The key point is that Kirk, in both timelines, immediately thought to reprogram the impossible task before him. It's a hallmark of Kirk's personality.
Things I Have Noticed on a TOS Rewatch
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No, it's "people" trying to come up with a reason that he got a commendation instead of expelled. "More realistic" would be allowing for options that he might have out in the field, rather than "auto-fail". Simply hacking it to give himself "auto-win" didn't strike me as something that would get him a commendation.
Well, she could have lost their signal because the ship was destroyed by the Klingons. Nothing left to jam....
He wasn't expelled because his actions didn't violate the honor code, because of the nature of the test. The Kobayashi Maru is to test your reaction to the simulation. You can't cheat, your reaction is your reaction. Kirks reaction was to take the test twice and then reprogram it on the third try. He needs to make it blindingly obvious he reprogrammed the simulation, the reprogramming is his answer. If he had tried to hide it, that would have been a violation of the honor code.
The idea that Sulu, Uhura, Scott and Chekov were in the running with others to become "regulars" is incorrect.
Takei, Doohan, Uhura and Koenig all had contracts that's assured them of a certain number of episodes from day 1.
As did Whitney--but her departure is another story.
The others DeSalle, Kelowitz, Riley---were all hired on an episode by episode basis.
In fact, many times the actors were rehired by accident ---that is the production staff didn't even know they were reusing an actor they had used before.
For example, Bruce Hyde was hired to play a NEW character in "Conscience..." (I forget his name) and during rehersals--someone said, "Hey, he's they guy who played Riley in "Naked Time"
So they simply drew a line thru the new characters name and wrote in Riley.
But of course, they didn't make any other changes--so the Riley in Conscience is referred to as a 'communications officer' and not NAVIGATOR as he was in Naked.
this last minute realization that an actor had appeared before happened a number of times and they simply went ahead and fixed it by calling the actor the old name.
It also happened with actress Barbara Baldavin who had played Angela martine in "Balance.."..........
They hired her to play a character in "Shore Leave" called "Teller".
On location they realized that she had appeared before and they called her Angela--but forgot to change her last name---so Kirk calls her Teller and Rodriguez calls her Angela.
Michael Barrier played DeSalle in "Squire.." and he is a helmsman with some importance--enough to lead a landing party--they rehire him in "This Side..." to play another guy who is a blue shirt science person---they realize at the last minute and call him "DeSalle" but leave him as a blue shirt science division. They hire him to play assistant chief engineer in "Catspaw" and whoops, 'him again',---so now DeSalle is a red shirt engineer.
The case of Riley, DeSalle and Angela being remembered makes sense as they played fairly important parts in their first appearances, But many times actors whose parts were very small came back and nobody remembered they had appeared before---so they end up playing a character with a different name.
To suggest that any of these 'day players' ever had a chance to become on par with Scott, Sulu, etc. is false.
Also, Takei, etc had contracts that required a certain number of shows---so it wasn't like anybody said, "Hey, this Takei guy is good--let's use him more."---he was contracted for 13 episodes in season 1 and I think that's how many he actually appeared in.
Certainly, after a time, the fan mail came in and the fans DID like the folks they had seen a lot of--Sulu, Uhura, Scott---so they then had them appear in MORE than the minimum number of appearances their contract had.
Also the fact that Uhura and Sulu were bridge personal and they wanted to use them as the faces of diversity helped them become "regulars"
They really didn't give Uhura anything to do despite her appearing in 65+ episodes.
McCoy and Scott were the only characters that they actually thought, "these guys add some thing to the show, let's start writing more for them to do."
Takei, Doohan, Uhura and Koenig all had contracts that's assured them of a certain number of episodes from day 1.
As did Whitney--but her departure is another story.
The others DeSalle, Kelowitz, Riley---were all hired on an episode by episode basis.
In fact, many times the actors were rehired by accident ---that is the production staff didn't even know they were reusing an actor they had used before.
