Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Kobayashi Maru

Since its inception in The Wrath of Khan, 'Kobayashi Maru' has come to be used as a byword in Star Trek for, quite naturally, any kind of apparently unwinnable situation. On the supposedly inescapable hellhole of Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, McCoy told Kirk, "One day, one night, Kobayashi Maru". Stuck outside the Romulan Neutral Zone in Star Trek: Prodigy's Masquerade, Admiral Janeway noted to Admiral Jellico, "We're facing our own Kobayashi Maru".

More than just terminology, several episodes have, by now, used the notorious test in the title. Prodigy had Kobayashi, Star Trek: Discovery had Kobayashi Maru, and Star Trek: Picard had No Win Scenario. Cadets must have had their own choice set of words about the exercise, all the way up to at least the end of the 32nd century (with a gap), it seems. By 2401, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, was also considering an unspecified update of the Kobayashi Maru.

For better and for much, much worse, 'Kobayashi Maru' as phrase has also crossed the boundaries of reality to enter common journalistic, political, and even academic parlance. 'Kobayashi Maru moments' and 'problems' abound. Or there's always the title of a 2011 article in IEEE Security & Privacy: "Embracing the Kobayashi Maru: Why You Should Teach Your Students to Cheat".