[Nate the Great]

I was watching an episode of DS9 that used the holocommunicator and decided to look it up at Memory Alpha...

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Holocommunicator

I'm especially annoyed at the line "you have to move the camera around so that audience can see that it's 3-D, but then it could look to them like the guy beamed in."

PNQ: Do we, as the audience, feel insulted by that?

All the writers had to do was drop the word "holocommunicator" and "hologram" into conversation every now and then and make sure the holographic base is visible to remind us the thing was in use. And make the guy talking on our end to step on an identical platform to make cuts between the two ships easier. And toss a subtle glow on the guy to remind us it's a hologram. And, oh, I don't know, not use any form of transporter effect, whether audio or video? If I see and hear the distinct effect of a holograph forming, I'd think it was a hologram, wouldn't you?

Or just think it through and not introduce the device at all. Nah, that's just crazy-talk.