For example, Bruce Hyde was hired to play a NEW character in "Conscience..." (I forget his name) and during rehersals--someone said, "Hey, he's they guy who played Riley in "Naked Time"
So they simply drew a line thru the new characters name and wrote in Riley.
But of course, they didn't make any other changes--so the Riley in Conscience is referred to as a 'communications officer' and not NAVIGATOR as he was in Naked.
this last minute realization that an actor had appeared before happened a number of times and they simply went ahead and fixed it by calling the actor the old name.
It also happened with actress Barbara Baldavin who had played Angela martine in "Balance.."..........
They hired her to play a character in "Shore Leave" called "Teller".
On location they realized that she had appeared before and they called her Angela--but forgot to change her last name---so Kirk calls her Teller and Rodriguez calls her Angela.
Michael Barrier played DeSalle in "Squire.." and he is a helmsman with some importance--enough to lead a landing party--they rehire him in "This Side..." to play another guy who is a blue shirt science person---they realize at the last minute and call him "DeSalle" but leave him as a blue shirt science division. They hire him to play assistant chief engineer in "Catspaw" and whoops, 'him again',---so now DeSalle is a red shirt engineer.
The case of Riley, DeSalle and Angela being remembered makes sense as they played fairly important parts in their first appearances, But many times actors whose parts were very small came back and nobody remembered they had appeared before---so they end up playing a character with a different name.
To suggest that any of these 'day players' ever had a chance to become on par with Scott, Sulu, etc. is false.
Also, Takei, etc had contracts that required a certain number of shows---so it wasn't like anybody said, "Hey, this Takei guy is good--let's use him more."---he was contracted for 13 episodes in season 1 and I think that's how many he actually appeared in.
Certainly, after a time, the fan mail came in and the fans DID like the folks they had seen a lot of--Sulu, Uhura, Scott---so they then had them appear in MORE than the minimum number of appearances their contract had.
Also the fact that Uhura and Sulu were bridge personal and they wanted to use them as the faces of diversity helped them become "regulars"
They really didn't give Uhura anything to do despite her appearing in 65+ episodes.
McCoy and Scott were the only characters that they actually thought, "these guys add some thing to the show, let's start writing more for them to do."
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Both Dee Kelley and Doohan got 5/13 contracts for season 1 to start - in fact, they had wanted to totally drop Doohan, but when they signed him for WNMHGB, he had a series contract, not just for the pilot, and his agent had to remind Rodenberry/Desilu of that.
It was immediately obvious to everyone that Kelley was perfect for McCoy, and that the character was NEEDED, so he ended up being in all but 2 season one shows. I believe with Doohan, the audience responses were good on him, plus everyone 'upstairs' liked him and the character after the series started. Plus, it really getting real good for Doohan after Gene Coon came aboard - it was after that Scotty/Jimmy Doohan really started getting more to do. Surprisingly, Doohan still only got a 5/13 for season 2 - but they all knew it was some kind of contractual technicality.
Super good info--please explain what a 5/13 contract is.
Does it mean at least 5 appearances in every 13 episodes shot?
If that is so Doohan ended up doing 17 in season 1--not counting pilot and counting Menagarie as 1 episode.
Takei ended up with 16 and as you stated Kelley ended up with 25 appearances from Corbomite and Operation: in season 1
ST2009 did the same thing - after destroying all the Klingon ships, he ordered the transporter room to begin rescue operations. I doubt it was any less obvious as to what TWoK Kirk did for the original designer of the test.
I was honestly unhappy that the Kirk called to account' scene was interrupted in ST2009; because it was CLEAR that he was going to talk his way out of it and was on good footing when he mentioned - "The test itself is a cheat..."
I love watching in production order, for precisely that reason, and I wish TOS episodes were commonly put on DVD or shown on streaming networks in production order. You can also watch the background and setting evolve, as they gradually figure out who sent this ship out there and what world it's a part of and what backs it up. In WNMHGB, they talk about an "Earth" ship, and it's quite awhile before we get Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets. It's even later before the Prime Directive is thought of, and it takes awhile before they figure out exactly what it says.
