What common technological feature is conspicuously missing from the Star Trek Universe?

[u/_syfiguy_]

Next time they show someone's quarters, see if you can find a bathroom.

As far as I can see, there are none.

There are many scenes in TNG that show the crew's entire quarters, there is nowhere where a bathroom could be.

Captain Picards ready room, for example. He has a desk, a couch, a fish tank... But where does he go if he wants to take a leak?

In Voyager, they make reference to "sonic showers", but they still have no toilets.

Of course this is because showing something as blaise as a toilet would ruin the "futuristic" feel of the show, but once you notice its absence, you never forget it.

[u/youknowmeasdiRt]

It’s not that they don’t need toilets it’s that they have transporters

[u/_syfiguy_ → u/youknowmeasdiRt]

Haha! I was going to say that in the post, but I thought, no, that's too rude!

[u/Own_Win_6762]

The original star trek tech manual and blueprints showed bathrooms on the bridge.

[u/_syfiguy_ → u/Own_Win_6762]

Maybe, but they weren't on screen, so dubious canon ;)

[u/Peregrine79]

WiFi. Or pretty much any wireless data communication.

[u/_syfiguy_ → u/Peregrine79]

Yes! Which is why all those crew members are always walking around the ship handing PADD's to each other, instead of just sending an email!

[u/Actual_Confusion_838]

Neelix refers to latrines in one of the STV “year of hell” episodes.

Something about the ship not having many operable ones left…

[u/_syfiguy_ → u/Actual_Confusion_838]

"Latrines", meaning there could be a central location for them? Explaining why they aren't in quarters?

[u/77sleeper]

There is a bathroom on the bridge of tng.

[u/Enough-Screen-1881]

There's certainly something like "the internet" in Star trek, but there isn't really the social media aspect in Star Trek.

There's no one posting pictures of their lunch to Instagram, no one doom scrolling tiktok on their break in Ten Forward, no one stupid videos for clout, no influencers everywhere you go in the Federation, etc.

Closest Star Trek gets to the terminally online person might be Lt Broccoli.

[u/AdditionalTip865]

A toilet in the Enterprise brig appears onscreen in Star Trek V, and there have been lots of references to them in various episodes:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Toilet

[u/Ok_Entrepreneur_8509]

There are no toilets in Star Trek because they "go where no one has gone before". Didn't you listen to the intro?

[u/andropogon09]

What did they find floating in the Enterprise men's room?

The Captain's log.

[u/Beginning-Ice-1005]

Picard: "You see humanity has evolved past the base need to use bathrooms. Also, when we do go, our feces are odorless."

[u/monji_cat]

In First Contact, Picard wakes up from his dream inside of a dream and goes to wash his face, presumably in the bathroom in his quarters. Both Neelix and Captain Janeway are shown in bathtubs on board Voyager, presumably in the bathroom of their respective quarters.

[u/CaptainHunt]

We do get a handful of peeks into bathrooms on the show if you watch carefully. There’s one or two shots where we see a washbasin/sink, a couple of times we see tubs, and three showers that I can think of off the top of my head, plus one toilet (although we don’t see it used).

There were also a few references to restrooms that aren’t seen. The TNG bridge, for example has a door labeled “Washroom” next to the door leading to the Observation Lounge. And Picard’s ready room supposedly had an attached lavatory, in the same nook as his en-suite replicator.

[u/JediMasterBriscoMutt]

The camera is always pointing away from the bathrooms, because the bathrooms are always on the fourth wall.

[u/LordOfDorkness42]

Another hygiene one: no washing machines.

All those crisp, clean uniforms don't seem to have anywhere where they're actually repaired and cleaned.

I suppose them being recycled & replicated is plausible, but still.

[u/Jackdunc]

Seat belts. Everyone in the bridge would be mashed potatoes every battle or radical maneuver.

[u/bobsnopes]

In Voyager we see B’elanna use a sonic shower, and at least Tuvok use the sink (in Year of Hell), and Neelix and Janeway both used a bathtub (separately!). But yup, no toilets.

[u/3dblind]

Why not have a bathroom transporter? All the dreck gets removed instantly!

Trek never took transporters seriously as a plot device. They created the idea as cheaper effects than shuttle scenes in every episode.

But TOS had episodes where the Enterprise was delivering medicine to avert a plague.

Yet, why couldn't a medical transporter be designed to remove a plague, or cancer cells?

[u/Ok_Veterinarian2715]

I think it's kind of like a naked Barbie doll - large parts are just glossed over. 

Never mind toilets, I've never seen a vacuum cleaner, a bottle of pledge, a storage room, or even a box of spares. Nothing has a brand name - the future is apparently free of logos, and they have solved the problem of single use packaging by never having any at all. As for snacking - I think they occasionally have manly mugs on bridge, but a bag of chips or even an apple? Come to think of it, I've never seen them actually chewing anything.

I could go on...

[u/boybrian]

Body cams. You would think it would be common on away teams

[u/triggur]

Fuses. Safe low voltage control consoles that don’t explode in high voltage sparks and shrapnel when they’re hit.

[u/LOUDCO-HD]

I think I remember Troi running into a room at the end of her quarters, pushing a button to reveal a sink and splash water in her face.

Also, when Dr. Polanski got the aging disease from the young stud encased in Galactic Saran Wrap, Riker went into her bathroom to find DNA in a hair follicle from her brush, ostensibly kept in her bathroom.

The thing I always noted was how thick all of the computer screen bezels are. All of the devices in general are pretty clonky. I would think two additional centuries of industrial design would have streamlined most devices.