Miles O’Brien should totally be used in a Starfleet Academy show

If Alex Kurtzman and the folks at CBS have a clue, they’d know that a Starfleet Academy series featuring Miles O’Brien is a perfect idea.

Why hasn’t there ever been a Star Trek series about Starfleet Academy? That’s the question that has baffled people for years. It seemed possible in the mid-90s with the release of the Starfleet Academy action figure line, which saw Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Worf, and Geordi La Forge as cadets all in action figure form. The foursome was super popular and the idea of a series that featured the cadets of Starfleet as main characters has always been something of a unique idea. So why not actually pulling the trigger on the idea, only with Miles O’Brien as the academy’s leading teacher?

The series wouldn’t be about a young Picard and crew, though you could easily incorporate holodeck stories of past crew members, played by younger actors. You could bring to life some really unique and iconic scenes through this method of storytelling, all set against the backdrop of the new cast of characters learning from the old.

The incorporation of O’Brien could also see characters like his daughter Molly O’Brien or the daughter of Ensign Samantha Wildman, Naomi, join Starfleet as new recruits. The series could follow them and an ensemble cast of five or six others as they navigate trying to graduate from Starfleet. Studying, romances, missions, success, and failures, all with the hope and goal of one day helming your own ship.

It’d make for great television. 

Star Trek is going full-on into the idea of unique storytelling viewpoints, but instead of more of the same of what we’ve been getting, try it from a completely different perspective. Sure, you have old man Picard, but he’s got a crew, a ship, and a detailed plot outline involving Data, the Borg, and Romulans. It’s Next Generation season eight with new characters.

At least with the Academy series, you could focus primarily on student life in the 24th (25th century?) century.