Question for Star Trek fans

When I was in college, I was going through a rough time and one night I was talking to a friend of mine who was a Star Trek fan. He told me about an episode where Kirk had to play a game (against a computer, I think) as part of a training exercise where he was in a "no-win" situation so his superiors could see how he handled being in such situations.
The way he solved it, my friend said, was to change the game so it was possible for him to win; then he won. He simply did not believe there was such a thing as a "no-win" situation.
Does anybody know what episode that was and could you tell me more about it?
Of course, when my friend told me about that, I laughed it off, saying "Well, that's TV, not real life," but now I'm kind of interested in seeing that episode.

 

I remember the episode (sadly), but I can't remember when it took place or what it was called.

 

I think that was in one of the movies, too. Maybe the second one. Granted, I know absolutely nothing about Star Trek and only watched a marathon once following 9/11 because I couldn't handle absorbing anymore news coverage.

 

Is this it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

 

I (not-so-sadly) can help here.

It was a backstory referred to in Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhhhaaaaannnnnnnN!!!!!!!!!!!

At the beginning of the film, they establish the fact that young officers go through the Kobayashi Maru scenario, in which they command a ship in a simulation that entails their attempted rescue of a civilian ship, the Kobayashi maru, in the (previously unmentioned) Klingon Neutral Zone. To rescue the ship, they have to violate treaty and enter the zone.

Once there, they get ambushed and outnumbered. The ship cannot be saved. The point is stated by Kirk as being to illustrate that how a young officer deals with death is at least important as how they deal with life. He is mentioned as the only person to ever beat the no-win scenario.

Later, they explain that he had taken the test twice, and on his third attempt, he entered the computer room and reprogrammed the scenario so it was possible to save the ship. Drew a commendation for original thinking.

The film is worth seeing; it was good enough to save the franchise from extinction following a dismal first movie, and is widely acknowledged as the best in the entire series, even now.

 

My personal fave is IV — The Voyage Home, followed closely by Khan for all 10.
Generally, I'm one of those even numbers means good, odd numbers means suck guys.
That's a bad sign for the reboot, with it being No. 11 in the series and also that it appears its release has been pushed back from Christmas to next summer.

 

I thought the question was going to be, "Have you ever kissed a girl?"

 

Well played, TSP.

 

Wouldn't that be a rhetorical question?

 

My wife is a big Star Trek fan and in my opinion is smoking.
When you meet a woman who is a bigger Star Trek fan than you, how could you not want to marry her?
Now my 8-year-old daughter is starting to get into it.
I bought her the boxed set of the animated series, she loves it.
We're not all dorks.

 

The sports dork is a similar breed as the comic book dork, or the Star Trek dork.

You really think knowing all the minutiae of strategies and history about baseball/football/basketball, etc. actually gets one carnal knowledge in the average bar? Just as unimportant, just as uninteresting to many people.