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The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek franchise designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets in a no-win scenario. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and it has since been referred to and depicted in numerous other Star Trek media.

The notional goal of the exercise is to rescue the civilian spaceship Kobayashi Maru, which is damaged and stranded in the Klingon Neutral Zone. The cadet being evaluated must decide whether to attempt to rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew—endangering their own ship and lives—or leave the Kobayashi Maru to certain destruction. If the cadet chooses to attempt rescue, an unsurmountable enemy force attacks their vessel.

Concept and production

Star Trek II screenwriter Jack Sowards developed the Kobayashi Maru, naming it after his former neighbors. Kirk's rejection of "the no-win scenario" is one of several characterizations that reflected Sowards' own mindset at the time.

Producers for Star Trek: Prodigy saw the "all-star crew" of Spock, Uhura, Sulu, and McCoy on the bridge simulator in Star Trek II, and this motivated them to attempt to create a "perfect" bridge crew for a holodeck version of the test for their show. The writers could not reach consensus, and their lineup was limited by the availability of appropriate audio. Aaron J. Waltke, who wrote the episode, believed strongly that the characters should be voiced by the original actors, which meant finding either archived audio or recording new dialogue. Waltke did most of the research to find appropriate audio, which involved reading 90 scripts and watching 40 episodes from across the franchise; he called it "one of the hardest writing experiences I’ve ever had." The Kobayashi Maru scenes were revised several times. The protagonist Dal's holographic bridge crew ultimately consisted of Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Odo, and all were "voiced" by spliced archival footage of the characters. Beverly Crusher was added when the writers realized someone needed to interact more directly with Dal, and Gates McFadden recorded new dialogue for the character.

Depiction

The test is introduced in the opening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with Lieutenant Saavik commanding her crew on a bridge simulator to enter the Neutral Zone to rescue the Kobayashi Maru. The crew loses contact with the civilian ship and a trio of Klingon vessels attack. With the ship badly damaged, Saavik orders the crew to abandon ship and the simulation ends. Saavik tells Admiral James T. Kirk the test is unfair because it can't be beaten; Kirk tells her that a starship commander might face such a "no-win scenario". Later in the film, Kirk reveals that he beat the "no-win-scenario" as a cadet because he reprogrammed the simulation to make it possible to rescue his ship, garnering a commendation for "original thinking". The 2009 film Star Trek shows an alternate timeline's version of Cadet Kirk defeating the Kobayashi Maru test, and the test is also depicted in the Star Trek: Prodigy episode "Kobayashi".

The Kobayashi Maru is referred to in other live-action and animated content, alluding both to the test specifically or to a no-win or desperate situation generally. Licensed content provides additional depictions and references to the test, and two Star Trek novels are named after the test: The Kobayashi Maru (1989) by Julia Ecklar and Kobayashi Maru (2008) by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels.

Critical response and impact

io9 called Prodigy's use of the Kobayashi Maru "surprisingly touching". Entertainment Weekly called the Kobayashi Maru test one of the top ten elements of Star Trek with which non-fans are likely to be familiar. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Star Trek fan Randy Pausch received an autographed picture of Kirk whose inscription from William Shatner echoed Kirk's dialogue in Star Trek II: "I don't believe in the no-win scenario."

Business theory commentators have used Kirk's undermining of the Kobayashi Maru as an example of the need to redefine the foundation upon which a business competes—changing the rules rather than playing within a rigged game—as an example of successful business strategy. Computer security educators have used the Kobayashi Maru to teach students to think like an adversary, and that by stepping outside the rules of the game one can redefine the game.

See also

• Teruhiko Kobayashi, Japanese WWII fighter ace and post-WWII Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aviator, who remained in his stricken T-33 so that his co-pilot could eject
• Catch-22 (logic)
• Egg of Columbus
• Endless knot
• Gordian Knot
• Thinking outside the box
• Trolley problem

References

1. Goldberg, Lee (February 1983). "Jack Sowards: The Man Who Killed Mr. Spock". Starlog (67): 22–25 – via Internet Archive.
2. Roth, Dylan (January 6, 2022). "How Star Trek: Prodigy pulled off the cameo-filled Kobayashi episode". Polygon. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
3. James, Whitbrook (January 6, 2022). "Star Trek: Prodigy's Return Has Already Blown My Mind 3 Times". Gizmodo. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
4. Franich, Darren (May 6, 2016). "'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' is a movie about acting". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
5. "March 17th, 2007: A note on staying positive". Download.srv.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
6. Olenick, Michael (February 8, 2008). "Redefining Markets: Captain Kirk & the Kobayashi Maru". Valueinnovation.net. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
7. Gregory Conti and James Caroland. "Embracing the Kobayashi Maru: Why You Should Teach Your Students to Cheat." IEEE Security and Privacy , Vol. 9, No. 4, July–August 2011, pp. 48-51.

External links

• Kobayashi Maru scenario at Memory Alpha

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