The Star Trek comics try to retcon Miles O'Brien into a war criminal

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine remains one of the most iconic, and well-written stories in all of Star Trek. Against any series or film, Deep Space Nine is always mentioned as one of the best pieces of Star Trek in the history of the franchise. It was sincere and earnest and it dove deep into issues that people wanted. It was an incredible piece of work.

We can't always say the same thing for what's come recently, however. Fans are becoming fed up with Star Trek as it moves further and further away from the moral stage play it was always intended to be. It's been hacked up, dissected, and rearranged to look like every other popular thing. It no longer feels like its own thing anymore. It feels like cheap rip-offs of Guardians of the Galaxy or Rick & Morty. It no longer has its sense of self.

So it's not surprising that the comics are following suit. In the 17th issue of the ongoing Star Trek: Defiant, written by Christopher Cantwell, Miles O'Brien, famed hero of the Dominion War, was accused by one of his students at the Starfleet Academy of being a war criminal. She cites his use of the self-replicating mines that held the Dominion at bay as an example of such atrocities.

Apparently, in the comics, Section 31 is using the mines to starve out Dominion planets in the Gamma Quadrant. The cadet in question invokes Robert Oppenheimer and his creation of the nuclear bomb while lambasting her professor (O'Brien). Later in the comic, O'Brien is admonished for using a disrespectful term for Cardassians, you know, the space Nazis that committed scores of actual war crimes.

The comic issue is trying to bring O'Brien into a situation involving Worf and the Defiant, while also trying to chip away at his usually stern bravado. The whole point of the scene was to die into more current events while trying to rattle O'Brien at his core, but it just came off as weak and pathetic.

To have a noble and proud character be torn down by a student, who has never sniffed combat, let alone had to fight in a war is such a gross and underhanded concept. Then to have O'Brien angrily walk out of his own classroom, as if to signify the cadet was right or even had a point, was laughable.

It's such a disappointing thing to see play out. While there may be some real drama to explore, the execution, and O'Briens later admission to seeing the cadet's point, only hurts the perception of a once great character. Why these new writers want to tear down all the things that came before them will never cease to confuse me.

Just leave the foundation of your career alone, lest you soon find out how hard it is to write Star Trek stories without any Star Trek fans.