Please find the article from Memory Alpha on NCC-numbers below: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/NCC Some of the lowest numbers, like NCC-42 and NCC-176 were found in TNG era, therefore implying Discovery will be set between ENT and TOS basing only on the number being lower then Enterprise's is definitely wrong. These numbers look like a mess to me, there is also a possibility that after a ship is destroyed/missing/whatever, a new one can be assigned to that number - just like we had different Enterprises with the same number and only a letter added.
I think the ship could have been made between ENT and TOS originally, but then we'll see it in action during whatever time period the new series is set. I'm leaning towards post-TOS but it could be anything really. I like the idea of it being a missing ship, which would give extra credence to the name Discovery.
Registry numbers have never made sense or been consistent. Maybe we're thinking too technically, trying to use an unreliable system to date and place the ship. Perhaps we should be thinking more metaphorically... Could 1031 be a hint, clue, Easter egg that somehow the ship/show involves... Section 31...??
Having an asteroid for a base suggests to me it may be cut off from the Federation. I am beginning to suspect it may even be missing in time.
Hey nice guess, Section 31 is a good hint. Maybe it could a time traveling ship, organized from section 31 through all possible decades (2160, 2220, 2244...)
There's a dozen different ways it could be an old ship in a new timeline. I've had a pet project on the go for years that involves an old starship thats immune to enemy attack as - kind of like the Galactica - it's lack of new tech makes it immune to a kind of cyber-warfare attack. Of course it could be a lost ship being discovered, or hunted down, or it could be similar to SG Universe, or even Event Horizon. There's a dozen possibilities that place it in a 24th century (or further) timeline and not a 23rd. It's all a big ambiguous, but Fuller's only hint was his comments on the 23rd century at the panel.
If the 1031 = Section 31 theory is true I'd be very happy. Some sort of secret/big discovery going on, possible throughout time? Or even just at a future point from the seeming origin of the ship.
Different registry number for different classes in the beginning of the Federation, but then the NCC-1701-? frakked it all up?
It's an OS Movie Era starship that's put back into service post Civil War. Staring Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Evans, and for no reason at all, Summer Glau.
The registry is also possibly a reference to the shuttle Discovery's orbiter vehicle designation, OV-103.
Definitely a possibility. The Galaxy class USS Challenger had a registry based on the real Challenger after all.
Occam's Razor: the greatest likelihood is that the series takes place during the era which is characteristic of the ship.