Sandy's Rocket (Episode)

Sandy's Rocket
© Viacom
Episode No.:	8a
Season:	1
Airdate:	September 17, 1999
Previous Episode:	Jellyfish Jam
Next Episode:	Squeaky Boots
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Sandy Cheeks	Carolyn Lawrence
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Sandy going to the moon. © Paramount Global

Sandy's Rocket is an episode from Season 1. In the episode, SpongeBob and Patrick take Sandy's rocket to what they think is the moon, not realizing that they're still in Bikini Bottom. Trouble soon endues when they capture all the citizens, thinking they're aliens.

Info

Characters

SpongeBob SquarePants
Patrick Star
Sandy Cheeks
Gary the Snail
Mr. Krabs
Mrs. Puff
Squidward Tentacles
Bikini Bottomites
Larry the Lobster
Granny Tentacles (debut; mentioned)
Mr. Doodles (debut; cameo)
Flats the Flounder (debut; cameo)
Sheldon J. Plankton (deleted scene and book)
Pearl Krabs (deleted scene and book)

Places

Plot

When Sandy creates a rocket and tells SpongeBob that she's going to the moon, SpongeBob begs her to take him with her. Sandy tells him that there's not enough room, and SpongeBob compacts himself so he can fit into a small container. Sandy explains that she needs all of the containers and drawers, and tells him that this trip is for science, not fun. SpongeBob keeps on begging her, and she eventually accepts to take him. SpongeBob runs around the walls chanting "Going to the moon! Moon ride! Moon ride!", and annoys Sandy. Sandy has Pop-Guns, small net guns that she invented and intends to use to harvest moon rocks, and denies the existence of aliens on the moon. Patrick comes to SpongeBob in the night and gives him some 'Alien repellent' (for windows), and they go to the rocket to spray it. Even though they're supposed to just spray the windows, Patrick goes inside and SpongeBob accidentally starts up the rocket. No one is at the controls, so it goes into space, loops around the moon, and comes back to Bikini Bottom.

SpongeBob and Patrick, convinced that they're on the Moon, think that the aliens are projecting their memories onto the environment to trick them. They start catching everyone with the net guns, believing they're aliens. The two then deduce that each other is an alien so they try to capture each other. Patrick accidentally captures himself, and SpongeBob puts him in the rocket. He starts the rocket up again, and it crashes on the moon. Suddenly, SpongeBob realizes his terrible mistake and everybody (Sandy, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, Larry the Lobster, etc.) says "SpongeBob, the aliens would like to have a word with you!"

Trivia/Goofs

This episode marks the first appearances of Flats the Flounder and Mr. Doodles
When Patrick is messing around with a control in Sandy's rocket while "playing a game", a sound effect in the background is the rotating block sound from Tetris.
When SpongeBob and Patrick first become weightless in the rocket, a book floats by with "2001" written on its cover. This is a reference to Arthur C. Clark's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When SpongeBob tosses his first captured "alien" (Gary), a ticker on the rocket clicks to one and a "ding" sound is heard. This ding was commonly used by game show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and, in particular, used to be a common sound on CBS game shows in general, but it is most famous for being used on the current US version of The Price is Right.
This episode is a spoof of alien films, specifically the 1986 James Cameron film, Aliens.
SpongeBob's belief that the "aliens" are "projecting" his and Patrick's memories of their home, Bikini Bottom, onto the lunar surface to put them into a false sense of security seems to be inspired from a short story, "The Third Expedition", from Ray Bradbury's book, the Martian Chronicles.
When SpongeBob looks out at the window towards the moon, the view of Earth from the Moon looks almost exactly like the famed Apollo 8 photograph.
A book based on this episode features an alternate ending where SpongeBob releases Sandy from the bag, as well as the citizens, and apologizes, but Sandy can see he still doesn't understand on what he did; as such, when SpongeBob asks if he can hunt aliens, Sandy shoots SpongeBob as punishment before flying the rocket back to Bikini Bottom. This ending would be impossible in the actual episode because the rocket ran out of fuel when they got to the moon. It also contains extra scenes where Plankton is captured when trying to steal a Krabby Patty, and where Pearl is captured with six nets.
During a Nickelodeon movie promotion in 1999, a set of scratch and sniff stickers were released at specified fast-food restaurants to be used with certain Nicktoons. One of them was used when Patrick squirted toothpaste in some peanut butter. Another one appeared when SpongeBob pulled a hot water bottle out from under sleeping Squidward. Also, the symbol that signaled you to "sniff" at the bottom right part of the screen was accidentally filmed along with the episode, and not edited over until late 2002, almost 3 years after the scratch and sniff packs were put out of circulation.
A LEGO set called Rocket Ride based on this episode was released in 2008.
Sandy's Rocket's scale changes between Bikini Bottom and the Moon, where it is almost as big as the moon itself.
When SpongeBob and Patrick are having a tough time filling the "aliens" in the rocket ship, there were still many Bikini Bottomites captured and left on the ground. But after SpongeBob caught Patrick and Sandy, all the Bikini Bottomites were captured and the rocket was still half empty.
Smoke from the rocket got into Sandy's treedome, despite the fact that the rocket is outside.
It is unexplained to how everyone got back to Earth.