“Star Trek” is, at its roots, an exploratory series. Whether the crew is exploring a sector by choice, or stranded due to unfortunate accident (ahem, “Voyager”), their primary focus when tooling around the universe is looking for new things and cataloging them. As a whole, although there are exceptions, crews are respectful when meeting with aliens and, if the species happens to be less technologically advanced than themselves, they observe a “Prime Directive” of non-interference.
On the surface, this makes “Star Trek” sound like a boring series — a bunch of pacifists cataloging alien environments — but in reality, there is much more happening underneath the surface. Crews adapt over time and learn from their encounters with various species, sometimes even reflecting on how meeting other cultures makes them feel about their own species. Think about Data (“The Next Generation”), for example: an android who is always observing humans in his quest to become more human-like himself.
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