Helen, Martha, Skits, Alice, T.D., and Truman are camping in the Lorraines' yard. It's night, but it isn't quite their bedtime yet, however they've run out of all their activities, so they're bored. T.D. suggests telling sci-fi stories, and initially Alice thinks that would be boring, while Truman is worried it'd give them nightmares, but eventually, everyone agrees with it.
First, Martha tells a story, beginning with T.D. running a lemonade stand. His stand is approached by two aliens, who claim to want to learn more about Earth. He shows them various parts of town, and they enjoy themselves, but when he introduces them to the Lorraines, Martha worries that they will live on Earth. Then, when she asks if they're invaders, they turn hostile. Skits shows up, and Martha expects him to fight them, but instead he buries a bone. Luckily, the aliens are afraid of bones, so they're scared away.
Helen tells the next story, in which T.D. is on the moon, buying moon grapes. The alien farmer warns him never to bring the seeds of the moon grapes home, since one can never tell what will happen if they're planted on Earth, but T.D. does it anyway. That night, the seed grows into a giant, moving, sentient vine. At first, T.D. likes this and makes the vine do his chores, and the vine doesn't mind doing the chores. However, when T.D. asks it to mow the lawn and weed the garden, it gets angry with him for mistreating plants. Luckily, before it can harm T.D., it wilts because he never watered it.
Then, T.D. tells a story, in which the Lorraines get some new neighbours named Mr. and Mrs. Feline and their baby. However, they're strange — Mr. Feline stares at a bird, they serve mouse soup, and the baby acts like a cat. They're then revealed to actually be alien cat people in disguise, who want to turn the Lorraines into cat people as well. Helen, Mariella, Jake, and the dogs manage to escape across a river (because cats hate water), but when they arrive back, they find that Danny has been turned into a cat man. This ending scares Martha.
This episode provides examples of
- Alien Invasion: Subverted in Martha's story, where two aliens almost invade Earth, but are scared away by Skits's bone.
- An Alien Named "Bob": In Martha's story, the aliens are named Martin and Sylvia Wheeler.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Played straight in Martha and T.D.'s stories, where the aliens want to invade Earth and turn some humans into their kind respectively, but averted in Helen's story, where the alien is just a farmer.
- Aliens Speaking English: In all the stories, the aliens speak English.
- Animal Jingoism: Parodied in T.D.'s story, where the heroes are dogs (and humans) while the villains are evil Cat Folk.
- Artistic License – Space: Justified since the stories are made up, but there are some inaccuracies in the stories:
- The aliens from Martha's story are Venusian. Venus most probably doesn't have any life on it, and on the rare chance it would have life, it wouldn't be a sapient species.
- In Helen's story, the alien farmer and his vine come from the moon. There is no life whatsoever on the moon.
- Badass Unintentional: In Martha's story, Skits scares the invading Venusians away unintentionally with a bone.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: In Martha's story, the aliens eat and drink by putting the food and drink into their ears instead of their mouths.
- Blatant Lies: In T.D.'s story, Danny tries to pretend that the mouse stew sounds great so as not to hurt the Felines' feelings, despite clearly being disgusted.
- But You Were There, and You, and You: The kids and Martha use themselves and their friends and families as characters.
- Calling Your Nausea: Parodied. Truman says that he'll be seasick if they play Go Fish one more time.
- Camping Episode: The episode focuses on Helen, Alice, T.D., Truman, and the Lorraine dogs trying to entertain themselves while camping by telling stories.
- Cat Folk: In T.D.'s story, the Felines are humanoid cats from another planet.
- Cats Are Mean: Parodied in T.D.'s story where the villains are evil cat aliens.
- Cats Hate Water: Exploited in T.D.'s story, where the Lorraines escape from the Felines by crossing a river, since cats hate to get wet.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Subverted for the Felines in T.D.'s story, who at first seem like weirdos (eating mouse stew, staring at birds, hissing, etc) but then it turns out to be because they're cat people.
- Continuity Nod: Truman references his seasickness from "Truman and the Deep Blue Sea" by jokingly claiming that he's so weary of playing Go Fish that it's making him seasick.
- Distressed Dude: Subverted in Helen's story. The plant gets angry and ties up T.D.... but then dies of dehydration.
- Enfant Terrible: The baby in the Feline family is just as set on turning the Lorraines into cat folk as his parents.
- Evil All Along:
- In Martha's story, the Wheelers seem like they're just curious about Earth, but then they turn out to want to invade it.
- In T.D.'s story, the Felines seem like a harmless family of Cloudcuckoolanders, but then they turn out to want to turn the Lorraines into cat people.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: In both Martha's and T.D.'s stories, she can somehow tell that the aliens are evil before they even do anything bad.
- Face–Heel Turn: In Helen's story, the vine starts out on T.D.'s side, but then turns against him when he tries to make it weed the garden and mow the lawn.
- Flying Saucer: In Martha's story, the aliens arrive in a saucer-shaped spaceship.
- Grandma's Recipe: The Felines in T.D.'s story describe the mouse soup as an "old family recipe".
- Heroic Dog: Zigzagged in Martha's story. Skits seems like he'll fight off the aliens, but he just buries a bone instead... which scares them away since they're scared of bones.
- Inevitably Broken Rule: In Helen's story, the alien farmer says never to bring the moon grape seeds home, but T.D. does it anyway. Lampshaded when the alien farmer calls it predictable.
- Lazy Bum: Exploited in Helen's story, in which T.D.'s laziness pays off in that the plant that was about to get its revenge on him dies from him not watering it.
- No Biochemical Barriers: In the stories, the aliens can breathe air, T.D. can eat alien fruit, and the Wheelers (Venusians) can eat and drink human food and beverages.
- No Full Name Given: T.D. doesn't give the Felines first names.
- No Name Given: The alien farmer and the vine in Helen's story are unnamed.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe. T.D. scares Martha by saying his story might be true.
- Puff of Logic: In Helen's story, the evil vine instantly wilts when it realises T.D. never watered it.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In Martha's story, the aliens' eyes turn red when they're revealed to be evil.
- Running on All Fours: In T.D.'s story, the Felines walk on two legs, but run on all fours.
- Stock Animal Diet:
- Downplayed in Martha's story, where Skits buries a bone but doesn't eat it.
- Played straight in T.D.'s story, where some Cat Folk eat mouse stew and Mr. Feline tries to eat a bird.
- Sudden Downer Ending: T.D.'s story ends with Helen, Mariella, Jake, and the dogs having successfully escaped from the Felines... but then it turns out that Danny got caught and turned into a cat man.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- The aliens in Martha's story are afraid of bones.
- Downplayed for Truman, who at first thinks he's afraid of alien stories, but when he hears the stories, he isn't scared.
