Star Trek

I could totally see the Federation getting involved in a war with the best intentions, believing that they need to act to prevent a powerful, implacable faction from gaining the upper hand and tipping the balance of power across many star systems & potentially exterminating/enslaving multiple less advanced civilizations, say along a Federation border.

And the whole thing starts going sideways, and the Feds won't commit fully to the effort but a dedicated faction of true believers keeps it going on a shoestring.

I don't think a medical-focused Trek show would have to take place during war time. Medical Ethics in general is ripe for the sort of show Trek lends itself to.

There was a spinoff pitched during TOS called Hopeship featuring M'benga. The pitch for NBC/RCA was that instead of introducing expensive colorful sets, they could stay shipboard and have expensive alien makeup and costumes.

I have an idea for a series I'd like to write that fits this somewhat. In the Kelvin timeline before Romulus is destroyed but after Voyager, the Romulans decide to stripmine their doomed solar system, build a fleet, and go on a conquest to subdue Federation territory starting with Earth. The war would be an over-arching theme but the episodes would still be mostly self contined challenge of the week type stories based one ship & crew but with glimpes of what other crews are going through, but also flashbacks to how the invasion got started showing how we got to "now" without dragging it out.

One of Roddenberry's first series was called The Lieutenant which aired on NBC for a season -- until it was canceled due to a falling out between the Marines and the network over a race-based episode that nobody wanted but Roddenberry forced through (too preachy they worried). Episodes of this are available on YouTube and you will see some of the Trek stars that appeared in Where No Man has Gone Before.