Fox bets big on MacFarlane's sci-fi dramedy this fall. Plus: Trailers for 'The Gifted' and 'Ghosted'

Seth MacFarlane is boldly going where few creatives would dare: producing and starring in a prime-time Star Trek-inspired hour-long dramedy series.

Below is the first trailer for the Family Guy and Ted creator’s new project, The Orville, which Fox is giving a crucial timeslot this fall. Fox also released trailers for its other new fall shows, Ghosted and The Gifted.

The Orville is set 400 years in the future and follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Orville, an exploratory vessel with a crew of humans and aliens led by a recently divorced officer (MacFarlane) taking command for the first time. Also on the ship is the captain’s ex-wife (Adrianne Palicki, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), his best friend, (Scott Grimes, Justified), an alien from a single-sex species (Peter Macon,

Shameless), and a gelatinous creature voiced by comedian Norm Macdonald, among others. Here’s the trailer for the pilot, which was directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man):

Sure, the trailer looks like a wacky Galaxy Quest-style comedy but we’re told the show has serious elements as well and plays more like a dramedy.

Fox has blessed — or perhaps cursed — The Orville with a key time period, Thursdays at 9 p.m., where it will face a hugely popular dramedy, NBC’s This Is Us. Not to mention, CBS is bringing back actual Star Trek this fall with the launch of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access.

Fox also released a trailer for Ghosted, which is a bit like an X-Files parody starring Craig Robinson (The Office) and Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) as paranormal investigators. And there’s also The Gifted, an X-Men series (that Fox cannot officially call an X-Men series) starring Stephen Moyer (True Blood), about a suburban couple whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers.