Colm Meaney on his character being tortured.

Go to www.creationent.com for information about upcoming conventions. Colm Meaney on stage at the Grand Slam Sci-fi Summit 2007.

[@H2KEENE]

Great actor, Colm earns respect.

[@regalecusglesne3022]

are you serious? it's obvious that he doesn't remember anything about his character. he doesn't give a shit.

[@zardox78]

Virtually every O'Brien-centric episode was a great one. And I don't mean the ones where he's just there, part of a group or a duo. I mean the 6 or 8 episodes over the course of the series where he's the MAIN main protagonist of the story. Whether he's randomly traveling 5 hours into the future or stuck in a mind-prison for decades or finding out that he's actually a secret assassin clone of the real O'Brien, they were almost always thought-provoking episodes that delivered the goods. I don't think any other character had that good of a ratio when it was their turn to play MAIN main protagonist.

[@sarahkinsey5434]

DS9 was the best thing to happen to O'Brien and Worf, the writers gave them so much more character development than TNG did.

[@lizardlegend42]

@@sarahkinsey5434 The only O'Brien episode I didn't really like was the one where Molly accidently went back in time and grew up as a cave woman

[@PirateOfTheInternet]

Colm Meaney has one of the most distinct voices I've ever heard. I could instantly recognize him.

[@MannPower]

Damn straight. He and Garak are my favorite characters.

[@andiparker3733]

MannPower You would love the DS9 story "Empok Nor" which is where Garak and O'brien go to a space station which is deserted and the same design spec as DS9. Garak falls under some kind of mind trap and tries to kill O'brien..

[@sid2112]

Garrick sympathized with O'Brien and tried to get Keiko to be an inqusitor for the Cardassian Empire. He knew talent when he saw it.

[@2vader]

Colm Meaney was one of the best actors on any of the series.....I've heard a lot of the actors talk about being able to "act big" on the show...theatrical...larger than life (which I enjoyed)....But Meaney just seemed so natural in everything he did and said, it just seemed to flow from a sense of being O'brien, rather than playing O'Brien....

[@reddaB]

2vader I genuinely never think of him as an actor, just a character. He is ace. O'Brien is O'Brien.

[@JAMonda-lr5bc]

The script writers made O'Brien an regular man placed in soldiers situations. Meaney pulled the character off brilliantly!

[@shuboy05]

I love that Colm thought the writers like putting O'Brien into those situations. I'm guessing no one ever told him "O'Brien Must Suffer" was a "Once a Season Requirement" in the Writers' Room.

[@mogheen]

For such successful actor he seems very down to earth

[@Spike-Prime]

O'Brien got tortured sooooo many times, it actually became a joke even in the writers' rooms. I believe it got dubbed "O'Brien suffers". I think it's because he was the family man, the every man, the one we can most identify and relate to as a character, so we're more inclined to feel it more when he gets hurt. I like the TNG episode Chain of Command fine, where Picard is tortured, but something about O'Brien makes it all feel more personal.

[@Spike-Prime]

***** Hehe, yeah, Janeway really seemed to have it out for Harry on Voyager :P

[@MrBubbaSkeeter]

I too watched the DS9 extras.

[@Spike-Prime]

Plank Hill I didn't watch that many actually. I take it they mentioned it there?

[@MrBubbaSkeeter]

Spike Prime Suuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrreeeeee.

[@Spike-Prime]

Plank Hill What's your problem?

[@mrkeno1000]

i saw him driving down sepulveda blvd during production of DS9 he had the trek sideburns he looked over i gave him a big thumbs up

[@WLDB]

ha. Im going through DS9 again and I just noticed he gets tortured a lot.

[@Siaynoq8]

Man, O'Brien kicked ass. His character was one of the most human in the show. He's also my favorite engineer in Star Trek.

[@Jalfmar3]

. . . which is why when he said he was going back to Earth to teach at the Academy at the end of DS9, I bet most of us felt a sense of relief as opposed to most of the other characters where we would have screamed "don't do it!"

[@evertonporter7887]

He had at least 20 years service at Starfleet and literally been through the wars. He earned that professorship.

[@punchkitten874]

you think training scrub cadets is safe???

[@ghenulo]

O'Brien was awesome, and usually saved the day.

[@Sraye]

Chief deserves a promotion.

[@288theabe]

Yep....to MASTER Chief.

[@wierdalien1]

he already is

[@jerodast]

One time he quoted his full rank as Senior Chief Petty Officer. I was always mad he didn't get Master Chief too; guy ran a damn space station AND starship.

[@novoeduardoac1248]

Sraye agree, to Master Chief Petty Officer.

