Kobayashi Maru

What is your solution to the Kobayashi Maru?

Rescuing the civilian vessel Kobayashi Maru is the notional primary goal in a simulated battle with the Klingons. The ship is disabled and the approaching cadet crew must decide whether or not to attempt rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew – potentially endangering their own ship/lives – or leave the Kobayashi Maru to certain destruction. The difficult decision to assist the Kobayashi Maru revolves around the issue of the disabled ship's location being in the Klingon Neutral Zone, as entering the zone would be in violation of the Organian Peace Treaty.

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There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. 'Orr' was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

The Kobayashi Maru is a test in the fictional Star Trek universe. It is a Starfleet training exercise designed to test the character of cadets in the command track at Starfleet Academy. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the opening scene of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and also appears in the 2009 film Star Trek. The test's name is occasionally used among Star Trek fans or those familiar with the series to describe a no-win scenario.

James T. Kirk took the test three times while at Starfleet Academy. Prior to his third attempt, Kirk surreptitiously reprogrammed the simulator so that it is possible to rescue the freighter. This fact finally comes out in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as Kirk, Saavik and others appear marooned, near death. Saavik's response is, "Then you never faced that situation. Faced death." Kirk replies, "I don't believe in the no-win scenario." Despite having cheated, Kirk had been awarded a commendation for "original thinking."

As Spock had not entered Starfleet Academy as a command-track cadet, he did not take the Kobayashi Maru test while there. In his death scene at the conclusion of The Wrath of Khan, he would describe his sacrifice as his solution to the no-win scenario.

Chekov evacuates his ship and then crashes it into the three Klingon cruisers, destroying all four ships in the process and (inadvertently) all of the evacuees as well.

Sulu realizes it is probably a trap and refuses to cross the Neutral Zone.

Scotty attempts to fight the Klingon ships, employing a series of unorthodox tactics, such as bypassing the Klingon shields using a works-on-paper-only calculation (the failure-to-work-in-practice demonstration experiment was published by Scotty before he joined Starfleet and this fore-knowledge of theory/practice results in his being judged unsuitable for command track and sent off to engineering, as he actually desired), and transporting various destructive items to them. At first, he is surprisingly effective, but the computer scenario ups the ante with the arrival of additional Klingon ships. Scotty responds in kind with even more unorthodox tactics that rapidly escalate in on-the-fly engineering derring-do and destructiveness. He eventually loses to a staggering fleet of fifteen ships, but claims that if there had been an actual engineering room in which he could have performed his instructions himself, they would have been destroyed as well. This example proves it clear that the simulation will never end, no matter what the student throws at the Klingon ships, as an ever-increasing number of Klingon vessels will arrive on the scene, guaranteeing that the testee will lose eventually.

Kirk reprograms the simulated Klingons to be afraid of "The Captain Kirk", arguing that he expected to build a comparable reputation.

In the novel Dreadnought by Diane Carey the protagonist Piper, a recent academy graduate, manages to crash the entire simulator by attempting to improvise an engineering solution to the problem through a very unorthodox series of computer commands and jury-rigging, essentially tricking the computer into fighting itself. Her instructors admit that her solution might theoretically have been successful.

In A.C. Crispin's novel Sarek, Peter Kirk, James T. Kirk's nephew, uses his experiences throughout the novel to come up with another way to defeat the unwinnable scenario. Upon entering the Neutral Zone, he provokes the Romulans who are expected to destroy the Enterprise. Before the Romulans open fire, Peter challenges the Romulan commander to a ritual fight-to-the-death (using an obscure but still valid Romulan law predating their schism with the Vulcans), in which actual battle is prohibited until the contest is resolved. As Peter leaves the bridge to go to the simulation transporter room, he instructs the crew to beam aboard the "survivors" and escape, leaving him to certain death.

The simulation ends with the supervising instructor ending the test in confusion. Upon learning of Peter's trick, he promises to change the scenario to prevent it from being re-used. Peter is credited, however, with coming up with an actual "winning" solution: saving the Kobayashi Maru and his own ship by sacrificing himself.

In William Shatner's novel Avenger, Captain Christine McDonald of the USS Tobias tells Captain Kirk that in her time, the Kobayashi Maru scenario is no longer used to test character, but rather to evaluate the very "original thinking" for which Kirk had received a commendation. In the new version of the scenario, cadets are charged with coming up with ways to outsmart the simulation by reprogramming it to counter various moves made by the more advanced AI of the computer.

In Stone and Anvil, Mackenzie Calhoun realizes that it is impossible to rescue the Kobayashi Maru. He uses the unorthodox solution of destroying the Kobayashi Maru itself. He determines that a rescue attempt will be unsuccessful, would likely end in failure and would probably also result in his own ship being destroyed or captured. His reasoning is that it is more merciful to kill the civilians outright rather than let them be captured (and likely tortured) by the Romulans. Alternatively, he proposes an alternate possibility that the entire scenario is a Romulan trap and the Kobayashi Maru is in league with the Romulans, so destruction of the Kobayashi Maru is a valid attack on an enemy.

Admiral Kirk, who had been monitoring the situation from an outside control room, halts the simulation. All the "deceased" officers begin to rise, and Spock (now revealed as the cadets' instructor) orders the trainees to the briefing room. Saavik protests being subjected to an unwinnable scenario, feeling that it does not properly reflect her command abilities. Kirk explains that the test is meant to reveal how the subject deals with a no-win scenario, as how one deals with death is as important as how one deals with life. Later in the film, after repeated inquiries from Saavik, Kirk says that the exercise is a true "no-win scenario," because there is no correct resolution; it's a test of character.

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[edit on 31-1-2010 by In nothing we trust]