Suggest anthology themes

[JD]

I recently found a Doctor Who anthology called The Adventures After or something along those lines, and I was thinking something like that could be interesting for Star Trek. There are so many episodes in all of the series where the characters show up on some planet, make some massive change to civilization on the planet, and then leave. It could be cool to take look at exactly what effect those changes had on the people on the some of those planets.

 

[tomswift2002]

What kind of anthology would you like to see?

I've mentioned before that there ought to be a "Kobayashi Maru" themed anthology - how each character beat it. Don't limit it to the KM simulation as is, either - surely there are variations on the theme.

How about a poetry book? Musings by Data (of course) and other lesser known Trek characters.

We already had back in 1989 The Kobayashi Maru by Julie Ecklar (1/3 of L.A.Graf). Plus in terms of Voyager we’ve had a couple of looks at how Janeway did it, because Jeri Taylor covered it in Mosaic, plus the Starfleet Academy trilogy kind of had Janeway doing different parts of it. And I think it was also in her biography. Of course in TWOK you had Spock say that he somehow never took it until the movie, and he asked Kirk what Kirk thought of Spock’s solution.

Also, it’s been about 30 years since I last read it, and it was trying to tell the origin story of each main cast member, so it didn’t go too deeply into it, but “Pathways” also had I think Chakotay doing it, or maybe Paris. And based on Spock, any no-win scenario could count as the Kobayashi Maru. Even Troi’s test in “Thine Own Self” is a Kobayashi Maru situation (and I think Riker even said it was a no-win after she had ordered LaForge to his death).

Picard also kind of did it in “Starfall” (as part of his failed entrance exam) and “Nova Command”.

Also there was the Enterprise novel Kobayashi Maru that detailed the actual event, not the no-win simulation.

 

[Therin of Andor]

"The Lost Stories". All those eBook-only and online tales that never had a hardcopy version. I remember being thrilled when Titan started collecting their magazine-only stories, and illustrated to boot!

 

[F. King Daniel]

Weird alien sex.

Detailed weird alien sex.

 

[FredH]

Of course in TWOK you had Spock say that he somehow never took it until the movie, and he asked Kirk what Kirk thought of Spock’s solution.

Which ST ‘09 sort-of explains by having Spock be the one who created the test. Granted it’s an altered timeline, but it’s hinted that this is basically how it happened.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Of course in TWOK you had Spock say that he somehow never took it until the movie, and he asked Kirk what Kirk thought of Spock’s solution.

Spock had no intention to pursue Command. He was caught unprepared in "The Galileo Seven", losing several crewmen, and then ended up commanding Enterprise in ST II on a technicality, ie. only because it was a training vessel for cadets.

 

[tomswift2002]

Spock had no intention to pursue Command. He was caught unprepared in "The Galileo Seven", losing several crewmen, and then ended up commanding Enterprise in ST II on a technicality, ie. only because it was a training vessel for cadets.

He may not have wanted command, however as first officer, he would need to be qualified as a bridge officer in order to take command should Captain Kirk be killed or unavailable (like in “Paradise Syndrome” where he was in command of the Enterprise for 3-6 months possibly longer because their warp drive was out). So he should have had the training whether he wanted it or not.

 

[JD]

Yeah, but if he didn't move into a command position until he was already on the Enterprise then he probably did something other than the Kobayashi Maru. We saw Deanna go through a scenario specific to the Enterprise-D, so maybe Spock did something similar on the Enterprise No Bloody A, B, C, or D.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, but if he didn't move into a command position until he was already on the Enterprise then he probably did something other than the Kobayashi Maru. We saw Deanna go through a scenario specific to the Enterprise-D, so maybe Spock did something similar on the Enterprise No Bloody A, B, C, or D.

Right. Command is a specialty, like an academic major. Academy cadets are probably required to get basic cross-training in every field on the ship so they can take over if they have to, but that doesn't mean every single cadet has to take every single higher-level course or exam in a given concentration; that's only for people who've dedicated themselves to that track.

