Everyone Is Making the Same Star Trek Reference About the Election

By Steve Safran 

trek The Kobayashi Maru, for the non-Trekkies among you, is a simulator cadets at Starfleet Academy undergo in the Star Trek universe. It is designed to test how cadets perform under pressure. It is a no-win situation, and is deliberately designed as such. (Capt. James T. Kirk famously reprogrammed it to win.) Fast forward (or backward, if you’re at Stardate 8130.3) to the 2016 election, and references to the Kobayashi Maru are abundant.

So, What Would Kirk Do? So far, the Canadian-born William Shatner is staying out of political opinion. And Chris Pine, who plays Kirk in the new films isn’t on Twitter. So, we’ll have to let Vulcan logic have the final word: spock_051713 Kobayashi Maru Picture from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Paramount Pictures, 1982. Spock picture from Star Trek original series, NBC.

Advertisement