10 One-Off Star Trek Characters Who Never Left
1. Miles O'Brien
Colm Meaney was originally a day player, appearing for an afternoon's work on the pilot of a new SciFi show on the Paramount lot. Although it had the same name as it, it didn't look very much like the show that starred William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley. But a job is a job, and in he went.
It's safe to say that it was a fairly good decision on Meaney's part, to turn up to work that day. The producers, while not creating a backstory for him originally, liked him enough that he was invited back. He appeared in the second season, where he received a first name - Miles. For the rest of the second, third, fourth, and fifth seasons, Miles O'Brien would periodically appear in the show.
Once Deep Space Nine was created, Michael Pillar and Rick Berman chose to move the character over to the station. At this point, O'Brien began down the path that would lead him, one day, to becoming the most important man in the galaxy. There was no problem too big, no obstacle too stubborn, to slow this man down.
That is, except for some white water rapids, a kayak, and a dodgy shoulder.