From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Locarno = Kirk (Spoilers "First Duty"))
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:47:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


Today, Boys and Girls, Ben and Myself and Several Significant Others Are
Talking About Who Is And Who Is Not Allowed To Disobey Regulations:

 

>>     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.  I don't
     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^