It's always been both, just with our current problems offloaded to aliens for scrutinization. That they're no longer using aliens for commentary is the problem.

Depending on who's writing the episode, yeah, and it's a great concept that I felt was explored well. Other times, however, we have an episode where Tuvok talks at length about the training and conditioning he underwent to control his emotions, then in the very next episode, talk at length about how Vulcans are naturally emotionless and incapable of feeling emotion at all. This chronic lack of consistency in the writers' room is a big part of why Moore left the show to reboot BSG.

That was entirely dependent on Stewart's contract negotiations, though, rather than anyone wanting to kill off Picard.

The version of the TOS theme with lyrics?

"We wouldn't have to eat Kraft dinner!"

"But we would eat Kraft dinner."

"Of course we would! We'd just eat more!"

Been a while since I watched First Contact, but I thought they did more than just kill the Queen. Could be wrong, though.

On Section 31, that's the current story, but DS9 had their existence so secret that it's implausible in combination with how open they are in DSC. It'd be like the US disbanding the marine corps and then trying to pretend they never had one. ENT's bit where they quoted the charter also has them pretty clearly deliberately misinterpreting what Article 14, Section 31 actually says.

Harris: "Re-read the charter: Article 14, Section 31. There are a few lines that make allowances for bending the rules during times of extraordinary threat."

Archer: "What threat?"

Harris: "Take your pick. Earth's got a lot of enemies."

That sounds like it's intended to be meant to cover the wacky reality destroying shenanigans that Starfleet crews tend to get mixed up in. Breaking time travel laws to retrieve whales from the past so that Earth doesn't get wiped off the map, for instance would be covered under art. XIV, §31. Or interfering with the internal politics of the Q Continuum because they're blowing up random stars. Or landing a strike team on a pre-warp planet because they're messing around with Omega Particles. Messing with Romulan internal politics because they hate us doesn't qualify because the Romulans aren't about to wipe anyone out. Romulans are an ordinary threat, not an extraordinary one. That's just Tuesday in the Federation. Harris' quote also doesn't imply that the charter actually calls for the creation of an entire branch of Starfleet to handle such threats.

Before DSC gave them badges, the logical conclusion was that S31 in the prime timeline was an illegal conspiracy among Starfleet officers, not an official organization in any way. Even Into Darkness' portrayal could potentially be interpreted as a S31 conspirator in that timeline getting high enough ranked to move lots of resources on the sly, though I'll admit that's stretching things.

He is one of the most “interesting” characters on the show, but really when you think about it, they all are.

To borrow a quote from B5, "No one here is exactly what he appears."

What a crossover.

Yep, the Enterprise has about the volume of an aircraft carrier, but only a fraction of the crew. By modern standards it is downright roomy.

If there isn't a moopsy plush available by the end of the season I'm going to complain very loudly in corners of the internet that no Paramount executive will ever see.

If there's one thing Trek is totally consistent about, it's the writers having no fucking clue what evolution is.

It's about interference with non-Federation governments and cultures in general. The Prime Directive forbids mucking about with Romulan politics, for instance. Worf gets away with a lot of things that would violate the Prime Directive in regards to the Klingon Government because he has dual citizenship and is a member of Klingon nobility.

The ban on contact with pre-warp civilizations is also more specifically uncontacted pre-warp civilizations (you can chat with them if they're already buying Romulan ale from the Ferengi because the damage has already been done) and more generally pre-interstellar civilizations (warp drive is the usual way a civilization becomes interstellar, but there are alternative methods).