Star Trek: Lower Decks features a surprisingly prestigious tribute to a much beloved franchise stalwart — Chief Miles O'Brien. In the show's third episode "Temporal Edict," the crew of the USS Cerritos indulge in what they call "buffer time," namely padding their time estimates for all projects so they can work at a leisurely pace. When Captain Freeman discovers the ploy, she cracks down hard — maybe a little too hard — on the crew.
After narrowly averting a crisis, Freeman reinstates "buffer time," making the practice of "padding" time estimates an official Starfleet rule called the Boimler Effect. The anxious, career-minded Boimler is worried a rule about breaking rules will reflect poorly on him, but his friends assure him there are so many Starfleet rules that it will eventually be forgotten.
The episode's final scene cuts to a classroom in the far future, as they study the Boimler Effect, complete with an image of the young ensign (who's being attacked by "one of the great birds of the galaxy" — a reference to franchise creator Gene Roddenberry's nickname). After completing the Boimler Effect lesson, the teacher moves on to the most important officer in Starfleet history: Chief Miles O'Brien.
It's a cute joke for longtime Star Trek fans, who grew to love O'Brien in his years as a minor character on the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan revealed to StarTrek.com what made the chief so special to him: to McMahan, O'Brien is the original "lower decks" Star Trek character. Always genial, he was the Enterprise's top transporter chief, and usually had some amiable anecdote to offer when Picard and friends were around. O'Brien became a stronger presence in TNG's fourth season, when Wil Wheaton left his role as Wesley Crusher and created the opportunity for a new character to fill the void. O'Brien married his wife, Keiko, and became a more integral part of Captain Picard's crew.
By TNG's sixth season, it was decided O'Brien deserved to be a mainline character, and he was transferred to the titular derelict Cardassian space station in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. DS9 is where Miles would shine, with some of the most interesting character arcs — and perhaps Star Trek's most celebrated bromance, his friendship with the ship's medical officer, Dr. Julian Bashir. O'Brien helped win the Dominion War, had two kids, and in general, just seemed like a guy one would want to have a beer with.
In Many ways, O'Brien's early days on the Enterprise could be seen as a template for the concept of Lower Decks — a lower-ranked background character who eventually wins over the hearts of fans and becomes a Star Trek legend. Boimler and Mariner should be so lucky.