Colm Meaney, the actor who played Chief Miles O’Brien in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, called out a problematic blind spot in Star Trek‘s commitment to breaking down cultural stereotypes. Born in Finglas in Ireland, Colm Meaney became a household name thanks to his Star Trek character. In 2020, 33 years after his Star Trek: The Next Generation debut, Colm Meaney was voted as one of Ireland’s greatest film actors, and that Irish heritage became a key part of Chief O’Brien’s character. DS9‘s Chief Engineer even traced his ancestry back to Brian Boru, High King of Ireland in the early 11th century.
Colm Meaney is also fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, and has a history of political activism (via The Irish Times). However, Meaney originally wanted to play O’Brien as an American in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was convinced to play the character with his own accent by Rick Berman. This was because of Star Trek‘s commitment to depicting a multicultural future. It’s a laudable commitment that continues to define the franchise to this day, but sometimes mistakes are made. One such mistake was made in the first draft of a subplot for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Chief O’Brien, forcing Colm Meaney to call out the use of a harmful stereotype.
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Why DS9’s Colm Meaney Changed A Problematic Star Trek Script
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 1, episode 16, “If Wishes Were Horses”, the crew of the titular space station’s imaginations come to life. For O’Brien, the fairy tale character Rumpelstiltskin is the figment that taunts him throughout the episode, tapping into his parental anxieties. The inclusion of Rumpelstiltskin in DS9 was in response to Colm Meaney’s objections to the first draft of the script, which featured a leprechaun from Irish folklore. Meaney called Rick Berman to voice his objections, stating that every Irish actor had worked hard to overcome such stereotypical representations of Ireland.
Colm Meaney rightly identified that this sort of lazy cultural stereotype was not in keeping with the ideals of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. He refused to do the episode if the leprechaun was kept in “If Wishes Were Horses,” forcing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s executive producer Michael Piller to rethink the script. The decision was made to replace the leprechaun with Rumpelstiltskin, another figure from folklore that had a history of stealing children. However, this isn’t the only time the franchise has perpetuated harmful cultural stereotypes, as seen in a notorious Star Trek: The Next Generation episode from earlier in Colm Meaney’s career.
Star Trek Has A Blind Spot When It Comes To UK Stereotypes
Colm Meaney’s decision to speak up about the leprechaun was likely influenced by his hatred of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Up the Ladder.” The controversial episode featured a planet that was effectively populated by two-dimensional, stereotypical Irish immigrants. The scene in which O’Brien shows discomfort at meeting the ramshackle family of boozy Irish farm folk likely didn’t require much acting from Colm Meaney. However, it’s not just harmful Irish stereotypes that Star Trek’s prejudice-free future overlooks. Star Trek also has a blind spot when it comes to the cultural stereotypes of Scottish people, too.
The character of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) in Star Trek: The Original Series tapped into various harmful Scottish stereotypes. As brilliant a character as Scotty is, the stereotypical representation of a hard-drinking Glasgow shipyard worker is hard to ignore. Now that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a Scottish actor playing Scotty (Martin Quinn), hopefully the character will be fleshed out beyond TOS‘ two-dimensional portrayal of Scottishness, fixing Star Trek‘s Scotty problem. SNW‘s writers could do worse than look at how Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Chief O’Brien represented Irish identity without resorting to lazy cultural stereotypes.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