I think watching Spock's evolution is probably the most fun, since he's the most unusual character, so it takes the longest to find his footing. Nimoy is far more emotional in the early episodes, smiling at Uhura's teasing as late as "Charlie X," and not quite becoming the Vulcan we know and love until a third of the way through the first season.
The Vulcan superpowers come online gradually, too -- we get the neck pinch in "The Enemy Within," the mind meld (which wouldn't get that name until much later) in "Dagger of the Mind," Vulcan ability to control pain in "Operation: Annihilate," and the healing trance not until season two's "A Private Little War."
And even Spock's make-up evolves; it takes several episodes before the make-up man realizes that a person with GREEN blood wouldn't blush PINK, and stops putting pink blusher on Spock's cheeks. Spock looks quite shockingly painted in "The Corbomite Maneuver," especially in the remastered episodes, where everything has been brightened.
TOS was wonderful from the very first episode, but it did take awhile to make all this stuff up. It's quite a tour de force, how much they created in a single season!
I think the difference in the character is partly due to their adapting the scripts to Shatner's portrayal of Kirk. In the second pilot, when Gary Mitchell calls Kirk "a stack of books with legs," that's the first time Shatner had ever played Kirk, and the line doesn't suit him very well, even then. It does suit Jeffrey Hunter's portrayal of Pike, though, which is the example of a captain that Peebles had when he wrote the script.
And I think that even if you take TOS as a whole, Kirk does not deserve his reputation as a shoot-from-the-hip womanizer. While he can and does create winning tactics in split second when necessary, he can be quite thoughtful when he has the time to do so.
An awful lot of those women we see him kissing are mission-related seductions; poor Kirk has to use the weapons that nature gave him when his phaser is taken away.
It's pretty clear that he cares nothing for Sylvia in "Catspaw" and Kelinda in "By Any Other Name," for example; he's just using his charisma to get the women on his side. It's a role that was usually given to female characters in movies and TV shows in the past; it's interesting to see Kirk playing the Mata Hari role.The first three-quarters of "The Omega Glory" is a real episode, and it's a crying shame that Roddenberry chose to ruin it with that business at the end. But, we have to repeat the TOS-watching mantra to ourselves: "The 60's was a different era, and things were VERY different then." Repeat as necessary until the pain goes away.
I actually thought the premise was the most sensible thing about it. Spock's brain? I can see where it would be in demand -- it's gotta be one of the best brains out there! It's a wonder people didn't line up to steal the damned thing every week.
It's the execution of the premise that I found goofy. But at least it was entertainingly goofy, which is more than I could say for some other episodes.I found Sulu a much more likeable character than Chekov, and I thought Takei was a much better actor than Koenig, so every time we got a Chekov-heavy episode, I wished that Takei had chosen not to make The Green Berets. I hope Takei got a lot of career advancement out of that movie, because it cost us a lot of Sulu time.
I thought "The Enterprise Incident" was quite well done. Of course, it's by Fontana, so that helps a lot.
My husband had never seen a lot of TOS, and I've been forcing the poor man to watch all of it with me. He wanted to watch in the order of original airing, so when we got to season three we watched "Spock's Brain" first, then "The Enterprise Incident." He LOVED "The Enterprise Incident," and he turned to me in disbelief after it was over and said, "They had THAT episode in the can, and they chose to start the season with "Spock's Brain?!" 
I told him that NBC understood exactly one thing about Star Trek -- that Spock was popular -- so they started with the episode that had his name in the title. Easy-peasy, if you're a network suit. 
Oh, and you probably know this, but Gene Coon left halfway through season two, so he was gone for many of the season two episodes, as well.
Have fun!
ST09 isn't the same thing that I was talking about. There, all the shields on the Klingon ships just suddenly drop, giving Kirk an absurdly easy victory. I don't see "our" Kirk making it quite that easy on himself, but it seemed perfectly in character for NuKirk.
