From: runyan@cup.hp.com (Mark Runyan)
Subject: Re: Locarno = Kirk (Spoilers "First Duty"))
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:13:05 GMT
Organization: HP, Cupertino, CA, USA

v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>
The First Duty Spoilers... possibly
>
 
>>>     Why is Kirk allowed the breadth of discretion to ^think^ and ^plan^
>>>     when he is going to follow Starfleet orders and Federation subpoenas
>>>     and Locarno is not?
>>Kirk was a high ranking officer.  They are given latitutude to make
>>decisions.  Locarno is a measly cadet.  He's got to prove he is
>>worthy.
>     You're kidding, right?  You disobey orders, you are disobeying orders.
>     Ollie North should be in prison.  No two ways about it.  ...

That isn't the way it works.  Even Picard said that Starfleet officers
just don't blindly follow orders (his arguments over Lal and Data as
good examples).  And there is a major difference between a command officer
questioning an order when he is in the field and some distance from
headquarters and when a cadet questions orders when on academy grounds.

Mark Runyan
>     care who you are, Admiral or recruit.  Democracy says the law
>     applies to all, high or low, and in the utopic (Roddenberry's term,
>     not mine) Federation, it DOES.  
>
>     Besides, with "thinking and planning" I was referring to what Kirk
>     was doing on Vulcan for three months.  Surely he didn't spend ALL
>     his time sitting by Spock's bedside...  Surely he was planning
>     his defense.  Planning exactly which questions it would be in his
>     interest to answer and which it would not.  Thinking about what
>     the smartest things to say were for the questions he chose to 
>     answer.  Etc.  If Kirk ^wasn't^ doing that, he is a retarded idiot.
>
>>>>>     And anyway, you are overlooking the point: Locarno is Kirk ^as a
>>>>>     cadet,^  as a KID.  I sincerely doubt Kirk was hatched a fully formed
>>>>>     Captain Horatio Hornblower.  Let's remember who cheated on the 
>>>>>     Kobyashi Maru simulation.  
>>>> 
>>>>    Cheating on the Kobyashi Maru simulation was not likely to get anyone
>>>>even hurt, much less killed. Therefore, it is a totally different issue.
>>>
>>>     Beyond the death involved, cheating on an incredibly important
>>>     Academy exit-exam is a much bigger breach of regulations than
>>>          performing an against-the-rules maneuver.  The death involved 
>> 
>>Did you read the book?  The Kobyashi Maru wasn't an exam.  It was
>                  ^^^^
>>a psychological test [deleted...]
>
>     DING.  Thank you for playing anyway.  
>
>
>>You can't compare the two.  I mean, you can, but the comparison doesn't
>>work.  Are you implying that if Kirk was bad at say Astrophysics that
>>he would have cheated to graduate?
>
>     Sure it works.  Both were no-win situations.  Kirk's was
>     manufactured by a computer, Locarno's was real, that I'll grant
>     you, but both were no-win.  
>
>>Do you remember the episode where Wesley tried to get into the academy,
>>they ran a scenario where he was only able to save one person from a
>>fire?  That wasn't an exit exame either.
>
>     "Coming of Age," sure I remember.  "The Psych Test" wasn't part of
>     the exit exam, that I'll grant you as well.  It was part of the
>     ENTRANCE exam.  Seems the smart move.  You put them in a no-win
>     situation on their way into the Academy and then again on their
>     way out of the Academy and compare the results to see how much
>     the Academy has changed the outlook of the cadet-officer candidate
>     as regards the premise.  
>
>
>
>          ^Hot Damn, That Pie Was Good!^
>                     Common Phrases Heard at
>                     RR Diner #32.
>
>          ^Scott Gorcey, v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu^
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