Sergeant Maaka sends Officers Minogue and O’Leary to investigate the report of a cow stranded on top of a tree at a remote farm. Maaka believes that aliens did it, but Minogue and O’Leary are sceptical – until they meet the farm’s owner.

You have to pity any resident of Wellington who has Officers Minogue and O’Leary investigating their crime. Chances of resolution are pretty low, and that’s the charm of this Kiwi Cops meet X-Files comedy. We’re really into X-Files territory this week when the hapless cops investigate how cows have ended up on top of trees. Was it kids with a forklift, or did a cow climb on to the tree when it was a sapling and then it grew into a tree?

We’re out in the countryside, and the farmer looks remarkably like his brother, and indeed every other member of his household. We’re always five steps ahead of the dopey constables, realising that there are crop circles in the fields, courtesy of body-swapping aliens. Will they crack the case through dedicated police work and dodge exploding seed pods, or will their greatest realisation be that the crop circles look like the album cover of Led Zeppelin’s Remasters?

Verdict: The truth is out there… but don’t expect these investigators to find it. Another silly half hour of genre references and gentle humour. 7/10

Nick Joy