Colm Meaney is a national treasure to Star Trek fans. Lower Decks unofficially named his Miles O'Brien "The Most Important Person In Starfleet History," and given all the fires that character helped put out across The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, I'd believe it's deserved. Fortunately, Meaney is just as gracious when talking about the often notorious fandom, as he recently went to bat for Trekkies despite getting their sometimes bad rap from outsiders.
Meaney recently spoke to ComicBookMovie about his history with the iconic franchise, and just to get it out of the way now, he still hasn't changed his stance about not appearing in any upcoming Star Trek projects. So that's out of the picture. But when asked about the legacy of the franchise and dealing with Trekkies, the actor seemed to go on the defensive in discussing the largely pleasant exchanges he's had with fans:
I never subscribed to that thing that Star Trek fans are nuts. A few of them are. There's the odd one, but now, I always found Star Trek fans to be professional fans. They're very good; they want to say hello and what they think and then they leave you alone pretty much. That's really nice and not true of everybody. I've always found them incredibly knowledgeable and way more than I was when I was doing it.
Considering modern-day Star Trek fans are often able to have the entirety of the franchise's TV lineup available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription, I'm not surprised that audiences tend to remain far more informed than the actual actors about episode lore. After all, if Colm Meaney is busy with other gigs and has no urge to return to the franchise, why would he be watching his old episodes?
Meaney continued to praise the fans for their extensive knowledge of Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation and talked about the added perk of fans being so knowledgeable. Rather than grasping onto the WTF moments of TNG, it seems they're all walking away with a deeper message:
They knew more about episodes than I did which is extraordinary. They're very committed to it and I think it has had a very positive impact on people; the whole Star Trek Universe, in terms of both racially in terms of people getting along with aliens getting along with other aliens and humans and it's a very positive influence. I think it's a very positive worldview that Gene Roddenberry created at the beginning. They very much stuck to that and it's all good.
The actor credits Gene Roddenberry's message of striving for a greater good with a humanist perspective as why Star Trek fans are so pleasant, and I could buy that. While other actors William Shatner has argued the franchise has strayed from Roddenberry's vision, he also doesn't watch any of it and may not be the best barometer for measuring the franchise's success. Personally, I tend to lean more toward Colm Meaney's analysis.
It's a shame to hear he doesn't have much interest in playing Miles O'Brien again, especially after CinemaBlend just reported Ronald D. Moore's interest in potentially returning to the franchise. It would be a shame to see Deep Space Nine get a follow-up without Miles seen anywhere in it. He was a part of many great episodes, including the one where he had to dress like a Klingon and absolutely hated it.
The silver lining is that actors can always change their minds, and it's possible that Colm Meaney hasn't been asked to return to Star Trek in the modern era. Should he get an offer and end up liking the script, I could see him at least considering it, if not to appease the fans who want to see Miles O'Brien once again. I could be wrong, of course, but given how many legacy stars have returned, I don't think it's impossible.
For now, we can continue to revisit Miles O'Brien's adventures in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine over on Paramount+. I'm currently working through DS9 right now and having a blast, and would highly recommend other readers do so.