[@novoeduardoac1248]

jerodast It's funny isn't it? During TNG I always thought of him a Transport Technician, and nothing more. I raised an eyebrow when he became DS9 chief-engineer. Then I saw how underemployed he was in TNG. He grows up in DS9 as a character. And that's what I like about DS9, ALL characters grow up, from Ben Sisko to Nog.

[@VenomStryker]

O'Brien never had it as bad as Harry Kim did on Voyager. I swear that guy died like 5 times.....lol.

[@maybetoby]

Harry did have an awful lot of stuff happen to him. Him and Miles both suffered a lot.

[@UncleJackOnline]

yeah but we liked O'Brien, no one liked Kim, I even cheered when he died...then his alt timeline replaced him.....noooooo

[@shuboy05]

O'Brien actually died once if I recall. But that's still not as bad as Harry.

[@vardellsfolly5200]

0:44 ''..i love being treated like shit..''!!!!!

[@CoolsBreeze]

After O'brien went back to Earth he became the leader of the Geni.

[@Muldfeld]

Thanks for uploading this. There's so very little of him on the DVD sets.

[@AvoozlPlays]

His real voice is the same as it is on show? That's surprising.

[@Maazzzo]

He had read the pilot with an American accent but they asked him to keep his real accent.

[@EnkiduPDX]

"You know, again, I hadn't thought of that..." I think every trek actor utters these words when being asked questions at a convention.

[@lizardlegend42]

Over the course of the series O'Brien: Served in the Federation/Cardassian border wars (before the shows) and the dominion war, saw a lot of crewmates die in both. Had the memories of spending 25 years in near solitary confinement implanted into him, in which he was driven to eventually kill his cellmate/best friend. This drove him to attempt suicide Was trapped on a run down space station with a homicidal Garek Was almost sentanced to death on Cardassia for a crime he didn't commit. Caused the death of a man he grew to know and who trusted him while undercover in New Sydney, and later not being able to save that man's wife from a similar fate. Started lurching forward through time and eventually die of radiation poisoning, being replaced by himself from the immediate future. Was kidnapped and replaced by a clone with his memories who didn't know he was a clone. Had to help an evil alien spirit thing that had possessed his wife kill the prophets that some of his friends worship. Had his unborn child almost die and be transplanted from his wife to his coworker Had his kid fall through a time portal and accidentally pull her out 10 years too late, resulting in her growing up alone in the wild. That's a very long list and I probably missed some.

[@michaelmurphy5916]

I thought the episode where Chief O'Brian was falsely arrested for espionage and had 20 years of memories put in his mind about being incarcerated was a brilliant episode. Cole's acting in that one was great.

[@BoleDaPole]

Everytime Kieko was with him could be considered torture imo.

[@situbusit5116]

haha yeah she always looked like a bitch pretending to be a good wife i thought

[@Djarra]

The writers used to have a 'Make Miles Suffer' episode every year as a bit of fun.

[@edsnow1526]

Because Keiko is such a loving, supportive wife . . .

[@r0ckbass]

LOL man, she is so damn awful. re-watching DS9, i can't believe just how shitty she treated him in that.

[@wierdalien1]

part of the torture

[@RavenheartIndustries]

*after two years of cardassian torture* Gul: we are going to send you home to your wife. O’Brian: What kind of bloody monsters are you?!?

[@sarahkinsey5434]

Ugh Keiko was such a bad character. For me, I could never see O'Brien as the married type, he was always taking risks.

[@NeoRazor]

If I had a dollar for every pixel in this video, I'd have 75 cents.

[@neddersass8439]

I liked the O'Brian episodes and I liked him. Great character.

[@DIEGhostfish]

2:12 He has a good point, the only ones with family on show were the Siskos, Quark;s family, and the O'Briens. And it's hard for anyone to get pathos out of torturing Quark since it's usually seen as Cosmic Justice. The Siskos naturally see a lot of peril, but Ben Sisko IS the guy in charge so he's not as front line as Miles ones.

[@PlayNiceFolks]

And O'Brien is the only one with a solid family unit. Married and raising a child together. Going to his point, his character can pull on so many heart strings for so many people.

[@jsonitsac]

I think the fact that O'Brien was also an NCO and a combat veteran also contributed to the fact that he got the rougher jobs. He's a man who's worked the ranks in starfleet from the very bottom up, so he'd be used to those sorts of things.

[@Dilandau3000]

I think there are two reasons that O'Brien got the short end of the stick so often: 1. He was the most down-to-earth, most "regular guy" character on the show. The audience could relate to him, so they would respond more if you put him in danger than some other characters. 2. Colm Meaney is such as awesome actor that they knew he could pull it off. But almost every show had a character that took all the punches: LaForge, O'Brien, Kim, and Mayweather. Can't think of one for TOS though.