I mean, come on, the Kobayashi Maru simulation is hardly a normal exam. It's not a test of everyday command skills, it's a psychological assessment of how a command candidate copes with inescapable failure. That's not something you should really spring on anyone who hasn't already proven their commitment to the command track -- otherwise it would probably just scare cadets off.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose a doctor's version of the Kobayashi Maru would be a medical situation where every choice ends in the patient's death, or a security officer where every decision ends in a prisoner's escape or shooting an innocent person or something.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I suppose a doctor's version of the Kobayashi Maru would be a medical situation where every choice ends in the patient's death, or a security officer where every decision ends in a prisoner's escape or shooting an innocent person or something.

See also the line, "He failed a psychosimulator test" in TOS "Bread and Circuses," and also Wesley's psych test, in TNG "Coming of Age"

Weird alien sex.

Detailed weird alien sex.

If that's what you're after, you'd probably enjoy Spock: Messiah! as something more than just a guilty pleasure and a historical curiosity (among ST novels, only Mission to Horatius and Spock Must Die! preceded it). Oh, and BTW, David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One has literally the very first sex scene I ever read in a work of fiction.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I mean, come on, the Kobayashi Maru simulation is hardly a normal exam. It's not a test of everyday command skills, it's a psychological assessment of how a command candidate copes with inescapable failure. That's not something you should really spring on anyone who hasn't already proven their commitment to the command track -- otherwise it would probably just scare cadets off.

Agree. It seemed to me that, because the KM scenario has the embedded plot twist that it is a no-win scenario, its secret becomes known to all of the other cadets present for Saavik's test. The surprise is no longer a surprise for any of those cadets who might decide to do the Command track exam.

 

[Christopher]

Agree. It seemed to me that, because the KM scenario has the embedded plot twist that it is a no-win scenario, its secret becomes known to all of the other cadets present for Saavik's test. The surprise is no longer a surprise for any of those cadets who might decide to do the Command track exam.

Diane Duane's early computer game The Kobayashi Alternative always bothered me, because its concept and title were predicated on the assumption that the Kobayashi Maru was the only simulation that existed at Starfleet Academy, and the game was meant to be a newly added alternative that was more suitable for testing command skills. Why would it ever have been the only simulation, when it's so specialized in focus? Just because it was the only one we'd seen didn't mean it was the only one that existed.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I suppose a doctor's version of the Kobayashi Maru would be a medical situation where every choice ends in the patient's death . . . .

That's all too common in real life. It's also a staple of medical drama. Not always the patient's death, but certainly there are plenty of cases in which a physician makes what should be all the correct decisions, based on the information available, and yet they turn out to be the wrong decisions.

I find myself thinking of an episode of M*A*S*H, in which Major Winchester is faced with a decision while operating on a gravely injured soldier: either the patient will lose some strength and dexterity in his right hand, or he'll never walk again. Winchester chooses the former, not knowing that the patient is, in civilian life, a promising young concert pianist. All of his self-worth is tied up in his planned piano career. Winchester tries pep-talks, to no avail, then has the Army's music library send over a stack of left-hand-alone piano works (mostly commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein), and takes him into the Officers' Club tent for one final pep-talk. He protests that he can't make a career out of "a few freak pieces," but Winchester persists, and the episode fades to black with the sound of the patient playing the opening piano solo of the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand Alone.

As to real life, well, over half a lifetime ago, I was lying on my back, reading a magazine and trying to avoid nodding off, when the magazine slipped out of my fingers and scratched a cornea. The ER doctor probably wasn't aware that I was allergic to zinc compounds by skin contact, and nobody was aware that it wasn't strictly limited to zinc oxide. He prescribed Cortisporin eye ointment (which contains bacitracin zinc, and possibly other zinc compounds). By the time my own doctor was able to see me, that eye was itchy and bloodshot; the eye ointment had done more harm than good. There was no lasting eye damage, but my zinc sensitivity skyrocketed, to where I could no longer use regular Neosporin, and even just handling galvanized iron for any length of time without gloves made my hands itch.

The only doctors who don't face medical "Kobayashi Maru" situations are the ones who never deal with situations where they might inadvertently harm a patient, nor attempt to save a life.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'd love to see an anthology of Division 12 stories.