I don’t believe in the no-win scenario

During my cancer treatment, when I was told that only 4 percent of pancreatic cancer patients live five years, a line from the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan came into my head. In the film, Starfleet cadets are faced with a simulated training scenario where, no matter what they do, their entire crew is killed. The film explains that when Kirk was a cadet, he reprogrammed the simulation because “he didn’t believe in the no-win scenario.”

Over the years, some of my sophisticated academic colleagues have turned up their noses at my Star Trek infatuation. But from the start, it has never failed to stand me in good stead.

After Shatner learned of my diagnosis, he sent me a photo of himself as Kirk. On it he wrote: “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario.”

Quote by William Shatner as Kirk, to Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008)
from The Last Lecture
Chapter: A Skill Set Called Leadership
Image – Editor B – Learning to Crawl

Star Trek Dream Achieved

I found a five-second YouTube clip of Randy Pausch’s Star Trek cameo! I don’t know how long it will be there, but for what it’s worth, fire it up and watch closely for the man in green who says “Captain, we have visual!”

He looks very businesslike.

Think about it – five seconds are gone before we know it, but there it is, dream fulfilled, large as life – larger, if you saw this in a theater. And, it’s now not just his dream. Reading about what it meant to him has left a Pausch-spirited footprint on me.

Tags: Believe, Dreams, Faith
Posted in Randy Pausch

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