.
Miles O’Brien’s suffering
phantom hell
in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In the season 3 episode “The Visionary”, Miles ends up encountering a future version of himself before he actually dies. Again, it actually dies.
This wasn’t one of those fake sci-fi shows, he’s okay with dying in the end. deep space nine Kill Miles once and for all. To add insult to injury, he is swapped with his future self. From then on, everyone pretends that the real Miles, the murdered Miles, never existed.
His replacement, Miles, is likely enduring 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 a whimsical clone of himself from the future.
court of humiliation and pain
in deep space nine episodes “Tribunal” begins as if Miles is finally catching his breath. He was on a fun vacation with his wife, at least until he was tortured and unjustly imprisoned by the Cardassians.
The Cardassians are particularly good at torture, and will do whatever they can to make Chief O’Brien suffer. The incident culminates in the unfortunate Starfleet officer having one of his teeth pulled out with pliers, and then being told that he has been found guilty and will soon be executed.
Eventually, his friends prove he was framed and free him, only to find that he spends an entire week in a cruel Cardassian prison, physically abused and prepared for death. The fact is that it was all because I wanted to go on vacation and I had to leave some things behind. A kind of permanent psychological damage.
An orphan of time watches as his daughter is destroyed by a chief.
Sometimes the torture Miles endures is because of something that happened to someone else. Miles O’Brien prides himself on being a devoted family man and an excellent father. Of course, in the season 6 episode “Orphan of Time,” their daughter Molly falls into a time portal.
By the time Miles retrieved Molly, she was 10 years old and lived alone as a wild animal. His little daughter is gone and in her place is some kind of crazy savage. She is too damaged and can no longer live in the normal world, so he is forced to send her back to the time portal and accept her as dead.
Eventually, a younger version of Molly comes out of the portal and Miles takes her back, but he still deals with the older version of the psychosis that any parent would undergo upon learning their child is gone. I had to spend several weeks going through the pain.
crazy whisper
in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In the season 2 episode “The Whispers,” Director Miles O’Brien returns to the space station after an engineering job on another planet and finds his crew and family acting strangely toward him. I noticed. Everyone becomes strangely aloof and suspicious.
O’Brien was no fool and quickly noticed subtle changes in the station’s operations. As he attempts to uncover the reason for this sudden change, his paranoia increases and he is driven to investigate further.
Tensions escalate further when O’Brien becomes convinced that everyone is part of a plot to replace or harm him and decides to go berserk and flee the station. Pursued by his friends, he heads to a meeting of Federation ambassadors, believing he must warn them of a possible infiltration of 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 returns to the station and successfully undergoes surgery. The episode ends tragically for replicant O’Brien. Just as O’Brien begins to understand his own identity, he is shot and killed.
This episode may sound like a rare victory for the real O’Brien, but it’s not. O’Brien is deeply shaken by the whole ordeal. He is particularly influenced by the replicants’ desperate attempts to connect with their families and crew, highlighting their struggles for identity and belonging. The real Miles tries to come to terms with the fact that his clone, although not his true self, shared many of his memories and emotions as he interacted with the people he cared about.
20 years of hardship
What Miles O’Brien endures in season 4 deep space nine The episode “Hard Time” may be the worst torture anyone has ever experienced.
The story begins when Director O’Brien becomes interested in alien technology and is falsely accused of being a spy. He is sentenced to 20 years in prison and imprisoned.
In case you haven’t noticed, Miles spends a lot of time in prison. This time he doesn’t come out.
Over the course of that episode, we see decades pass by as the former Chief of Operations spends the rest of his life in a terrifying solitary confinement cell. He is often on the verge of starvation. He is not allowed visitors or contact with the outside world. His only interaction is with another prisoner, who eventually becomes his best friend.
The situation becomes so bad that O’Brien and his friends begin to lose their minds. The guards abandoned them and stopped feeding them. On the brink of complete starvation and already half wise, Miles and his friends begin fighting over what little food is left. In the ensuing scuffle, Miles intentionally and brutally murders his best friend.
It’s a pretty terrible story, but this is no ordinary prison. It’s a prison simulation that takes place only in his head. What seemed like decades to Miles was actually just seconds.
For Chief Miles O’Brien, that is, and always will be, a very real reality. However, the 20 years he spent there were not real, and when they were over he returned to his usual life as if nothing had happened. But for him, it actually happened.
What he believes he has done and endured causes severe PTSD and causes him to attempt suicide rather than continue. Dr. Bashir persuades him to undergo treatment, but Miles O’Brien does not come to his senses again.
Chief O’Brien’s endless torment
I could turn this into a book. There are many scary things about the chief’s story.
There was a time when Starfleet intelligence forced Miles to go undercover and pressured him into intentionally killing a friend.
There is his distant past, which already haunts and torments him before we meet him. Before we knew Miles in TNG, he was a soldier who fought in a brutal conflict with the Cardassians and barely survived to tell the tale. So naturally, he ends up working on Cardassia’s old space station and is forced to befriend the enemy who killed his comrades.
There are others. Like when I almost died from an ancient biological weapon.
Or the bizarre case where an alien took over his wife’s body and threatened to kill her unless she sabotaged the station. Miles must protect his daughter from her biological mother, a terrifying situation that no father would be able to bear.
Chief O’Brien is the most important character in Star Trek
If there’s any consolation here, it’s that Miles’ courage and perseverance seem to have finally been recognized. In the distant future Star Trek: Deep Space NineMiles O’Brien is recognized as one of the most important figures in Starfleet history.
He became immortal in the third Star Trek: Lower Decks In the episode “Decree of the Ages”, a scene from the “distant future” where a classroom learns about notable figures in Federation history. The scene ends with the unveiling of a giant golden statue, immortalizing Director O’Brien as one of Starfleet’s greatest figures.
Why was O’Brien chosen for this honor? It’s never stated, but it’s very likely that surviving all this suffering would make him the perfect Starfleet officer.
Or maybe it’s just that Miles O’Brien, like his ancestor Sean, is the best because he’s more than a hero. He is a trade union member.
