Red Squad: Best of the Best?

[CoveTom]

From what we've seen, Red Squad is supposed to be "the best of the best" as far as cadets are concerned. Yet in the times we've actually seen them, a group of them caused the death of a fellow cadet and conspired to cover it up, another group were involved in a conspiracy to fake a Dominion attack in support of a military coup, and yet another group was so arrogant that they thought they could singlehandedly take on the Dominion and ended up getting themselves killed.

So my question is... Is Red Squad really a group of elite cadets, or have we seen evidence that, in fact, their judgment is consistently worse than the average cadet?

 

[Kertrats47]

Your last two examples are correct, but unfortunately I have to take issue with the first one. That one was from "The First Duty," and it was Wesley Crusher's Nova Squadron, not Red Squad that was involved.

 

[horatio83]

They are "the best of the best of the best". I thought the point of the Red Squad story as well as this scene from MIB was that elites are often pseudo-elites. You don't hear anything about Kirk or Picard having been in some kind of elite cadet group, do you?
Or to say it with the words of Hawking, "People who boast about their IQ are losers." If you are good you are good, no need to codify it somehow and join a special club.

 

[Paradon]

I think there are different reasons why some people are said to be the best of the best. Maybe they discoverd something unique other hasn't that totally change how we think, but that may be because they are at the right time and right place or work harder or maybe both. You wanna see who is very intelligent you should look into how original the person is. Picard was very original because they named a maneuver after him....

I didn't get good grades in primary and secondary school, but I think that's because I get bad headache when I read (which later they found when I was in secondary school about to finish school I needed glasses) and I didn't like doing the homework because I'd rather play outside. College was a different story. I actaully got A's in chemistry and math...and of course English. I think I got the highest grade in English class...for the term papers. I consider myself not smart compared to a lot of people because I think I just read a lot more and have a lot of free time. I don't think I'm that smart if you ask the people on here. [laugh]

I use a lot of Tim Allen's jokes and "Home Improvement" Jokes, though. [chuckle]

 

[The Wormhole]

They may be the best of the cadets, but they are still cadets, with no actual experience and guided by youthful arrogance.

What happened in Homefront/Paradise Lost shouldn't be used against them, they were just follwing orders. Sure, I guess someone should have thought it odd they were ordered by a Starfleet officer to sabotage Earth's power grid, but whatever.

The Valiant crew were simply misguided into believing they were invincible and could be the heroes who saved the Federation from the Dominion.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Red Squad was a perfect example of ego gone awry. When a group is set apart from the rest and made to believe that they are BETTER than the rest...that can't help but get to them. They start believing their own hype.