"Sandy's Rocket" is such an interesting episode, because my first impulse when starting this review was to say that I absolutely love this episode. But then upon further consideration, I remembered that there's a whole 3-4 minutes before SpongeBob and Patrick start alien hunting. And, unfortunately, those 3-4 minutes are not SpongeBob Squarepants's best material.
This episode starts off a bit slow. While not unentertaining by any means, it is a bit dull and without many great jokes. I do appreciate that this episode features Sandy again, and starts showing off her scientific side. The part with SpongeBob and Patrick in the rocket ship, before they make it blast off, is fun, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. Though I will say that the part when SpongeBob and Patrick take off and Sandy wakes up and realizes what's happening always gets a good laugh out of me. Just the sheer doneness she exudes is amazing. Anyway, this episode truly picks up when SpongeBob and Patrick crash land in Bikini Bottom and think that they're surrounded by aliens. That's when the jokes start coming through rapid-fire, and of much higher quality. The part with Squidward is funny even if it does go on for a teeny bit too long. And I quite enjoyed SpongeBob and Patrick turning on each other. I feel like "it's me that's got me" is such a memorable line, but maybe that's just me. I also think this episode has a great stinger ending, a very memorable ending too for an episode that is rather forgotten.
Another thing I like about this episode is that it has a lot of great background art. There aren't many episodes that take place almost entirely at night like this one, so it's nice to see the night art shine.
I think this episode belongs firmly in my "Great" tier, because although the first few minutes are slow enough to be bumped down a tier or two, the remainder of the episode really picks things up and redeems the whole thing in my eyes. This episode is definitely slow, even when it picks up, which isn't everyone's style, but it works well enough for me.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8/10