From the rules:
"Tonight's episode: With another dangerous voyage in front of them, the remaining starship officers fall back on their well-honed skills of treachery, sabotage and insubordination. Only one will emerge as captain, the one who can somehow get the other officers to follow orders."
The goal of the game is to get other players to carry out the missions you assign so that you accumulate 10 pips worth of missions completed. Missions are worth between 2 and 4 pips. Every other player can refuse, so you need to be able to convince them it's in their best interest. Thankfully, the missions are easy, but it requires someone to actually perform them.
Of course, if the missions don't get performed, things go wrong, terribly wrong ....
Winner of the 2003 PolyCon Independent Game Design Prize for best Board/Card Game.