Chief Miles O’Brien is one of the most important characters in Star Trek. Don’t laugh, it’s totally true! Colm Meaney made his first appearance as O’Brien in the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he had an increasingly larger role on that show until he was promoted to a full time cast member of the spinoff series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Think about that for a moment. Meaney continuously appeared as the same character on TV from 1987 to 1999, which is an unparalleled run in Star Trek history! O’Brien transitioned from a minor character into one of Trek’s most beloved supporting characters who had a life and a family outside of his Starfleet duties.

But it wasn’t always that way. For the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, O’Brien wasn’t even mentioned by name! He was basically a glorified extra whose sole purpose in life was to transport crew members from one location to another. Cartoonist Jon Adams used that as his inspiration for his popular webcomic, Chief O’Brien At Work, which finds O’Brien stuck in a dead end job as he misses out on the adventure of a lifetime on a daily basis.

Adams is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to bring Chief O’Brien At Work to print as a 128 softcover book that features remastered comic strips and brand new Chief O’Brien At Work comics that actually take O’Brien outside of the transporter room!

The Chief O’Brien At Work Kickstarter has already far surpassed its $15,000 funding goal and at press time, it has raised over $42,000! The rewards include digital and physical copies of the Chief O’Brien At Work book, with options for T-Shirts, prints, and even an opportunity to guest star in one of the new strips!

Adams’ Kickstarter campaign is running through Wednesday, September 23 at 9:15am, and you can find out more about it by visiting the campaign page here.

Star Trek fans, are you enjoying Adams’ take on Chief O’Brien? Beam your thoughts down to our comment section below!