[vanbeke]

The article on Star Trak was interesting, although it did miss a few random episodes that did tend to indicate some beliefs - "Bread and Circuses" mentioned the "Son" worshippers, for example, and apparently Uhuru was a believer. And despite Piccard's statement regarding the Federation not having money, there were too many "Free Trader" types roaming the outskirts that were making a living selling things. Couldn't all be barter, could they?

I voted for DS9 as it was more open to outside influence - more societies were represented than on any of the other shows - unless you count the society of the week on any of the other ST series.

While I'm a fan of Firefly, it is a very small universe, although the terraforming that went into making so many habitable worlds around one sun leaves a lot of possibility for xenoarcheology. There is also no explanation as to how people got there, and I would think there has to be some form of interstellar drive available.