Create a new series premise

[Nate the Great]

I'm not sure if I like the vorbium idea. There are too many shows already that rely on a basic premise of "we need to find MacGuffin X at all costs."

Second Idea:

A starship assigned to a new species. First Contact was only a year or so ago, and the natives still don't really understand Peace, Justice, and the Federation Way yet. Their culture, while not completely rigid, is extremely resistant to change. They have some moderately valuable resource. Certainly nothing that would cause the Romulans or somebody to declare war on the Federation for, but definately good enough to send in some spies and operatives, both known and unknown. Perhaps a safer variant of the ever-valuable bio-mimetic gel. Our starship crew is moderately isolated. Backup is perhaps a few days away, and even subspace transmissions will take hours to get a reply for. We've got to protect this resource, convince the natives to join the Federation, and keep the adversary away. In the meantime, this is still a new region of space, and there are other planets to explore. Perhaps one of them has a species with more technology but fewer resources. Some form of discrimination is preventing these two peoples from cooperating. Spies are sent back and forth to steal information or raw materials, depending on the direction. They won't work together, partially due to Romulan interferance. How can we bring them into the Federation?