Well colour me confused because the almost two years I've been posting in these forums all I hear about his how Star Trek was not supposed to be alien of the week or about exploration with a science fiction flavour. It apparently is rich in stories reflecting the human condition of the times it is written in.I'm not saying that Trek always did a great job at being "Issue TV." But I'm at a loss to think of another non-anthology sci-fi show which has ever even really attempted to do "message" shows on a regular basis. Didactic moral lessons are basically a key part of the Trekkian format - and have been from the beginning. It's one of the reasons why the shows are so family friendly for the most part - because the theme of each episode is so explicit a precocious eight year old can pick up on it, and the show to some extent really does want to teach us something.