There has been a lot of news in the last week about Star Trek: Discovery, but there has also been some news about another fall show set in space we are keeping an eye on, The Orville, the Star Trek-inspired sci-fi comedy from Seth MacFarlane and Brannon Braga.

Fox has announced they will premiere the first hour of The Orville pilot on Sunday September 10th at 8 PM (two weeks before Star Trek: Discovery), immediately following an NFL doubleheader. The second half of the pilot will air the following Sunday at 8PM on Fox, also immediately following NFL. These football lead-ins should give the show a boost before it moves to its regular showtime of Thursdays at 9PM, starting with the third episode on September 28th.

In Canada The Orville will air on City. The show will premiere in early fall in Canada, airing Thursdays at 9PM and in late fall it will movie to Thursdays at 8PM. Rogers Media/City haven’t yet released the premiere date for Canada.

Orville panel at SDCC

Today Fox announced their schedule for next month’s San Diego Comic Con, which includes a panel for The Orville on Saturday:

[Saturday] 4:15 – 5:15PM The Orville, Room 6A – Come meet the whole crew of the mid-level exploratory vessel U.S.S. Orville – Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Scott Grimes, Penny Johnson Jerald, Peter Macon, Halston Sage, J. Lee, Mark Jackson, and Chad Coleman – as well as producers David A. Goodman and Brannon Braga – for an exclusive look at this sci-fi comedy series, which is a take-off of 1960s sci-fi shows like Star Trek. Jon Favreau directed the pilot.

Another indication of how much Fox is preparing to promote The Orville is that the first San Diego trolley car advertising wrap in advance of San Diego Comic Con next month was for The Orville. This first look was shared by the San Diego transit system 10 days ago.

First @Comic_Con Trolley wrap about to hit the rails and looks great! @TheOrville pic.twitter.com/LrgqCSKy9B — San Diego MTS (@sdmts) June 16, 2017

A closer look at the bridge

In a tweet over the weekend Seth MacFarlane shared a closer look at a console from the bridge of the USS Orville, which is yet another aspect of the production design that is reminiscent of the Star Trek TNG-era.

Another Trek vet on The Orville

Earlier this month Penny Johnson Jerald (herself a Star Trek vet) gave a shout out Andre Bormanis, who (along with Braga) wrote the episode being shot at the time.

Major shout out to @BrannonBraga and @AndreBormanis for writing this fabulous script @TheOrville for me 😘 — Penny Johnson Jerald (@btwprod) June 15, 2017

Bormanis worked as a science consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. He also wrote a number of episodes of Voyager and Enterprise. He joins a growing list of Star Trek vets behind the scenes including Braga, David A. Goodman, James Conway, Robert Duncan McNeill and Jonathan Frakes.

More behind-the-scenes

Some of the cast and crew of The Orville have been sharing some behind-the-scenes shots of the show, including young actor Kai Wener (who plays Ty Finn, son of Dr. Finn played by Penny Johnson). One of Kai’s tweets also revealed that MacFarlane directed one of the episodes shot in June.

Here is a shot Seth MacFarlane shared of Isaac the robot, played by Mark Jackson.

And here is a shot Mark Jackson shared of himself with his Isaac helmet off, joined by Penny Johnson.

Well it's Day 9 of episode 8 with Miss Penny and we're on our knees but damn it's been fun. @btwprod @theorville @SethMacFarlane pic.twitter.com/5IESPiAuAG — Mark Jackson (@markjacksonacts) June 17, 2017

And here is one from Seth’s personal chef, goofing off with one of the aliens.

How many 'banana – phone' photos am I allowed, before it becomes Un-aPEELing? @Dylzen #Orville pic.twitter.com/aRFcPQSWBo — Chef Vikki Krinsky (@chefvikkik) June 14, 2017

And here is a tweet from just today showing that they are getting ready to shoot the 10th episode (of 13) for the first season.

Superb table read of ep 10 of @TheOrville today. Wonderful words from @cherrycheva and direction from @BrannonBraga pic.twitter.com/nuoaqdYJCy — Mark Jackson (@markjacksonacts) June 27, 2017

Keep up with all The Orville coverage at TrekMovie.