If you ask the common fan on the street to name the most important Star Trek character, they’ll probably say Picard or Kirk. Us Lower Deckers would like to offer a different answer. Chief O’Brien is the original Lower Decker, moving from an enlisted crewman all the way to professor of engineering at Starfleet Academy. We experienced his full life in Starfleet — his marriage and relationship with Keiko, being a dad and moving up in rank and location, the dynamic between enlisted crew and officers through his friendships with Bashir and Sisko, and the trauma he experienced being a veteran of the Federation-Cardassian War. One could argue Miles O’Brien is the most fully realized character in Star Trek, and we ask, no, demand he be given a statue.