[@TigerGoblin]

TOS had the redshirts dying instead

[@tessierpower]

2021👍💪🏻🇨🇦 love this guy

[@jasonfenton8250]

"Coffins for Cardies" O'Brien

[@rosePetrichor]

I believe that the official DS9 guide/companion book even highlighted certain episodes as 'O'Brien Must Suffer' episodes because of how often he was mistreated

[@b0BSh4nk3r]

damn i absolutely loved O'Brien in DS9 and I was also pretty hype about his character in TNG. I actually got bummed out when I noticed he disappeared from TNG in the last seasons lol

[@therocinante3443]

Wow, in 2007, he still looked like the chief.

[@PlayNiceFolks]

Come on mate. You mean he still looks young then. I saw him interviewed semi recently. He still looks like our chief O'Brien. Only a bit older.

[@xyz3458]

Great actor!!

[@Sonicgott]

One thing that really confused me with Colm's character was that in the first seasons of Star Trek TNG, he wore the rank of Lieutenant, and was even addressed as such, but later on, he was always referred to as "Chief," and eventually wore the rank insignia of Senior Chief Petty Officer... so... suddenly... demotion? What?

[@punchkitten874]

It was never explained. He was a lieutenant for two episodes in season two, otherwise he's had enlisted insignia. Continuity glitch

[@takerdust]

Off top of my head I can think of O'brien's ordeals, and I don't remember much about TNG. First is Cardassia/Fed War at Setlick 3, alien invader in his body on Enterprise, trial on Cardassia, infected by the Harvesters, his decades-long mental prison sentence, kidnapped and duplicate made of him, being shot by the Trill Verad, beaten up several times by Jem Hadar, shifting through time, his wife taken over by a Pah Wraith, his daughter aging 10+ years in mere seconds. Whew, probably more too

[@rkmugen]

How about that one episode, where they were playing through that holographic novel in the casino? That one guy tells his lackeys (who has O'Brien in custody): "Strip-search." And then, at the end of the episode, Bashir asks him what happened, and O'Brien's all like, "I don't want to talk about it!"

[@MrFiddleedee]

They called them "Make Obrien Suffer Episodes". Was a running joke during the entire production. Lol, wtf

[@geekymarianne]

@Dilandau3000, there wasn't just one for TOS, there was anyone wearing the dreaded red shirt of doom :D

[@Maphisto86]

@Dilandau3000 Probably Chekov for the original crew. Definitely in the movies (burned hand, mind controlling parasite in the ear, big fall, getting lost in a national park, etc).

[@douro20]

His birth name is Colm Ó Maonaigh

[@stevebainbridge7135]

"I survived it all" Except he didn't, O'brien died in 1 episode and all subsequent O'briens are from a different time line.

[@Smiley8569]

Haha "yes I love being treated like shit"

[@Frazzledotd]

I remember one of the executives saying it in a book noting how much crap they put O'Brien through. The basic reasoning for it was that 'eh, if it ain't broke' However, some of the plots took the suspension of disbelief a bit too far. Prophet? Ex resistance fighter of an interplanetary war? Lost shapeshifter far from home amongst wary strangers, seperated from his xenophobic race? Pales in comparison to O'Brien serving 'life' mentally in a fake prison and his wife being possesed by a bad alien

[@albertschoise8091]

You know. I know Hard time is considered great. But since were on a video discussing O’Briens suffering... that episode just came out of ducking no where! Like I get that it probably shouldn’t have been a 4 episode thing and DS9 often had plots come out of no where (problem with literally every ST show except TOS) but I mean... 20 years? Espionage? Where the hell did that come from? Don’t get me wrong I LOVE the episode (besides him getting a free pass on kill Ee’Cha. He suffered a lot from it yeah but still, it was murder) but it just... just wow

[@cosasverdes]

Two of my top three moments in DS9: I tore my pants! So you wish Kako was a man? ------------- The other one is nog finally leaving vic's holo world talking about being scared to go back to society post leg removal.

[@pazios2002]

@StephenColbertRulz I love that scene in the series family guy when krik is picking his away team and the last guy (in a red shirt ofcourse) says "oh crap" LOL

[@Sonicgott]

@mbenzsl2000 They were never clear on his rank, actually, and even in Star Trek TNG in early episodes, he was referred to as Lieutenant. I think it was a mistake.

[@Muldfeld]

Oh, no. I didn't mean that O'Brien was a bad character; he's fantastic. I meant that Harry Kim was a bad character.

[@wijcik]

@Mrblancnoir Yep. You always knew it was serious when Chekov screamed.

[@Dpixtion]

Colm was greatly under used in StarGate Atlantis...

[@TheDoran144]

2 people are victims of torture!!!

[@Dilandau3000]

True, that's why I said there was not one specific character. :)

[@Mrblancnoir]

@Dilandau3000 Pavel Chekov my good sir. He was the original beat up guy.

