What era the U.S.S. Discovery NCC-1031 will be from?

[ChristopherPike]

Post 2273. The deflector would resemble a gold satellite dish at any point earlier. Either circular or rectangular pre-TOS. It's a solid blue light like the TMP Enterprise, emitted from segments running around the circumference.

It could be still be around at any point later though. Earlier only by some sort of time travel... and we know how much fans love that.

I think I get where this Section 31 speculation is coming from. It's because the ship is too damn angular in places like the Vengeance. Funnily enough there's a Blu ray extra where they call that ship "Anti-Roddenberry". It's a feeling I get when I look at this thing. Launched from it's secret sinister hollowed out asteroid base. The equivalent of finding a Bond villain living under a volcano.

 

[O_Kav]

I voted for Post NX Era, but I wouldn't be surprised if they went for a Post-TOS Era or the TMP Era... They can always say it was an experimental design that didn't stick up and they decided to continue to do Constitution-style ships and the Excelsior class. Maybe that's the gimmick of the show, an "underdog" ship that ends up proving its worth.

But that's me reading too much into it. I think they will settle with a post-NX Era really.

 

[Control Voice]

My guess...first science ship after the Romulan Conflict.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

@Nightowl1701 & @ancient :
Yeah, that's what I went with as well - however, the biggest "hole" in design history is between the Enterprise NX-01 and the USS Kelvin NCC-0514 - a full 90 years - so it would fit well there too.
EDIT - for visual reference:

Forgetting the resemblance of the ship to the Planet Of The Titans concept, there's the asteroid base concept from the same place that I didn't realize earlier.

If I had to guess I'd say post-TOS, because the design of Discovery looks remarkably similar to some of the early concept art for TMP, like this one here:

But it could be any era really, and as has already been suggested, Discovery could be an older ship in service, just like how the Excelsior-class remained in service for at least eighty years in the TNG timeline.

See above, that ship is concept art from the aborted Planet Of The Titans movie idea.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

Post 2273. The deflector would resemble a gold satellite dish at any point earlier.

Not necessarily, afterall, the Kelvin's dish glowed blue. It's possible that certain superficial similarities change, and then come back again, in Starfleet's design history, as technology changes. Features like the deflector may only look superficially similar. For example, the red bussard collectors disappeared for a while (during TMP era), but then came back again in TNG. I doubt they went back to an earlier technology; rather, the latest designs will have needed a similar physical feature to function. Another example is Archer's ship having red bussards, and then the Kelvin not having them, and then TOS Enterprise having them again. Or Archer's ship having a gold deflector dish, but then the Kelvin not. It's like real life in this respect; unpredictable design changes, happening for practical reasons, as science dictates them. It's even possible to have the two side-by-side on different classes of ship.

Overall, in the past 24 hours, there has been a lot of talk about how the ship's design seems to be before or after a certain ship, based on something like it's warp nacelles, but technology does not progress in a linear gradient like that - either in real life or in Star Trek for that matter. Rather, design elements are just dictated by utilitarian need. The overall feeling I get is that the design is intended to be an early Federation ship (backed up by it's low registry, and choice of 70s inspiration), but other than that, it could be almost anywhere in the 23rd century, or even late 22nd century.

 

[jaime]

Looking at it more....the bussards could be TNG era but missing a part... Cowling and cover caps.( damage? Unfinished and forgotten pulled out of mothballs?)
They have the glowing blue warp grilles, which are a post TNG feature that got put into enterprise too...but have their Genesis in TMP where the grilles glow blue during warp but not all the time....
The deflector too is definitely Connie refit era, the overall shape of the secondary hull is reminiscent of the sovereign class, but those godawful stanchions make it look like a k'tnga snuggled up with the excelsior.
Speaking of which the saucer borrows a good many cues from the excelsior, specifically in the unclad ribbing.
Overall it is definitely a movie era ship...just the stanchions and nacelles are off. It shares some shape with the ambassador class for instance, the angles...the windows too are very TNG or Voyager.

So...the dirty hull...is it a zombie kit bash of a ship? Is it the starfleet equivalent of Nimbus 3, or the Dyson and Avenger class starships in Sto, where all the major powers worked together?

I am hoping we can avoid post apocalyptic trek (ignoring the fact it is technically one of the earliest post apocalypse set franchises, it just doesn't dwell there) but I am not so sure looking at all the brown.
Someone take a yard brush and bucket to that thing.

