"What is Starfleet?" asks the latest episode of "Strange New Worlds". It's a question the "Star Trek" franchise has been getting to grips with for the best part of 60 years.
The answer was simple back in "The Next Generation" era, because Jean-Luc Picard was never in it for the money. Instead, noble ideals such as exploration, self-improvement, and the general betterment of humanity tended to be more important than a steady paycheck. These values were generally shared by his employers at Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, organisations idealized as the polar opposite of Emperor Palpatine's authoritarian dictatorship from a galaxy far, far away.
