 SPOILER: Leonard Nimoy (qv) was persuaded to return as Spock when  he was promised a death scene, an early draft of the script called  for the death scene to take place at the beginning of the film.  However, this information got out to the fans (possibly from  Gene Roddenberry (qv)) who became highly upset. So the "Kobayashi  Maru" scenario was invented to allow Spock to "die" in the opening  as rumored and throw off the audience for the drama of Spocks  actual death at the end of the film.