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

[galad2003]

I have no idea so I voted for what I hope it will be - post Voyager. That way the writers are only hampered by past canon. A setting before that they have to worry about canon that happened in previous series as well as future series. Being post Voyager also means we can have guest appearances by old cast members without crazy plot lines. (I just hope they don't overdue it).

 

[Koo]

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 would be very surprised if that was the case. That possibility is the only thing keeping up my hope for Discovery.

 

[Riley]

I keep on hearing rumors this show is set between Star Trek 6 and the first season of TNG.

I thought Fuller dashed these rumors when he addressed the anthology rumors? He's not going to come out and admit it, though, so it's still possible. It would also explain why we haven't seen any of the uniforms or tech outside of the ship. That would almost certainly give away the era, especially if it's post-TUC, and the Discovery's crew is wearing the movie uniforms.

 

[aloha62]

I would be very surprised if that was the case. That possibility is the only thing keeping up my hope for Discovery.

Between TOS and TMP is my current guess based on a few of the details we have seen.

 

[eyeresist]

I thought Fuller dashed these rumors when he addressed the anthology rumors? He's not going to come out and admit it, though, so it's still possible. It would also explain why we haven't seen any of the uniforms or tech outside of the ship. That would almost certainly give away the era, especially if it's post-TUC, and the Discovery's crew is wearing the movie uniforms.

Woah, what if the Discovery crew was wearing the chunky red TWOK uniforms? That would be wild.

 

[Karp666]

ANYTHING but TMP uniforms.

 

[Eckauskas]

I really, really want a post-Voyager timeline.

Gives us a chance to see how the Federation deals with the destruction of Romulus and moving into the STO timeline. But I fear it's going to be between TOS and TNG, which is a waste.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I thought Fuller dashed these rumors when he addressed the anthology rumors? He's not going to come out and admit it, though, so it's still possible. It would also explain why we haven't seen any of the uniforms or tech outside of the ship.

That's probably because they haven't filmed anything yet. That SDCC trailer was little more than a test render, but actual production doesn't begin for another couple of months, IIRC, so everything else is still in developmental stages.

 

[SeamusShameless]

As far as the design of Discovery goes, I think a bit of misdirection may be afoot. They purposely chose a rejected design from the mid-seventies and a low registry number to keep people guessing. They knew that Trek nerds would try to conjecture based on design and registry number, so they're trying to have a bit of fun with us. Personally, I'm hoping for a post-2387 setting as it would give them the most freedom, but I'm not sure how likely it'll be.

 

[Ronald Held]

I do not expect post Hobus, as if there were a compelling reason for the era, B&B would have done instead of ENT.
Maybe post ST VI but between ENT and Pike would give more freedom for stories.

 

[Mytran]

If its going to be post Hobus it needs to be decades, not just a few years.

 

[SeamusShameless]

I'd go at least a century past 2387, maybe a few centuries. That would give them a semi-clean slate ala TNG.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Since Bad Robot refuses to allow the Trek novels to reference anything that has appeared in a Kelvinverse film (even including the destruction of Romulus), I'd honestly be surprised if they allowed DSC to touch on it in any way. But hope springs eternal.

 

[nx1701g]

With the images of the Captain's Chair being released I'm leaning on the side if it being TOS - potentially even pre-TOS.

 

[Mirror Mirror]

The ship and the command chair, to me suggest the refit era.

 

[Takeru]

I voted post 2273, the angular nacelles and the lit up deflector make me thing of that era. The ship itself might be older explaining the low registry number, she could have gotten a refit.

Ultimately we have no idea, it's a new series and they don't have to follow previous series design philosophies or registry number ideas (there's no rule that registry numbers have to go up the further we move into the Trek universe's timeline for example), which means it could be a new ship build in the early 25th century

 

[Santaman]

With the way she looks and the way she's lighted I would go for somewhere around the TMP era, maybe just afterwards.

 

[Tim Walker]

I have wondered if the Discovery design might have been an alternative. A stop gap, in case the Great Experiment failed.

Of course, not the favorite of Star Fleet brass. Not as sexy as the sleek, transwarp Excelsior.

 

[JediMindMeld]

I think the new show will be set in the post-TNG era. One of the reasons being that they've made such a huge deal of returning to Roddenberry's original vision (to the point where they made his son a producer), and his wish was always to move further into the future instead of dwelling on the past. Also, I don't think it's Fuller's style to limit himself to simply plugging gaps in the existing timeline.

Another reason is that I think there's much less appeal for science fiction that feels retro and outdated. It's not a great marketing decision when you're about to produce the first Star Trek show in over a decade.

A third reason is that I think the broken logo is meant to represent a rift in the federation. A small faction might be breaking off, or maybe it represents a conflict in human society. Civlization is only a few generations deep after all. After that we tend to lose touch with history. It's not unreasonable that some of the utopian values from the Next Generation era would get knocked back a little bit as humankind keeps travelling farther into space. Star Trek always went too far with concepts like a money-less society and eliminating all needs for possessions, especially since the show itself constantly argued against that view. You can't on one hand have Picard arguing that humanity is better off for not forming attachments to material things, only to then show him dragging that Ressikan flute and his Shakespeare collection all across the quadrant. Our idea of consumerism and capitalism has evolved since the last time Star Trek tried to be genuinely thought-provoking, as has our understanding of digital culture. Perhaps the new show will represent a less extreme utopian view as a result. We might see a future full of idealistic people who still have individual needs.

 

[Chadwick Adams]

I voted after TMP Enterprise refit simply because I believe its in, shortly before or after the era that is covered by the 6 original movies.

The new show unquestionably takes place after Enterprise, probably after the TOS era. Or transitional phases between TOS and TMP or after TUC. Could be that this is a prototype ship, just as Ralph Mcquarrie’s Enterprise was a prototype design. But I can't ignore all the TUC references, Brian Fuller talking about his love of TUC, Nicholas Meyer being onboard and his quote that TUC is a sort of jumping off point. There is also the Klingon style music and the overall Klingon shape and colour of the ship. Granted Klingon ships are grey in TOS era and green in the TOS movie and TNG era, but the D7’s are beige/brown coloured in TMP and TUC.

The typeset used for the title is clearly modified TOS. Does that mean its in that era or shortly after. I personally think a new show post Voyager would use a new typeset. Then again VOY and DS9 both used the TOS movie era typeset. In any case, the typeset could be an indicator but also might not be final.

Putting the NCC-1031 designation aside for the moment, we can all see the visual cues on the ship…

Although its prime universe, there are many cues taken from the Kelvin timeline like the typeset of the ship designation, the shield emitters on the saucer akin to the USS Franklin and the bridge, round dome similar in style to TOS-TOS movie era, as well as the USS Kelvin.

The phaser banks are not strips but rather emitters modules akin to TOS, TOS movies.

The current design of the deflector dish is TOS movie era.

The darker coloured lines around the outside rim of the dish did not appear until TMP on the Enterprise refit.

The hexagonal shape of the impulse engines, very TMP era.

Although I do not know what to make of the triple red (caged) bussard collectors or the glowing blue light strip down the side of nacelles.