Category Archives: Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers: Moffat Era

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Roger Pocock

DOCTOR: Oh, big mistake. Huge. Didn’t anyone every tell you there’s one thing you never put in a trap?  If you’re smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Davies Era 2

Posted on November 23, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The Pit is open. And I am free. Bwahahahahahaha! That’s very Classic Who, isn’t it: a cliffhanger ending on the villain’s maniacal laugh.  And it’s a Classic throwback in more ways than one, because it is also a particular kind … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Davies Era 1

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The Seventh Doctor stories were ahead of their time in many ways, and when we looked at the McCoy era cliffhangers we noticed something that foreshadowed the return of Doctor Who in 2005: the multiple-jeopardy cliffhanger.  When Doctor Who returned … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Seventh Doctor

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Roger Pocock

It has been a fascinating exercise looking at the Doctor Who cliffhangers from the Classic Series, Doctor by Doctor.  The 1960s were inventive and brilliant, and since then it has been a tale of steady decline in terms of new … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Sixth Doctor

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Whenever the Doctor regenerates the next few cliffhangers tend to concentrate on placing the companions in danger rather than the Doctor.  This doesn’t always happen, but is a good rule for the series to follow because we perhaps care a … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Fifth Doctor

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Roger Pocock

When I wrote about the Fourth Doctor cliffhanger endings, I mentioned how the variety and inventiveness of the cliffhangers had been a diminishing process since the 1960s.  That doesn’t just continue for the Fifth Doctor era, it falls off a … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Fourth Doctor 2

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Last time we looked at some different kinds of cliffhanger endings used in the Fourth Doctor era: the good old monster reveal, some threats to the Doctor or his companion, and some throwbacks to the Hartnell and Troughton eras.  As … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Fourth Doctor 1

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Each time I prepare for one of these articles, the first thing I do is to make a list of the cliffhanger endings and then work out rough categories for them.  The interesting thing is that this has been a … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Third Doctor 2

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Last time we looked at some cliffhangers from the Third Doctor era and noted how limited they had become in comparison to the Sixties episodes.  Placing the Doctor and/or his companions in danger was the default cliffhanger.  What we didn’t … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Third Doctor 1

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Roger Pocock

I have watched every Doctor Who episode in order a couple of times, and on both occasions the big slog to get through has been the Third Doctor era.  Somehow it always seems like an awful lot of the same … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Second Doctor 2

Posted on September 2, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Yesterday we looked at some Second Doctor cliffhangers, particularly the ones that flowed naturally from the Hartnell era, and I mentioned at the end of the article how the common base-under-siege format of the Troughton era allowed for a new … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: Second Doctor 1

Posted on September 1, 2018 by Roger Pocock

It’s down there, in the darkness, in the pipeline, waiting. Last time we looked at the First Doctor cliffhangers, and identified three main ways to end an episode leaving us wanting more: placing somebody in danger, the monster reveal, and … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: First Doctor 3

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Roger Pocock

In the previous articles in this series we looked at some of the First Doctor cliffhangers, and we have covered the most obvious approaches: the ones that reveal the monster and the ones that place the Doctor and/or his companions … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: First Doctor 2

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Roger Pocock

Yesterday we looked at some of the cliffhangers in the First Doctor era, specifically the ones that reveal the monster.  Although these are the most iconic and best-remembered cliffhangers, they are not in the majority.  Most cliffhangers are a moment … Continue reading →

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Cliffhangers: First Doctor 1

Posted on August 4, 2018 by Roger Pocock

The original run of Doctor Who from 1963 to 1989 was almost entirely episodic, with stories comprised of anywhere between two and fourteen episodes, most commonly four.  This meant there had to be some way to finish one episode and … Continue reading →

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