Star Trek's Colm Meaney Reveals His Condition for Returning in Picard

It would take a pretty convincing reason plot hook to get the Enterprise's former transporter chief back into the Star Trek Universe. Colm Meaney played Chief Miles O'Brien as a recurring guest star in Star Trek: The Next Generation before moving over to the spinoff series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a series regular. The first season of Star Trek: Picard brought back some familiar faces from that era. Besides Patrick Stewart in the titular role, the first season also included Next Generation's Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Del Arco, and Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan. Given O'Brien's history serving under Picard, might he appear in an upcoming episode of the streaming series? Meaney isn't especially eager to reprise the role.

"No, I've always kind of felt like seven years in space was long enough," Meaney tells CBR. "I had a great time doing it. And sometimes, you're always a bit loathe to go back, especially with something that you enjoyed and was successful because going back, sometimes things end up being ruined. But, you never say never. I know there's a lot of intrigue and that Patrick is doing his new series now, and so, who knows? But it's not something that's ever been sort of in the forefront of my mind to go back and reprise O'Brien."

In another interview, Meaney confirmed that no one had approached him about reprising his role as O'Brien. He also explained what it would take to get him to agree to a return.

"There's no talking that I'm aware of, no," he told Looper. "If there's a good and valid reason for him to pop up, and it makes dramatic sense and all that, yeah… If there was an opportunity for O'Brien to show up, sure. I'd be happy. I'm very fond of Patrick. It would be lovely to see him, lovely to work with him again. But no, there's no talking [about it] that I'm aware of."

Thanks to his seven seasons on Deep Space Nine and his guest roles on The Next Generation, Meaney's number of Star Trek credits is second only to Michael Dorn as Worf, his co-star on both shows. An episode of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks named Miles O'Brien the most important Starfleet officer in Federation history.

Star Trek: Picard is currently filming its second season. Its first season is streaming now on Paramount+.