BTW...the windows make it look rather huge...so post nemesis with damaged parts and salvaged parts is very likely.


Who cares. Prime universe is back baby. Take that Ya faithless wombats who thought that would never happen.

 

[Tim Walker]

There was a thread in which it was suggested that the Constellation class was a back up plan. In case the Excelsior prototype failed.

If we are talking about the TMP era, perhaps there were two designs intended as back up plan for the Excelsior:

1. Discovery (at least one prototype)

2. Constellation class. Went into production when transwarp drive failed.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Forgetting the resemblance of the ship to the Planet Of The Titans concept, there's the asteroid base concept from the same place that I didn't realize earlier.

View attachment 1639

Thank you! I was just about to post this, and now I don't have to hunt down the image.

Interesting that the production design seems to be going along the lines of PotT.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Thank you! I was just about to post this, and now I don't have to hunt down the image.

Interesting that the production design seems to be going along the lines of PotT.

I loved TMP, but POTT might have made for a better movie concept. I did like the refit Enterprise better than the concept, but only because the concept was so completely different that it would have had to be a whole new ship.

 

[dbcooper]

Perhaps the elongated delta shape is due to some kind of experimental slip-stream or trans-warp drive?

 

[Tim Walker]

Yes, maybe Discovery is a Transpwarp/Slipstream test bed.

And perhaps the ship looks somewhat utilitarian because the new technology is clunky.

 

[Ithekro]

Perhaps USS Discovery was an alternative to the Constitution-class. NCC-1031 is not that far away from NCC-1017 (USS Constellation). Discovery looks sort of big via its windows. If we assume that the Prime Universe had a USS Kelvin, than Starfleet made some big ships prior to the Constitution-class. USS Discovery could have been an alternative way to get the higher warp speeds that the Constitutions would enjoy. The ship appears to have what looks like three cylinders of warp coils side by side in each warp nacelle. It has multiple massive looking impulse units and a wide hanger door. It also has the sunken valley with ribbing look to the saucer like USS Franklin. She is also massively armed.

Just how big is this ships?

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm not gonna lie. I have no idea.

Based entirely on because... the 2270s. Circa TMP Era. It was designed in the 1970s for Planet of the Titans. That's all I've got.

 

[FreddyE]

From a design point of few...this ship could fit in any era from post ENT to somewhere not to long after TMP. It has design elements from all the eras but TNG onwards. But then there is the low registry number.

 

[eyeresist]

I didn't vote because I don't think my opinion is covered by the available options.

Pre TOS unless we want to think the Discovery is an old ship during the show.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a post-ENT/pre-TOS ship brought out of storage to work in a post-VOY era.

I am hoping we can avoid post apocalyptic trek (ignoring the fact it is technically one of the earliest post apocalypse set franchises, it just doesn't dwell there) but I am not so sure looking at all the brown.

This is what I suspect, an old ship taken out of mothballs during a post-NEM crisis. Bear in mind too, the split Starfleet emblem used for the new series.

Or the producers could just be trolling us. That would be okay.

 

[SpaceLama]

Bear in mind the question asked when the ship was built, not when the series takes place.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I would say she was built before the TOS Enterprise, though looks to have undergone a refit. As far as I'm aware there's been nothing to say that the Discovery will the best, biggest and newest ship of whatever era it is in. For all we know she was built in the 2240s but the series is a contemporary for TMP, giving her more than a few light-years on the clock.

 

[Focus Abbey]

My guess right now is that Discovery is an antique, lost or abandoned starship that has been pressed back into service—possibly after a retrofit. The demo reel conveys the sense that the vessel has been drawn out of hiding. Possibly, the name Discovery is a clue to the discovery of the ship itself.

 

[SpaceLama]

Where are people getting the idea that it's been pressed back into service from? A lot of people have been saying it, but isn't it more likely its just going to be set in whatever era the ship was built (more or less)?

 

[jaime]

Where are people getting the idea that it's been pressed back into service from? A lot of people have been saying it, but isn't it more likely its just going to be set in whatever era the ship was built (more or less)?

Cos it looks battered and grubby. And would be the first time we see a ship built in an asteroid, as opposed to stuck in one or hidden in one.
To paraphrase Data...
It is...Brown.