10 Episodes That Should Have Changed Star Trek Forever - But Didn't

6. "Bar Association" (DS9)

This one is interesting, because the story element in question is really just a throw-away gag when it comes to the episode as a whole. When Rom and the rest of staff at Quark's Bar goes on strike, Quark briefly tries to replace his employees with the aid of a "holographic waiter program" he purchases from Lissepian. This works, for a while, but it turns out the technology's imaging system is affected by certain energy sources, which forces Quark to find other means of ending the strike. It makes for an amusing gag (especially when one of the waiters dematerializes and drops a tray of glasses in front of Odo,) but it gives rise to a few questions. Holograms need holographic projectors, and before (and after) this episode, those have been shown to be exclusively found in Deep Space Nine's holosuites. So, just how is this program running? Even if the technology had a few bugs, holograms able to operate independently of the holodeck would have sure been useful on Star Trek: Voyager, where The Doctor spent three seasons confined to sickbay because the rest of the ship lacked holographic generators.