I think it was a masterstroke to have Georgiou disappear before Discovery finds out who or what caused The Burn. She won't know what to do about it, one way or another, and no one she'd tell (if she told them) would know what to do about it either.
She's going to end up in the era she just left (IE Pike's era). Why? Because the show has been in pre-production for a while, the storyline for Season 1 parsed and broken down <--- And that was all done when the Discovery series was set in the 23rd century. It was always planned for the character to leave the U.S.S. Discovery; but with the decided changes to Discovery (IE setting it in the 32nd century starting with S3); the only remaining question was how to get the Georgiou character back where she needed to be for the plains made for her series to progress; and when in ST: D S3 it would occur (IE before/after/or as part of the S3 finale). As we all saw they opted for pretty much just before the S3 finale - they have the next episode set up whatever two part finale they have in store - and we go from there to ST: D S4 (and "Section 31" S1 whenever they get the actual production going).
Memory transfer into a clone, most likely. And that would be helpful in editing it down to just the fun memories he wanted Bashir and His Most Important Friend to discover and play around with.
They knew for several years that Discovery was leaving the 23rd century. According to Kurtzman that was planned before season 1 if I remember reading correctly.
It will be a founding of Section 31 series set in the present day or near future. As I mentioned elsewhere, having a Terran found an organization that many find antithetical to the Star Trek universe is exactly the sort of retcon they like. Present day setting also reduces production cost.
Well, the organisation is called Section 31, because it's a hidden in plain sight clause in the Starfleet charter.... So there has to be a Starfleet around for them to be the shady undercover arm of. Unless it's Donald Trump's laughable multiple copyright infringing Space Force were talking about, that surely rules out the present day.
No it wasn't (and they didn't) - the only thing preplanned for the end of Season 1 was that they knew they were going to have the Enterprise 1701 show up. The idea of going to the 32nd century came up with the new writing staff as they were breaking the storyline/episodes for Season 2.
Don't we know from Kovich that the two universes began to drift apart just after Georgiou left? The inclusion of that line makes me think the setting must be around then (or why include it?), but perhaps not.
Not just after: people were still easily crossing over a century later in DS9, but surely the earlier the better.
What makes you think one line of Dialogue from Enterprise would stop them from setting the show whenever they want? If they want to have Section 31 predate Starfleet I'm sure they will find a way to wink at the audience to tell us that it will get folded in when the time comes. She has future knowledge after all.
Back in the '90s, I had this fan-theory that Section 31 not only pre-dated Starfleet, but pre-dated United Earth. I figured Section 31 actually originated in the United States, and that it formed shortly after First Contact.
I don't think they will make a Star Trek show without spaceships. So I don't think it will be present day. Even if it is present day Georgiou will have a spaceship.
Maybe Georgiou herself will write Section 31 into the Starfleet Charter. She'll name the organization after itself.
I'm going with the in between period between discovery and the first episode of TOS. Section 31 needs to be fully established so they can do the things we don't see in the background, but then I'm happy I get to see Space Nikita finally. How would that even be possible? What present day? Our present day? Why would we need Section 31 now?
It was mentioned that there hadn't been a single crossing in over 500 years (let's be generous and say 550 years). That would put the last crossing at the year 2638 (close to mid 27th century). GoF said Georgiou will be returned to a time when the prime and mirror universes were still in alignment. So that would probably mean around the time Discovery left... because the distance between the two universes did not start to increase until 'sometime' after Georgiou left. I'd imagine that both the 23rd and 24th century would still be fine.
Because she's from the Prime Universe. It's time travel coupled with dimensional travel that causes the sickness.