"What's past is prologue" is a line from Act II, Scene I of William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". It also inspired the title of Past Prologue (1993) as well as Jake Sisko's story "Past Prologue" in The Ascent (1996) and the Star Trek (1966) novel "Past Prologue".
Captain Lorca's ship in the opening of the episode is the ISS Buran (NCC-1422) The Buran is a Cardenas-class starship in use during the 2250's by the Federation. The USS Yeager participated in Battle of the Binary Stars with the Klingons in 2256. Battle at the Binary Stars (2017)
Like the contemporaneous Nimitz-class and the later 23rd century Constellation-class, as well as the 24th century Cheyenne- and Prometheus-classes, this type was noted for being one of the small number of Federation classes that had more than two nacelles. Episodes where these ships are used include; (The Battle (1987), The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1 (1990), The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2 (1990) and Message in a Bottle (1998)).
Like the contemporaneous Nimitz-class and the later 23rd century Constellation-class, as well as the 24th century Cheyenne- and Prometheus-classes, this type was noted for being one of the small number of Federation classes that had more than two nacelles. Episodes where these ships are used include; (The Battle (1987), The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1 (1990), The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2 (1990) and Message in a Bottle (1998)).
This episode takes place in 2257.