It Came From Next Door

It Came From Next Door is the first half of episode 1 of season 1 of My Life as a Teenage Robot. It first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 1st, 2003.

Plot
Tuck, while practicing baseball, hits a ball that flies through a window in neighbor Nora Wakeman's front door. Brad instructs Tuck to get the baseball back, but when Tuck knocks at the door nobody arrives. He wanders inside, seeing various pieces of machinery and robot parts strewn about. When he reaches the baseball, it is handed to him by a shadowy, imposing figure. Tuck flees without taking the ball, where he is intercepted by Brad and informs Tuck that he encountered a "hideous bloodthirsty robot". Mrs. Wakeman overhears this conversation, and Brad tries to explain the situation, but Mrs. Wakeman does not respond.

Mrs. Wakeman walks back in her house berates XJ-9 for having left her room and instructs her that she must not encounter any of the human population. She instructs Jenny that there is a meteor warning, but Jenny disregards it because the meteors typically burn up in the atmosphere. When Mrs. Wakeman leaves the room, Brad walks into Jenny's window and meets Jenny. The two leave and hang out, playing hackey sack and chasing ice cream trucks, among other things, while Tuck reluctantly tags along. However, the hackey sack which Jenny booted through the atmosphere became part of the meteor, meaning it is now planet destroyer class.

Jenny rockets off to destroy the meteor, and dispatches it quickly, but she accidentally took Tuck along with her attacked to her wings. While Tuck is a bit charred from re-entry, he is impressed by Jenny's abilities and declares her to be "so cool". Mrs. Wakeman oversees this conversation, and decides that giving XJ-9 some time off couldn't hurt. However, the camera pans out to outer space, where several (presumably hostile) spaceships are closing in on Earth.

Quotes

 * Tuck: R-R-ROBOT!!! There's a robot inside! A hideous, bloodthirsty robot!
 * Jenny: If this d-class dingus destroys the earth, Mom'll dismantle me!

Trivia

 * Brad is the first character to appear in this episode and in the series as well.
 * Tuck is the first character to speak in this episode and in the series as well.
 * One of the disassembled robots in Mrs. Wakeman's house looks suspiciously like Larry 3000 from Time Squad. It is possible the shows shared staff members.
 * There is a poster of a boy band in Jenny's room that resembles former boy band N*SYNC.
 * The title is a reference to an often used sci-fi title "It Came from", which may have begun with the film It Came from Outer Space.
 * This episode is a remake of the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot.
 * On the wall of monitors of various different cities, Beijing is listed as Peking. Peking is the pronunciation according to an earlier form of romanization of Chinese; the adaptation occurred in 1949. It is possible this is an intentional anachronism.
 * On this wall, Burbank is also listed, which is the home of the Nicktoons Studios as well as Frederator's California branch.