Starfleet Jedi

Why was Admiral Kirk personally grading the cadets in the simulator in TWOK? As the head of Starfleet Academy one would think that he would be concerned with running of the Academy as a whole and perhaps the preperations for the training cruise and letting the instructors (which I presume Spock, Sulu, Uhuru and McKoy where acting as) grade the class. Does the novelisation shed any light on this?

Cpl Kendall wrote:Why was Admiral Kirk personally grading the cadets in the simulator in TWOK? As the head of Starfleet Academy one would think that he would be concerned with running of the Academy as a whole and perhaps the preperations for the training cruise and letting the instructors (which I presume Spock, Sulu, Uhuru and McKoy where acting as) grade the class. Does the novelisation shed any light on this?

I have not known, that he was head of Starfleet Academy.

I thought, he was "only" one of many Starfleet Admirals.

And why should he have no interest in the education of Starfleet Officers-to-be, especially when his old crew is instructing them?

Who is like God arbour wrote: I have not known, that he was head of Starfleet Academy.

I thought, he was "only" one of many Starfleet Admirals.

And why should he have no interest in the education of Starfleet Officers-to-be, especially when his old crew is instructing them?

I'm not saying he shouldn't have an interest but he specifically says:

ST:TWOK Script wrote: KIRK

(continuing)

I assume you're loitering around

here to learn what efficiency rating

I plan to give to your cadets.

SPOCK

I am considerably curious.

That implies that he is personally grading them.

Ok, Memory Alpha has this to say:

Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 and took a position in the admiralty, supervising command-track cadets at Starfleet Academy among his duties. The lack of a center seat gnawed at him, until he began to express discontent in his latest posting. If only for the chance to be back in space on his beloved former ship, he eagerly boarded the Enterprise, now commanded by Captain Spock, as an observer to a cadet training cruise.

Although I have heard that he was in charge of Starfleet Academy, I do not know where that info originates. There's no citation for the above info either so it could be garbage for all I know.

Cpl Kendall wrote:Ok, Memory Alpha has this to say:

Kirk returned to Starfleet in 2284 and took a position in the admiralty, supervising command-track cadets at Starfleet Academy among his duties. The lack of a center seat gnawed at him, until he began to express discontent in his latest posting. If only for the chance to be back in space on his beloved former ship, he eagerly boarded the Enterprise, now commanded by Captain Spock, as an observer to a cadet training cruise.

Although I have heard that he was in charge of Starfleet Academy, I do not know where that info originates. There's no citation for the above info either so it could be garbage for all I know.

To grade cadets was only one of his duties.

Maybe usually, this dutie is delegated to lower ranks and he has only the responsibility.

But maybe he wanted to go on board of the Enterprise and has decided, that he oversees the education of these cadets himself to have a reason to go on board of its "beloved former ship".
And to be credible, he would have to grade the cadets in the simulation too.

Rank has its privileges.

That could be, Or certain milestone events in cadet training are overseen by Admirals. When I was in Basic Training we had some inspections that where conducted by the Commander of the School. Same with other training commands that I attended. Perhaps this was a milestone event in their training and as such was conducted by a member of the senior administration.

Cpl Kendall wrote:That could be, Or certain milestone events in cadet training are overseen by Admirals. When I was in Basic Training we had some inspections that where conducted by the Commander of the School. Same with other training commands that I attended. Perhaps this was a milestone event in their training and as such was conducted by a member of the senior administration.

That could be, especially it they were officers-to-be.

I doubt, that an Admiral would oversee the education of simple crewmans.

Who is like God arbour wrote:
That could be, especially it they were officers-to-be.

I doubt, that an Admiral would oversee the education of simple crewmans.

I can't remember where there any other officer cadets in TWOK other than Saavik? You'd think there would be more than one on a training cruiser like the Enterprise.

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Who is like God arbour wrote:
That could be, especially it they were officers-to-be.

I doubt, that an Admiral would oversee the education of simple crewmans.

I can't remember where there any other officer cadets in TWOK other than Saavik? You'd think there would be more than one on a training cruiser like the Enterprise.

As far as I can remember, in the novell, there was a helmsman and a communication cadet too.

But isn't a cadet always an officer candidate?

There's nothing barring an administrator from also teaching. Department chairs do it all the time, but sometimes even principals, deans, chancellors, etc can be seen personally involved with classes.

Who is like God arbour wrote:
As far as I can remember, in the novell, there was a helmsman and a communication cadet too.

But isn't a cadet always an officer candidate?

In a modern military school cadets are usually officer cadets while enlistee's are referred to as trainee's or recruits. Scott refers to his enlisted personell in engineering as "trainee's" in Sickbay. So I assume that when they refer to cadets in Starfleet they refer to officer cadets.

It might have something to do with his personal history with the Kobayashi Maru training scenario. He might take an interest in how an up and coming officer like Saavik (who I guess is also Spocks protege) handles both a no win situation and command.

That is a good point. If I were running Starfleet Command, I would consider putting the last person to cheat on the Maru test in charge of it a good idea.