From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Locarno = Kirk (Spoilers "First Duty"))
Summary: Kirk and Kobyashi Maru
Date: 10 Apr 92 00:06:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: acsu.1992Apr9.230707.1128
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Apr9.200432.29412@uunet.uu.net>, kyle@uunet.uu.net (Kyle Jones) writes...

>I disagree.  Kirk had faced the no-win scenario before ST2, and
>he did not freeze.  In "City on the Edge of Forever" Kirk let
>Edith Keeler die, even though he paid a horrible emotional price
>for it.  In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Kirk killed his best
>friend Gary Mitchell when there was no other alternative.  In
>"The Menagerie" Kirk was prepared to sentence Spock to death for
>his mutiny and subsequent violation of General Order 7 (?
>whatever the stay-away-from-quarantined-planets order is).

     True, but the movie obviously didn't take these things into
     account.  We have to assume that the loss of Spock is 
     the most ^catastrophic^ thing that has ever happened to him,
     that in the face of Spock's death, everything else Kirk has
     ever lost is demoted to simply "horrible."

     Here's a piece of the scene, verbatim:
     David: Lieutenant Saavik was right.  You never have faced death.
     Kirk (sits): No, not like this.  I cheated death.  I tricked my
     way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity.
     I know nothing.
     David: You knew enough to tell Saavik that how we face death is
     at least as important as how we have life.
     Kirk: Just words...
     David: But good words.  That's where ideas begin.  Maybe you should
     listen to them.

     I think this is, in a way, the most important scene in the movie for
     Kirk - perhaps Kirk's most important moment ever as a character.
     He thinks of himself as always coming up on top.  That he never
     lost, or at least never lost completely.  Yes, he had to let Edith
     die, but what he gained was his timeline returned, he had a life
     and friends to go back to.  After the shock wore off he probably
     realized this.
     But at the moment of this conversation with David, Kirk is in
     utter shock, completely demoralized, blaming himself for not
     being the man who "saves the galaxy on a regular basis," to
     quote DIane Duane.  
     Perhaps he has faced no-win situations before - as people have
     pointed out, "Where No Man..." and "City on the Edge..." in
     particular - but that isn't the point.  The point is Kirk never
     made this horrible, and necessary, realization about no-win
     situations and facing death before Spock.  

     It took Spock's death to make Kirk realize the truth in his
     words to Saavik: how we face death is at least as important
     as how we face life.

>I think the author of the book version of ST2 got Kirk's
>motivation for reprogramming Kobyashi Maru right:
> 
>   Kirk: "I hate to lose."

     It was: "I don't like to lose," and it was in the movie too.
     (Vonda McIntyre adapted the movie, BTW).

>I do not see Kirk's refusal to accept defeat _before he is
>defeated_ as a character flaw.  Facing death with dignity and
>resignation is for people with more ego than brains.  The person
>who kicks and screams and scratches and claws and fights for LIFE
>will get my respect every time.

     The point of the KM test is not to teach the cadets to face
     death with resignation and dignity!  Not at all.  The point
     is to put them in a simulated situation in which they can
     see what their reaction to death and a no-win situation will
     be - because it's not the kind of thing, no-win and all,
     that you're gonna get a second chance at in real life.  

     The point of the KM test is to show the cadets how they
     are most likely going to react to that kind of situation.
     This knowledge, which no one can gain through soul-searching
     alone, you have to have experienced it to know, should be
     invaluable to the cadets as they go out into the reality
     of (whatever - space, the galaxy, starfleet, klingons and
     romulans and bears...).  

     Kirk REFUSED to face death in the simulation.  He refused
     to take advantage of the net Starfleet was offering him.
     He paid the price in TWOK.

>Kirk was torn up after Spock's death, but my God, who wouldn't be
>given the friendship they had?

     Of course he was, but as I said above, the point is that it
     took Spock's sacrifice to make Kirk realize the import of 
     HOW one faces, and in this case even ACKNOWLEDGES, death.


          ^Hot Damn, That Pie Was Good!^
                     Common Phrases Heard at
                     RR Diner #32.

          ^Scott Gorcey, v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu^