"When I was young, my parents went missing under mysterious circumstances. We were at the playground one day when my parents abandoned me, by running away in a burrito food truck. I spent every waking moment trying to figure out where my parents went, and got into a bit of trouble when I hacked into military surveillance satellites. I went to juvie for a year. After years of studying advanced science, and spending years looking for my parents, I finally ran out of leads. I'm desperate, and ready to try more unconverntional methods. And that's how I was lead to you. I'm at the end of my tether, and I really need some help. Were you not listening to me?
— Bajo explaining the basic premise of the story in Fight!
Trip for Biscuits is an Australian children's sci-fi show created by Film Finance Victoria, the ABC and Robot Panther, starring Steven "Bajo" O'Donnell, Mansoor Noor, Kate Mylius, Reef Ireland, and Charlotte Nicdao.
Bajo's parents were abducted in a Mexican fast food truck, so he tries to hire SEPI note to hunt them down. However, since he's broke, and the SEPI team are short a man, they instead hire him, and allow him to use company resources to find his parents...just outside of work hours, and he can't use any staff (not that that stops him using Violet or Amy). Plus he's not getting paid.
The series was first broadcast on ABC iView on March 3rd, 2017, before airing on ABC Me on March 20.
Trip for Biscuits contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adam Westing: Bajo, natch.
- Alien Abduction: The Illacks' modus operandi, and the main plot point of the series.
- Aliens in Pine Gap: And living among us.
- Brain in a Jar: An interesting variation. Violet's brain is still connected to the rest of her body via cables, but it resides in a fish tank. It gives her some unique abilities as well, such as being able to copy other people's voices and feel the emotions of her fish. Just don't step on the cable.
- Cliffhanger: Bajo's parents escaped the Illacks, and are now wanted by intergalactic police, who came to Earth looking for Bajo.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Violet, to almost Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant or Cute and Psycho levels. Whether she was that way before her brain got shifted to her fishtank is never elaborated on.
- Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: The Needlers are an extraterrestrial Mafia, who take the form of elderly ladies.
- Hero Looking for Group: Double Subverted in the first episode. Bajo calls the Spacial and Extraterrestrial Phenomena Investigations (SEPI) to hunt his missing parents, who were abducted in a Mexican fast food truck. He's officially rebuked but, unofficially, hired so he can use the company's resources to find his parents during off-work hours. The only condition is that he can't use company personnel for that. He still manages to enlist Violet and a wrestling-suit-clad Amy for his mission by virtue of them sympathizing with him.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Apparently there is a dinosaur hunting sanctuary, but nobody notices because they believe the roars are just birds.
- Human Aliens: A lot of the aliens are human-looking, although a lot of alien species have human-looking bodies built for them, so as to blend in.
- Dolly (who is a guy) has an udder on the back of his head.
- Idiot Ball: Everyone has held it at some point, at least once.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Bajo and Amy decide to do this when Violet decides to retreat into herself. Turns out they didn't need to.
- Less Embarrassing Term: They don't completely follow through to a completely favourable conclusion on cases (like if someone/something dies/gets damaged), so they get classed as "technical wins".Dan: Technical wins are not wins!
- Mr. Exposition: Bajo. Infodumps aplenty from him.
- Parental Abandonment: Amy's parents and sister left for Japan, leaving her with her uncle, and eventually boss, Dan.
- Perpetually Broke: SEPI only just seem to survive courtesy of a lot of deals made by Dan to various debtors, and the odd case they manage to get (and keep) the pay for.
- Speed Dating: Spin dating is the intergalactic version.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Ursula is a perfectly normal human who runs a perfectly normal iced cream van, and does not know anything about any abductions of humans by Illacks.
- Tempting Fate: Everyone except Bajo is vehemently against dealing with a Krontak, even going so far as to explain what happens when you do. Bajo, holding the Idiot Ball, asks "How Bad Could It Be?" Cue the next scene, where a miner is holding a fellow miner's leg.Amy: This is how bad it could be.
- This Is My Story: About half of the first episode is Bajo explaining his story. The remaining main cast (save for Violet, who isn't properly introduced until the next episode) do not enjoy hearing it.
- The Unreveal:
- Bajo: Just how did your brain wind up in fishtank anyw—
Violet: [immediately changing the subject] Could ya? Could you get me outside?
