Star Trek lacks one story arc from its compendium of stories

Star Trek has had many great stories that cover the emotional spectrum. Episodes that covered fear, hurt, pain, post-traumatic stress, and more have been hallmarks of Star Trek for decades. They've had bitter feuds like that between Khan Noonien Singh and James Kirk, epic friendships like between Jean-Luc Picard and Will Riker, and even great teacher-student dynamics like with Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine.

What they haven't had, not truly, is an epic romance. Yes, we've had good romances before. Cassidy and Benjamin Sisko, Tom Paris and B'Elanna, and of course Riker and Deanna Troi. Yet, a truly epic love story? We haven't had that yet.

We've had some truly awful ones. Really anything involving Kes and Neelix comes to mind. Of course, we have The Doctor, Julian Bashir, and Harry Kim's constant swings and misses. We even have whatever that was between Beverly Crusher and that ghost.

Just nothing epic. But we only had one once.

Deep Space Nine had arguably the best romance on the show, but it never truly turned into a romance. It was more unrequited romantic love and it was between Odo and Kira Nerys. Odo was in love with the major for years, serving alongside her every chance he could. He even confessed his emotions to her.

While the two eventually give it a go, it feels like right after they finally fall on the same page, Odo returns to the Great Link in the Gamma Quadrant. So even though we finally got what we wanted, it was eventually taken from us and all too quickly.

Star Trek has done quite a lot with romance. While it's never been the centerpiece of its franchise, it has embraced the concept far more times than you'd realize. Yet, in all of the times that it tackled the idea of romantic love, it always falls short somehow. Either it's too far in the background to matter or the characters are kept too far apart for far too long for it to work.

When the best relationship from start to finish is the B, if not C-tier relationship between Miles O'Brien and his wife Keiko, then we know that Star Trek needs to do better with this concept.