Who the hell is Billy Cook?

[GeneHunt]

Archers line "Billy Cook says"...

Who the hell was Billy Cook??

A school friend?

A politician?

A warp five project spokesman?

an Anti Vulcan activist?

Discuss

 

[Michael]

Memory Alpha is your friend.

 

[GeneHunt]

Memory Alpha is your friend.

Thats their take, it was never said on screen. Would be interesting to hear some other ideas, and besides why would a 12 year olds opinion be important if he was only Archers friend.

 

[Karnbeln]

Maybe some sort of media figure or pundit? Perhaps he's a Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann of his day.

 

[Middleman]

Here is the quote from Broken Bow:

JONATHAN: Bigger than Ambassador Pointy's ship?
FATHER: His name is Soval, and he's been very helpful. And I've told you not to call him that, Jonathan.
JONATHAN: Well, Billy Cook said we'd be flying at warp five by now if the Vulcans hadn't kept things from us.
FATHER: Well they have their reasons. God knows what they are.

It appears to me that Billy Cook is a boyhood friend of young Jonathan Archer. Like many boys, they discuss various topics and if you remember back to when you were 12, the opinions of your friends were very important. I guess in their case Vulcans were one of the things they discussed. If you watch that scene again, it all becomes pretty clear.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Maybe in Season 5, Archer's boyhood friend could've finally appeared. Say he took a similar career path and fared much better, in a rival service to Starfleet.

I can't quite shake the image of a certain General Cook giving the Captain of the first ever Warp 5 starship... a wedgie.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Billy Cook is Chef.

 

[Middleman]

Billy Cook is Chef.

I thought Chef was Riker working on a second career after Troi threw him out.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Riker should have stayed away from that black hole.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm assuming a childhood/school pal of Archer's around age 10 or 11. He was never mentioned again unless there was a reference in one of the ENT novels I missed.

 

[Karnbeln]

Here is the quote from Broken Bow:

JONATHAN: Bigger than Ambassador Pointy's ship?
FATHER: His name is Soval, and he's been very helpful. And I've told you not to call him that, Jonathan.
JONATHAN: Well, Billy Cook said we'd be flying at warp five by now if the Vulcans hadn't kept things from us.
FATHER: Well they have their reasons. God knows what they are.

It appears to me that Billy Cook is a boyhood friend of young Jonathan Archer. Like many boys, they discuss various topics and if you remember back to when you were 12, the opinions of your friends were very important. I guess in their case Vulcans were one of the things they discussed. If you watch that scene again, it all becomes pretty clear.

Hearing the quote in context, I withdraw my pundit guess. I agree it is clear that Billy Cook is a friend.