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kostmayer wrote:If there's say a thousand different scenarios, with the Kobayashi Maru and perhaps a few others taken by all Cadets (and a few more chosen at random), would Cadets realise that everyone took the Kobayashi Maru test and that it was unbeatable? For all they knew it could just be one scenario amongst many.

Is there any dialogue that specifically states that all Cadets take that particular test? The only scene that springs to my mind is in the Genesis Cave - Saavik knew that Kirk had taken the test. If the test was a big secret, it seems a bit irresponsible of Starfleet to award Kirk a commendation for beating it - I'd imagine a fair amount of Kirks career would be studied by Cadets, surely someone would notice spot his commendation and find out what it was for.

GrahamKennedy wrote:There's nothing I know of to prove that all cadets take the test, and in fact thinking about it we know that they don't. Remember Spock's "I never took the Kobayashi Maru test until now..." line.

On the other hand, Saavik did automatically assume that Kirk had taken the test.

What surprises me is that they let him take it three times. I imagine that his reaction to failing the first two was an angry "I don't care what anybody says, there must be a way! There's ALWAYS a way!" Perhaps the instructors then decided to let him have another go because they wanted the lesson that you can't always win driven home...

GrahamKennedy wrote:Hard to say Spock wasn't on a "command track". He WAS the Enterprise Captain in Star Trek II, a position he reached without doing the KM test.

GrahamKennedy wrote:I always wondered what the "command track" was. The name implies that science, engineering, tactical... offers in these fields are expected to go so far, then just stop? But there are special officers who are destined for command, and who normally... work where? Do what?

My expectation would be that you would work in any field, like science or engineering, until you reached department head, then after a few years there would go to Exec, then on to Captain. Having a special "command track" seems kind of strange to me.

GrahamKennedy wrote:I always wondered what the "command track" was. The name implies that science, engineering, tactical... offers in these fields are expected to go so far, then just stop? But there are special officers who are destined for command, and who normally... work where? Do what?

My expectation would be that you would work in any field, like science or engineering, until you reached department head, then after a few years there would go to Exec, then on to Captain. Having a special "command track" seems kind of strange to me.

Mikey wrote:I could see it for cadets who exhibit talent for command, but certainly not as an exclusive business. After all, how many captains did we see who came from one of the more typical specialties? Spock, Scotty, Sulu, etc.

Phantom Renegade wrote:Well, I think(could be wrong) that in some militaries you can have the rank of captain but be subordinate to a lower rank of officer commanding the ship. I'm not sure of the specifics and I actually only read it in one novel, but my thinking is the command track is specifically to be commanding a ship some day while scientists may have different ambitions then commanding a ship.

Mikey wrote:

Phantom Renegade wrote:Well, I think(could be wrong) that in some militaries you can have the rank of captain but be subordinate to a lower rank of officer commanding the ship. I'm not sure of the specifics and I actually only read it in one novel, but my thinking is the command track is specifically to be commanding a ship some day while scientists may have different ambitions then commanding a ship.

IIRC, a superior officer can't be subordinate to an inferior officer; the skipper of a ship (who may or may not have the rank of "captain," even though his position is captain) has say in matter of the ship's operation, but that's not the same as being superior to another officer.