My Parents Are Aliens

When Lucy wins tickets to see Blink 182 in a competition, Josh is desperate to take them off her hands. After all, he's a huge fan of the band, and Lucy's such a geek she's never even heard of Blink 182. Lucy agrees to give the tickets to Josh, but on one condition - Josh has to perform a truly unselfish deed in order to qualify for tickets. Of course it's a terrible struggle for the scam-meister, but Josh learns a whole lot about himself in the process. Sophie and Brian start to think about Valux and discover the extraordinary phenomenon of homesickness. Only, being aliens, their sickness comes out in really surprising ways. And when Mel decides she wants to make Trent feel jealous, she chooses to go on a very unusual date...

When Josh twists his ankle in a Games lesson, Brian invents a Valuxian cure for Josh's sports injury. However, as with most of Brian's inventions, something goes wrong and the gadget makes Josh a chess and maths genius. Josh then has a choice to make about whether the benefits of genius are outweighed by the drawbacks of geekdom... But while Josh has become a genius, Lucy feels miffed at losing her identity as the smart one in the family. Meanwhile, Mel's life of fun and clubbing seems so sorted that Sophie decides she wants to go along too. When Mel points out that she won't fit in, Sophie decides to find a new look - much to Mel's horror.

When Josh decides that the only thing which will make his life perfect is an all night game-a-thon, he knows he needs to get the family out of the way. He realises that the best way to get the house to himself is if the rest of the family goes on holiday. Everyone agrees that this is a great idea - until they all begin to argue about where they should go. Lucy thinks she wants to go pony trekking but when it comes to it she discovers an irrational fear of horses. But fortunately Brian is on hand to help her confront her phobia... Meanwhile, Mel is increasingly miffed at Josh invading her privacy. When Mel finds out that Josh and then the family have been reading her emotionally revealing song lyrics, she moves out into a tent in the garden and refuses to join the family holiday.

Lucy and Wendy are on the verge of falling out badly. Wendy points out that she's always inviting Lucy round to her house, but Lucy almost never invites her back in return. Is Lucy ashamed of her? Of course, what Lucy is really worried about is that Brian and Sophie might give themselves away as aliens. But in order to save her friendship, Lucy makes a plan. She gets Brian and Sophie to agree to try to be normal so Wendy can come for a sleepover. But it isn't exactly easy for Brian and Sophie to be normal... Meanwhile, when Josh tries to raise some extra cash by charging for odd jobs around the house, Brian and Sophie begin to question why some jobs are paid and others - like housework - aren't. The best things in life may be free, but in this house everything turns out to have a price. Mel turns her back on all this materialism and vows to donate her old toys to a children's home. But she soon finds out that giving away things from her past isn't that easy.

Lucy is selected to represent the school in a Science Competition, to build a working rocket. She feels confident she'll win, but when she starts work on the rocket it soon becomes clear that it isn't as easy as she thought it would be. Sophie offers to help - and Lucy is suddenly confronted by two equally horrible prospects: failure or cheating. Josh wants to go to Holland with the hockey team. But Josh too has a horrible choice to make - because sucking up to Lockett will mean he has to ignore his friendship with Frankie and Pete. Brian enters one of Mel's photos for a competition - a rather glamorous self-portrait. Mel is furious and goes to withdraw it, but when she discovers she might win she decides to leave it in the competition. Mel eventually comes second, which Brian and Sophie simply understand as losing. So in order to make up for her disappointment, Brian pastes copies of the photo of Mel all over the school with ""We're sorry sweatpea"" on them.

Mel comes down to breakfast in trousers and announces to the family that it's sexist to be made to wear uniform skirts. She goes to school and is immediately sent home. When Brian and Sophie go in to the school, the Headmaster thinks he has their support - until he notices that Brian is now wearing a skirt! Meanwhile, Lucy is looking after the school's pet hamster. This would be fine, but for the fact that Josh is looking for a money-making scheme and decides to film the hamster doing tricks for a TV show, Pets Go Potty. Only, this pet doesn't go potty - it goes missing. With disaster about to strike Josh gets Brian to morph into the hamster so no one will suspect. One good thing does come out of Josh's filming - Mel sees herself on tape and reveals the real reason for her skirt protest: she thought she had rotten legs. But now she sees them, she's actually rather pleased. She goes back to school in a very short mini skirt.

Lucy uses - and abuses - the politics of democracy to ban the television from the house and encourage the family to indulge in more social pursuits, like debating and playing chess. But Lucy's less interested in democracy than in getting her own way. All this politics gives Josh a brilliant idea for how to get out of double maths lessons - run for election to the school council, which takes place at the same time as his dreaded maths lessons. However, Josh soon learns the power of politics and the great feeling of being popular. He promises anything to anyone in order to win votes. But then he comes up with the most popular policy of all: to gain access for his classmates to the legendary prefects' common room. The problem is, the common room is the only place where Mel can avoid Josh at school. And so the two declare battle. Only what Josh doesn't know is, Mel has a secret weapon - a tape of Josh singing a terrible karaoke version of 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' - and she's not

It's Lucy's Birthday and she wants a party, but nobody else in the family seems that interested. What she doesn't know is that they're already planning a surprise party for her. But that's not the only surprise in store... When Sophie appears six months pregnant, Brian puts it all down to a tin of baked beans she ate yesterday. But this is no simple case of wind. Brian and Sophie clearly have no understanding of how this pregnancy came about - so Josh is elected to give Brian 'The Talk'. And when you're twelve, explaining the facts of life to your father isn't exactly the easiest talk to have. But matters become even more complicated when Brian too becomes pregnant. Mel panics - This could spell discovery and disaster for the aliens. Will the baby have Brian's eyes and Sophie's smile, or Yoda's ears and Free Willy's blowhole? And how can they have Lucy's Birthday party now?

Mel asks hunky Scott Taylor to go to the school Christmas disco with her. But as she gets nearer to the date she gets cold feet and decides that Scott won't really like her. Thinking that he's helping, Brian morphs into Mel and goes on the date in her place - but gets on with Scott rather better than he bargained for... Lucy is cast as Mary in The Nativity Play at school, but gives up her role so that Wendy can please her pushy parents and have the part in her place. But instead of being grateful, Wendy begins to turn into a really demanding starlet. And all the while, Josh tries desperately to teach Brian and Sophie about Christmas - particularly the importance of buying his present.

Mel tries to put right the damage that Brian has caused when he went on a date with Scott Taylor morphed as Mel - but as she learns more about Scott she begins to discover that being true to herself may be more important than dating the school hunk. The school Nativity Play continues to be a point of conflict in Lucy and Wendy's friendship. But as the performance grows nearer they both realise that being a star isn't worth losing a friend for. And Josh begins to have nightmares in which he is haunted by his conscience. From being selfish and demanding he learns about the true spirit of Christmas when he makes the ultimate sacrifice for Lucy...