[@Foxstab]

Colm rules!

[@SuperAp0calypse]

Chekov did get a fair bit of bad stuff happen to him, especially in Wrath of Khan. Would not want one of *those* things in me thank you very much!

[@OpenMawProductions]

In both Day of the Dove and Mirror, Mirror he's on the receiving end of torture devices. In a season 3 episode he's the one to get killed by the Earp gang. In TMP he nearly get's his arm burned off by residual electrical energy from V'gers weapon. Dude got it bad.

[@ZukosHotLikeLightnin]

The one who disliked this is OBVS Cardassian

[@jonathanbush6197]

IMO they went way too far with this, especially the episode where he spends many virtual years in prison to the point where he was a virtual old man whose spitit was crushed. That wasn't just PTSD. That was dead man walking. Then he manages to snap out of it in the course of one episode? Very unrealistic.

[@Bonzai34]

@Dilandau3000 Kirk? :-p

[@Novous]

"I'm getting in a shuttle. Welp, better get ready to be raped."--TNG

[@SmoggyZilla]

@Dilandau3000 Red shirts collectively for TOS

[@EyeOnTheTV]

during enterprise i would count each time archer would get punched in the face

[@toddsmitts]

Colm was supposed to be a regular on the new series "Life on Mars", but after the pilot, they replaced him with Harvey Keitel. Too bad.

[@ericbgordon1575]

Rodney Dangerfield, huh?

[@ryang2573]

Remember that episode of TNG called "Up the Long Ladder". Man, I'm pretty politically incorrect, but looking back that episode was really awful towards the Irish. I imagine it'd be like an American actor on an Irish sci-fi television show dressed up like a cowboy and talking with a super thick Texan accent who frequently made "Yee haw" exclamations.

[@Banjo_Oz]

He hadn't THOUGHT about that?! He got tortured/beaten/shot/mind-wiped every fifth episode or something!

[@tallguy1618]

@Dilandau3000 red shirts

[@DEP717]

For some reason they were often a meany to Meany

[@Tranchera]

They just like making O'Brien say "MOIDER".

[@simpsonsim07]

Anyone wearing a red shirt maybe?

[@j1noble]

Red Shirts. The Red shirts took all the punches for TOS.

[@dragonknightleader1]

Well, Scotty's been killed a couple of times. Sure he gets revived, but he has to be dead before he can be revived.

[@EcLipsE1982Fat]

I guess some people are just made to suffer. But it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

[@Dubspez]

O’Brien is like the red shirt that continues to live. I guess he should be thankful Starfleet decided to switch operations and command colors in his era lol

[@noblescott]

Ah, indeed, I shall use this rejoinder when caught in a similar situation. "nonetheless"...

[@ScuddyGuitarsThings]

Harry Kim had it a lot worse. Killed or wounded in every episode, I think.

[@Tautolonaut]

he's irish! of course the empire- uh, I mean federation- treated him like shit.

[@kakashi76767]

@TheSonicGod its just a show, maybe you should just relax!

[@Foxstab]

He should've become as great as Scotty, sadly, the writers didn't have respect.

[@randomsamno9]

@Dilandau3000 What about spock he had to be stoic all the time to all of McCoys xenophobic slurs.

[@skids1998]

The girl who asked that question definately sounded like she'd be of a mind to "love you long time". Irishmen and asian girls...weird

[@caseyakasubzero]

Poor e char didn't deserve it obrien

[@Goettel]

Must. Suffer.

[@billsomrak]

Best character actor in Star Trek ... any iteration. He really got to shine on DS9, with episodes like "Hard Time". Besides that, he's a great guy, and not a pompous ass like most of the rest of the cast of TNG/DS9, who actually think that we CARE about their political points of view.

[@The8thDOCTOR]

first Irish man wearing hair extensions. f

[@foghornleghorn2823]

ObMS

[@thetshirtblog]

That girl sounds hot

[@spikeep6141]

It's because he's the only enlisted man on Star Trek - he's not an officer. He's Working Class - he even has to call Reg Barclay "Sir"... Wesley Crusher outranks him - *Nog* outranks him..!! Although Kassidy Yates slips up at one point in Season 7 and lets the cat out of the bag when she mentions "One of us must have missed our injections last month" - being an officer in Starfleet apparently precludes you from having both a wife AND a family, since they apparently all receive compulsory fertility suppressant Eugenics jabs once a month to prevent the Officer Class from conceiving children during any tour of duty - and when Picard discovers that Data has procreated, he is *really* angry!

[@KGBBooks]

O’Brien must suffer

[@cromicus]

questioner was the female comic book store guy

[@Muldfeld]

Yeah, but he deserved it. Awful awful character.

[@komodosp]

That girl sounds hot...