5/13 - guaranteed five shows for the first 13. In those days, when a network picked up a new show, it was for 13 episodes - unlike today. When the network picked up the option for more episodes, everybody's contract gets picked up on a pro rata basis, also...unless you were Grace Lee Whitney. Same thing happens in movies - you get X amount per week of shooting for X amount of shooting weeks. And of course, when shooting goes over, you get the same amount per week until the shoot is over.
That is the sort of thing that drove Robert Justman to SCREAM in trying to make budgets, and asking Rodenberry/Coon/Lucas/Freiberger about the need for so and so in an episode. Example: In Patterns of Force, Doohan/Scotty is in one scene in the transporter room - at $850! So what they would do is make a deal. They knew they needed someone for the M-5 voice in Ultimate Computer, so they probably made a deal where Doohan would do both the one scene in Patterns, and the M-5 voice* for that fee - and then Doohan's regular fee for being in TUC as an actor. Show biz is fun, no?
*and maybe for doing Sargon's voice also! Even so, that would be two days total work at most for that money!
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I did not presume that this was the way it was behind the scenes. It just comes across that way. There is a lot more development for non-regulars in the earlier episodes - it really made the Enterprise feel like a full ship.
* We are arriving at a span of episodes that I have only vague memories of. "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" was pretty good. Getting thrown into a weird place outside the galaxy reminded me of TNG's "Where No One Has Gone Before". Kirk once again tried to use his charm weapons with ulterior motives, though this time it failed. Having seen this and "Return to Tomorrow" I think I will appreciate Diana Muldaur more when we get to TNG season 2.
Where is this "honor code" thing coming from? Is that something that was in ST '09?
Not sure what your source is, but your information isn't accurate.
DeForest Kelley had a contract for 7 out of 13, not 5 out of 13, in season one.
Doohan actually was released from his contract after the second pilot (so were Andrea Dromm, Paul Fix, and Lloyd Haynes; contractually, the studio could release any regular after the pilot). Doohan's agent, however, fought to keep him on the show, and negotiated a non-exclusive deal for 5 out of 13 episodes.
That was just a handshake agreement, though. Beginning in season two, Doohan was upgraded to a full regular with an exclusive contract. This was for 9 out of 13, though, not 5 out of 13.
I wrote more about Doohan here: http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2013/07/star-treks-chief-engineer-who-almost.html?m=1
Most learning institutions have an honor code (I'm sure the various service academies have them as well) and it usually frowns upon cheating.
They let her sing....
At the time the series was being made, I imagine that a certain Scottish-born British secret agent was more in the forefront of people's minds when it came to this sort of thing....An awful lot of those women we see him kissing are mission-related seductions; poor Kirk has to use the weapons that nature gave him when his phaser is taken away.
Thank you for the corrections! You were correct about Kelley's 7/13 - I had Doohan's five on my brain. It is interesting Doohan was in about half the first season, only missed three of the second, and then, AFICR, all of the third.
Now, how would they handle something like the token appearances in Metamorphosis and Patterns of Force? According to Cushman, they did the brief bridge scenes for Metamorphosis on another show's time (Friday's Child?), and it might have taken an hour for him to do that very short scene in POF...
Thanks for the help!
In season one, they negotiated a deal to bring Doohan onboard for additional episodes (on top of his overall deal) if he only had to film for a day or two.
It's possible that a similar deal was struck for season two, although I don't have the paperwork to back that up yet.
Judging by your explanation, Cushman appears to be operating with the understanding that they could use an actor in multiple episodes if they filmed all his scenes during the shooting period of one episode. That's not true, though. Doohan was paid for each episode he was in. I would have to check to see how he was compensated for various voice roles.
It's possible that a similar deal was struck for season two, although I don't have the paperwork to back that up yet.
Judging by your explanation, Cushman appears to be operating with the understanding that they could use an actor in multiple episodes if they filmed all his scenes during the shooting period of one episode. That's not true, though. Doohan was paid for each episode he was in. I would have to check to see how he was compensated for various voice roles.
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