the revelation at the end of the star trek: voyager episode "author, author" that the federation operates a dilithium mine with a facility-wide holomatrix capable of projecting hundreds of clones of an obsolete medical hologram to serve as servant laborers breaking rocks, who nevertheless get a quota of leisure time in the holodeck to play through clandestinely-distributed holonovels that reveal to them the fact that they're an oppressed class, is truly one of the most baffling attempts at ending a television show with an uplifting social message that I've ever seen
