Wormhole

The wormhole, also known as A CASH-COW PLOT DEVICE, waz a hole in space. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Kind of like where socks go when they disappear in the dryer. All kinds of things disappeared there like:
* Grand Nuisance Zek lost his lobes
* the Domingian lost a fleet
* the Crisco lost his mind
which all clearly indicates that the wormhole was a big dumping ground.
Since da wormhole was a big flushing bowl, that makes the Prophets/worm-hole aliens kind of like Mr. Hankey.
==First Appearance of a Wormhole==
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the first recorded appearance of a wormhole. Using a combination of slow motion and misaligned optical printing, director Robert Wise (he cut Citizen Kane, you know), foreshadowed the somnambulism of the second act involving V'Ger, a pillow and blankey, and two Tylenol PM.