They were romances or potential romances that were either brief, hinted at, mentioned but never seen, ended due to death or departure, or in some cases just seemed like they could have worked out in my head! Which couple do you think would have been awesome to see together for several episodes or seasons? My vote is Jake & Ezri. I think it would have made things a little more interesting for Jake's character in the last season. Plus, it would have been funny to see Quark and Bashir (and perhaps Worf) drowining in their sorrows because the "boy" gets Dax in the end. And it would have been crazy for Ben Sisko to call his son's girlfriend "old man," and potentially create some tension between Ben & Ezri. Second place for me would be Kira and Tom Riker. I thought they had great chemistry together and it would have been interesting to see him come back a few more times. Third place for me is Kira & Damar. There wasn't much time for this to go anywhere (plus he was killed), but Damar was turning into a "new" Cardassian, and how crazy for Kira to go from someone who hates everything Cardassians stand for to falling in love with one. Honorable mention to Jadzia and Boday just because I want to see the guy with the transparent skull!
You forgot Jake and Kira. That would have been...interesting (mostly for the...added dimension of the relationship between Kira and Ben). But I think Jake is probably too exciting for Kira. Jake/Ezri would have been the best option if Ezri had to hook up with someone in the cast (Boday would have been funny). Certainly better than the obvious Bashir (who should have kept up with Sarina, long-distance - that was far and away Bashir's best romance), or the gross thing with Worf. Plus, it would have given Jake something to do last season. I actually voted for Quark + Grilka. I liked them together. They liked themselves together. It would have created a more interesting dynamic between Quark and Worf than "keep your Ferengi eyes off my girlfriend/wife." And Grilka would NOT have allowed Quark to get a sex change.
You forgot to mention Pel the female Ferengi from the seson two episode The Rules of Acquisition who disguised herself as a male in order to earn profit and ended up falling for Quark. I always found it very interesting that Quark, despite being an allegedly traditional Ferengi, was always falling in love or lust with strong minded alien women who liked to wear clothes and earn their own profit. Pel was the only Ferengi woman he seemed to even consider as a potential love interest and that seemed to be because he got acquanited with her personality and intelligence and great bussiness sense before he got to know her gender and was therefore unable to dismiss her as some dumb female like he did every other Ferengi female (except for Moogie but that was his mother). He was quite uncomfortable with Pels desire to earn profit and rebellion against tradition but went out of his way to help her risking the wrath of Grand Nagus Zek. It was an interesting situation that could definitely have been explored more. Also they never did address what happened to Pel after she went to make a new life in the gamma quadrant especially after the war broke out. If it werent for her being in the Gamma quadrant and the whole war thing it would have been a brilliant idea to bring her back in the episode Profit and Loss. The news that female Ferengi had been granetd the right to wear clothes and earn profit could have brought her back and then she could have been roped into being Ishka's replacement in the negotiations with the sluggo cola guy removing the need for Quark to undergo gender reasignment surgery. She could resist the sluggo colas guys romantic advances because she still loves Quark and then head off to Ferenginar to earn profit or hang around the bar and stick with Quark when everyone else runs off at the end. You can tell ive put way too much thought into this :P
Oh yes! And great ideas! I'm quickly learning that I am not the one who should be implementing polls given my lapses in memory! I especially like your ideas for Pel, Merlanthe.
I voted Dax & Boday because Boday should have had an on screen appearance. None of these quite work IMO except Quark/Grilka. What about Quark/that Cardassian dissident?
Towards the end, I genuinely thought something could have actually happened between Kira and Damar, just seemed like another twist that could have happened that would have really angered Dukat. Kira and Damar were going down the same path (when both alive) and had he survived, things could have been different.
I bet you anything the writers noticed the chemistry and would have gone somewhere with that if they had another season. But they didn't want to mess up what they worked toward with Kira and Odo, and that worked out nicely for the finale. But I'm totally with you on that! I sure did leave that one out. Not sure why since I had thought about that relationship as I was writing the post. My bad.