1 NASA Guy 2: Okay, open up the simulator.
2 {It is revealed that Ishmael and Lorn are in a simulator, as the NASA Engineer walks into shot}
2 Ishmael: Wow, a test to see how we face certain death.
2 Loren: No, that was a perfectly survivable emergency simulation.
3 Loren: Why would we test a certain death situation?
3 Ishmael: You know, like the Kobayashi Maru.
4 Loren: The what?
4 Ishmael: Gak! I'm going into space with someone who knows nothing about space travel!

Ishmael refers to the famous Kobayashi Maru scenario from the opening of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

I tell you, if I was going into space with someone, I'd want them to know their Star Trek. How else will they know what to do when confronted by mysterious god-like alien intelligences that treat humans as playthings?

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2020-03-07 Rerun commentary: And how else will they know that the best way to beat an insane all-powerful computer is to ask it to calculate the last digit of pi?

Or what to do when told to engage in a battle to the death with a huge lizard alien on a barren planet with only strange geological formations to work with?

Or that the best way to solve medical crises is not to set your senior medical officer on them, but to have the captain of the ship walk in after days of fruitless microbiological research and solve the problem within two minutes?