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). Big Foot (1982)(#2.5) also had a character with a 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.
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.
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.
It was later revealed that if the series had returned for another season, one of the major story lines would have been the beginning of the war with the Romulan empire as originally mentioned in Balance of Terror (1966). Another idea that never got to fruition was to explore the backstory of the Borg Queen (first featured in Star Trek: First Contact (1996)). She was originally a Starfleet medical technician who got assimilated and abducted by a Borg drone from Regeneration (2003), and there were serious plans to bring back Alice Krige for the part.