While sci-fi fans wait for ‘Star Trek Discovery’ to hit the small screen, they will soon be having some light relief in the form of a Seth MacFarlane spoof of the popular sci-fi show. ‘The Orville’ is set to be aired on Fox at some stage during autumn and from the trailer, it looks like it is going to be pretty entertaining.

‘The Orville’ heading to new frontiers in space

As reported by Coming Soon, Fox has just released the trailer for the new comedy sci-fi, starring MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki, who have ended up piloting the ship together.

The spaceship goes under the titular name of ‘The Orville.’ Acting like a sort of spoof version of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, they head off for new frontiers in space with a suitably quirky and mixed-species crew.

The show is both starred in – and executive-produced by – MacFarlane (of ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Ted’ fame) and directed by Jon Favreau (‘Iron Man,’ ‘The Jungle Book).

The story is set in the 25th century and details the adventures of ‘The Orville,’ an exploratory spaceship, and its mixed human and alien crew. Along the way, they face some of the dangers of life in space, while dealing with some humorous and familiar situations of everyday life on board.

According to the synopsis, 400 years in the future, Earth is now part of the Planetary Union, an advanced and, for the most part, a peaceful civilization which owns 3,000 exploratory spaceships. Ed Mercer, played by MacFarlane, has been going through a bitter and nasty divorce and is thrilled to get the chance to captain his own ship, the U.S.S. Orville.

While Mercer hopes to prove he can do the job and also improve his lot in life, things start going wrong when his First Officer turns out to be none other than his former wife from said bitter divorce, Kelly Grayson (played by Palicki).

MacFarlane’s rather eccentric crew members include his best pal, Gordon Malloy (played by Scott Grimes) a character with multiple authority issues.

His onboard medical expert is Dr. Claire Finn (with Penny Johnson Jerald in the role).

There’s also Bortus (played by Peter Macon), a rather familiar-looking alien from an all-male species (that only needs to pee once a year). We will also meet Mark Jackson’s Isaac, an artificial life-form that believes all biological beings are inferior.

The onboard navigator for "The Orville" is John Lamarr (played by J. Lee) who manages to keep the humor going, no matter what happens.

Rather hilarious is Yaphit, a creature with a gelatinous form (you’ll see him getting stomped on by MacFarlane’s character in the trailer) – he’s given a voice by comedian Norm MacDonald.

When viewing the characters, their uniforms and the general theme of the show, most people believe it screams “Star Trek” spoof. However, the Washington Post’s reporter claimed the trailer had a “tongue-in-cheek” “Galaxy Quest” tone. “The Orville” is set to air later this year on Fox on Thursday nights.