Anyway I checked S2′s ‘Armageddon Game’ as that and ‘Rivals’ were my back-to-back ur-texts for O’Brien hating Bashir, and after the sir business in ‘The Storyteller’ I was wondering just what O’Brien was calling him then. Turns out he was alternating between Doctor and Julian, sliding into only Julian by the end, and nary a one of the sir’s that began and concluded ‘The Storyteller’. Meanwhile, Julian was still only, and frequently, calling him Chief.
Incidentally, I didn’t start regularly referring to him as Miles until S4, and my suspicion is that I started when Julian did. A point of interest: Julian was still calling him Chief even when drunk and emosh on his sofa in late S3′s ‘Explorers’.
Alright I’m too intrigued by this now, c’mon let’s keep going:
First episode of S4, our guys are hanging out in Quark’s bar catching sandpeas in their mouths. Dialogue, representative of many things about their relationship:
“Aw Chief, I’m beginning to think there’s no limit to the wonders you can perform.”
“That’s what I like about you, Julian — you’re easily impressed.”My notes: “honestly how did O’Brien & Julian gradually become….This”
So they are clearly “This” by now, but he’s still O’Brien for me, as Julian isn’t calling him Miles and I APPARENTLY take my cues from him. Perhaps why I’ve always used Julian far more than Bashir, since he introduces himself that way.
Ok now ‘Hippocratic Oath’ a few episodes later, which holy moly how much was that one my thing! But yes this is the one where, since I’d skipped ‘The Storyteller’, I first heard Miles call Julian sir. And of course I did here, since this episode goes from them exaggerating their difference in rank as cover, to Julian actually pulling rank a bit later, and aaaalll manner of a specific sort of NCO/CO relationship that I fully lost my cool over. Julian only ever calls him Chief throughout. Miles: Julian, and sir.
Going into this, I had this singular emotional memory of Julian protesting “But that’s Miles” when Garak advised he shoot the hologram of Falcon in ‘Our Man Bashir’. If you’d asked my heart, that was the first time I’d heard Julian call O’Brien by his first name. Turns out that might have been right???
Anyway in the immediate next episode they are LARPing as WWII pilots and calling each other mate, but then in ‘Bar Association’ and ‘Accession’ — two of my very favorite episodes of this series honestly — Miles is back to Chief! That’s even with the entire plot of them moping around pining thinking they can’t hang out anymore since Keiko’s back, until eventually she’s like “I’m surrounded by idiots, YOU HAVE MY BLESSING, go, please.”
Even ‘Hard Time’ is mostly Chief’s, though Julian refers to him as Miles when he’s talking with Keiko, and uses one Miles and one full Miles Edward O’Brien during the two scenes where he’s trying to talk him down. In related news, I’ve been watching nothing but isolated O’Brien & Bashir scenes for the last however long, and with that priming, my god is ‘Hard Time’ a dark adventure for those two! WOW, Deep Space Nine.
Moving into S5, it’s become this thing where Chief has begun to feel almost like a nickname, the way Julian uses it. He’s breaking into the occasional Miles more often though, maybe at a 2:1 ratio. And so far in S6, Julian’s ratio has actually crept up to an almost even Chief/Miles split. Which, given the history, is quite a lot of first name action, and probably why it feels like Miles Miles Miles.
And that is where we are so far. Name nerd out.
Wait hold on I forget to analyze MY OWN BEHAVIOR.
Ok so just in my watch notes, here’s the breakdown over time:
Well that sure tells a story.