The fifteenth episode of the second season of Rugrats (1991).
Visitors from Outer Space: Tommy has a very strange dream where he and the other babies are abducted by aliens that resemble Stu and Didi. Chaos ensues when the babies get lose on the spaceship and Angelica grabs hold of a Planet Atomizer invented by the Stu alien.
The Case of the Missing Rugrat: While on an outing with Grandpa Lou, Tommy is accidentally taken to the mansion home of two eccentric sisters who decide they want to adopt Tommy and make him heir of their large mansion. Lou relies on his old detective skills to figure out where Tommy is while Tommy himself tries to escape the two sisters himself.
"Visitors From Outer Space" provides examples of:
- Alien Abduction: Tommy "dreams" that he and his friends are abducted by aliens after hearing Grandpa Lou talking about them
- All Just a Dream: The majority of the episode was all just a dream Tommy was having after hearing Grandpa Lou raving about alien invasions just before he was put to bed. Possibly, anyway...
- But You Were There, and You, and You: The aliens in the dream all look a lot like people Tommy knows in real life. Stuvon, Didor, and their robot assistant all look and sound like Stu, Didi, and Grandpa Lou respectively, an alien "hoverpup" version of Spike appears, and even the fish alien that Angelica briefly teams up with resembles a toy fish that Tommy went to bed with.
- Catapult Nightmare: Tommy ultimately wakes up from the dream like this.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Planet Atomizer invented by Stuvon is basically the Death Star if it were compressed into a remote control form.
- Gainax Ending: The episode turns out to have been All Just a Dream, but then we see that Angelica is still stuck on the planet she got stranded on, with no explanation for why or how she is still up there (or how she got back).
- Hurl It into the Sun: The dream ends with Phil and Lil inadvertently flying the spaceship into the sun.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everyone audibly panics when the spaceship flies into the sun.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever happened involving Stuvon's Zodiac Shuffler. He claims that even though the moon isn't the seventh house anymore and Jupiter doesn't align with Mars, nobody will notice but some hippies and Dennis Hopper.
- Or Was It a Dream?: Tommy wakes up safe and sound in his crib once the dream is over...but then we see Angelica still stranded on the desert planet digging around for something to eat.
- Pity the Kidnapper: Things spiral out of control for the aliens following abducting the babies. First, Angelica steals Stuvon's Planet Atomizer and escapes the ship, then the other babies inadvertently take the spaceship on a joyride while playing around in the control room.
- Proportional Article Importance: When Lou tries to show Didi the news article about aliens abducting a family, he accidentally has it on an article about a soap opera queen marrying a goat-man.
- Shout-Out: If you look closely when Angelica first enters the specimen room on the spaceship, you can see two jars containing the heads of Kirk and Spock on a shelf beside one containing Chas's head.
- Tailfin Walking: George the fish alien walks like this.
- There Was a Door: A variation. When Angelica uses the Planet Atomizer to blow an opening in a door, George points out they do open automatically.
- What Does This Button Do?: Said word for word by Chuckie when he spots a button under a glass. When Tommy presses it, they end up activating the spaceship's engines.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Grandpa Lou read a tabloid telling of how a family wound up getting abducted by aliens at some point and were held captive by them for FIFTEEN MILLION YEARS!Lou: ...Course' it was only 12 seconds' in Earths' time.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Non-lethal version. After Angelica helps him escape from the aliens' ship, George tricks her into stepping onto a teleporter pad and sends her to a desert planet."So long, Sucker!"
"Case of the Missing Rugrat" contains examples of:
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Emma and Clarice Pendragon.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Emma and Clarice are shown to own many cats.
- Dead Guy Junior: The Pendragon sisters name Tommy "Bostwick" after their late father.
- Fat and Skinny: Clarice is the fat, and Emma is the Skinny.
- Mystery Episode: When Tommy goes missing, Lou turns to detective work to figure out the owner of the car Tommy was in.
- Papa Wolf: Once Grandpa Lou realizes that he lost his grandson, he quickly gets to work on trying to locate him. He almost picks a fight with the sisters' butler Max.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Tommy meets a parrot in the Pendragon mansion who repeats everything he says, which leads to him mistakenly believing that the bird's name is also Tommy.
- Punny Name: The strip mall that Lou visits is full of these. The stores include Humphrey Yogurt, Mel's Books and Phil's Silverware. Lou is bribed with coupons of Johhny Dip.
- Sanity Ball: For as odd as the Pendragons are, the sisters nevertheless think to ask Lou for proof that he is indeed Tommy's grandfather before handing him over. Tommy may not really be theirs, but they're not going to just give him to what could've been a total stranger.
- Shout-Out: The entirety of the Pendragons is based on real life figures Edie Beale and her daughter Little Edie, relatives of Jackie Kennedy, and former society women living in a ramshackle manor, who rose to prominence after a documentary film about the two Grey Gardens was released. The main difference is that the Pendragons are sisters instead of mother and daughter.
- Skyward Scream: Upon realizing that somebody drove off in the car Tommy was in, Lou screams out Tommy's name, with it echoing.
- Villainy-Free Villain: While they do technically kidnap Tommy and definitely appear to have a few screws loose, the Pendragon-sisters are never shown to be "bad people" by any stretch of the imagination and are genuinely enthusiastic to be raising a baby. When Lou comes by and explains that he's looking for his grandson, Emma and Clarice immediately have second thoughts about keeping Tommy—and when Lou provides proof that Tommy really is his grandson, they give him back without hesitation. In the end, it's clear that Lou doesn't express any ill will towards the sisters, and even has tea with them (during which it's revealed that one of the sisters' former butlers was an old friend of Lou's) before taking Tommy home with him
- Walk This Way: Grandpa is told to "walk this way" by a butler who maintains a ridiculously obsequious bowing stance while walking. Grandpa imitates his stride.
- You Didn't Ask: Lou spots a man standing next to a Duesenburg, but he doesn't bother to ask if the car is his until its real owner drives away with Tommy in the backseat.
