Star Trek: Discovery apparently is going to take place before the original Star Trek series, as evidenced by the ship number on the Discovery.
It’s even elaborated a little by showrunner Bryan Fuller:
“There’s a big clue in the number of the ship [NCC-1031] that indicates when we’re set,”
Given that the registry number of the original Enterprise was NCC-1701, and this one is a fair number above that, it’s quite possible that the timeline would take place far before the time of Spock and Captain Kirk.
That’s all we know about the series thus far, but Fuller says that they will have more spoilers for the season next week on 10 August, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, check out our comprehensive Star Trek timeline compilation!