Based on the official Star Trek Chronology, the series begins 10 years prior to the founding of the United Federation of Planets, and 88 years after the events of Star Trek: First Contact (1996). The first episode, Broken Bow, Part 1 (2001), takes place approximately 114 years prior to the start of Star Trek (1966), and 213 years before Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). The majority of the series mainly takes place between 2151 and 2155.
Admiral Forrest is named after DeForest Kelley, the late Star Trek (1966) actor who played Leonard H. McCoy. Similarly, Commander Williams and Admiral Leonard from the pilot Broken Bow, Part 1 (2001) are named after series stars William Shatner (James T. Kirk) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock). T.J. Hooker (1982): Big Foot (1982) also had a character with the last name Forrest. That show had numerous references & stars from the Star Trek franchise, the most well known of which was William Shatner from the original TV series.
The first season hinted at a budding romance between Doctor Phlox and human Crewman Elizabeth Cutler. Tragically, actress Kellie Waymire died in 2003 before their fictional relationship could be further explored.
Costume designer Robert Blackman decided to look forward from the present rather than backward from Kirk's time, thereby creating uniforms that resembled futuristic NASA uniforms instead of earlier versions of those seen in the original Star Trek (1966). Blackman was also tired of having to hide all the zippers in the previous Star Trek series' costumes, and incorporated 13 visible zippers into each of the new jumpsuits. However, the suits were designed to be so trim that the actors were hardly able to carry anything in any of these pockets. In fact, practically none of the zippers actually featured a pocket behind them.
The episodes Home (2004) and Daedalus (2005) both reveal that Earth and Vulcan are sixteen light-years distant from each other. According to Gene Roddenberry, James Blish (who wrote short-story adaptations of episodes from the original Star Trek (1966) series, plus one original novel, "Spock Must Die!"), and multiple background sources (including endorsements from various scientists from the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), planet Vulcan would likely be in orbit around the trinary star system 40 Eridani, a real-life trinary star system located 16.45 light years from Earth.