Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Miles O'Brien
8. Can't Keep A Good Man Down
Colm Meaney was, by his own admission, merely a day-player for his first few appearances in The Next Generation. However, when the jump to Deep Space Nine came around, Meaney's career had begun to soar. Committing to an ongoing series, this time as a main character no less, took some persuading.
He spoke to Rick Berman who, along with Michael Piller, had created Deep Space Nine about his fears. Berman, Meaney explained, effectively promised him that if there was a script that he wanted to do - by which he meant a movie - that they would make that work.
A tangible effect of this arrangement occurred in season four. The episodes The Visitor and Hippocratic Oath actually swapped directors due to Meaney's availability. Initially, René Auberjonois was due to direct The Visitor with David Livingston set to direct Hippocratic Oath. Meaney's schedule meant that the shooting schedule had to be flipped around, thus leading to Livingston directing The Visitor. This also meant that several scenes with O'Brien in the future had to be scrapped from the episode, meaning that we the audience missed our chance to see O'Brien in old-age make up!