So. What does make a great cliffhanger? For a start, you want to make sure it's good enough to make your audience think, "Oh, gosh! I must tune in next time, to find out what happens."

Also, for me, a good cliffhanger, is one reason a show lasts for years.

You get lots of cliffhangers with the 'Classic' era, but not so many with the 'New' Who era.

I think some of the greatest cliffhangers have been:

Caves of Androzani Episode 3: The Fifth Doctor seems to crash land, with Stotz trying to break into the pilot area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdLzNSV3bK4

Bad Wolf: Rose is surrounded by Daleks and the Ninth Doctor is seen on the video screen. He then says, "Rose?" She replies, "Yes, Doctor?" Then he says, "I'm coming to get you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...WiQnfb0Y#t=102

Human Nature: Joan is captured by Jenny, putting a gun to her head, and Mr Clark takes Martha. Baines gives The Doctor/John Smith an ultimatum. He says "Which one of them do you want us to kill? Your friend, or your lover?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...Zikk8oyQ4#t=65

Which episodes of 'Classic' Who and 'New' Who have the best cliffhangers and episode endings?

I can't say much on Classic Who, since I already knew what was going to happen, so there was never much surprise for me there. This applies for most of New Who as well before I caught up at Series 7

Series 7 gave me some goods one when I saw them on airing, the revelation about Oswin being a Dalek, the War Doctor's appearance, and the saving of Gallifrey were just awesome.

But obviously, I don't think anything will ever beat the end of "The Natural History of Fear".

"Eight of course!"

The funny thing about that one though is that I accidentally spoiled myself on what that meant, but I didn't have the context on it. So in an oddly twisted way, it made the ending even better!

I like the one with Troughton where he is playing choo-choo train with The Daleks.

Inferno, episode 6.

Oh yes.

I would also add Caves of Androzani Episodes 1 and 3, The Deadly Assassin Episode 2, Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 1 (Extermiblubblub!) , Terror of The Zygons Episode 1 (I still jump!) Earthshock Episode 1 and The Silurians episode, um, 4? (The one where the Silurian bursts through the cottage door.)

Obviously not so many in C21, but particularly like the cliffhangers to The Empty Child, Human Nature, Utopia, The Time of Angels, The Pandorica Opens and The Rebel Flesh. (Seem to be in a very small minority, but whilst a bit clunky in parts, I do like the latter story; Part 2 with Matt interracting with himself is very enjoyable, IMO.)

Season 6, when Amy wakes up in that hospital ward and realises she is trapped somewhere unknown, about to give birth and millions of miles away from her friends, the scream was just bloodcurdling.

I would say the best cliffhangers are the ones where you haven't got an inkling what is gonna happen next. Sarah's fall at the end of Genesis Of The Daleks Part 2, The Doctor's fall of a plank, The Pirate Planet Part 3 and his apparent demise on Gallifrey at the end of Arc of Infinity Part 2.

For me though, The Caves Of Androzani has some of the best cliffhangers there's ever been. I agree Part 2's with the Magma Beast was not so good but Part 1 where you actually saw The Doctor and Peri being shot and Part 3 where The Doctor about to crash the space ship is just awesome. With Part 1, there is no pause before the firing, it's just a full on barrage.

I'm watching The War Games at the moment and the end of Part 1 with The Doctor in a similar position and about to face a firing squad is perhaps a bit more easy to guess as the command to fire isn't given before a shot is heard. There's no such fallback with Androzani's first episode. it's ready aim fire and that's it!

Other cliffhangers I enjoy are Davros's 'You will tell me' rant in Genesis Part 4, Earthshock's surprise Cyberman appearance and also Captain Tancredi's appearance at the end of City Of Death Part 2. I have watched this story more than any other and I still remember how shocked I was first time round. I think that's classified as a WTF moment!

In the New series, the Stolen Earth cliffhanger with the apparent regeneration still rules supreme for me. I'm not so keen of the Bad Wolf cliffhanger from Series 1, it seemed for me out of context with the situation. I'd rather Rose about to be exterminated or just something else, it just didn't feel like a cliffhanger to me, I felt there were other opportunities in that situation to have something better.

Others that I love from The New Series is The Cybermen two parter from Series 2 where The Doctor and co are surrounded and also the Human Nature one.

On a more general note, I always remember when Doctor Who was on twice a week in the early 80's that I never looked forward to a Part 2 cliffhanger. Part 1 and 3 you could see the very next night and Part 4 was always the last episode but Part 2 was always setup to be the best cliffhanger out of the bunch because of that gap.

Given how badly the resolution "cheated" and how poor part two was, I often find myself forgetting just how f***ing shocked I was at the Stolen Earth cliffhanger. To be fair, even though the resolution was probably one of the cheapest in the series' history, that probably reigns supreme in terms of cliffhangers.

I also agree with Caves 3 and Bad Wolf - both utterly brilliant.

I also really love Logopolis 3 - not a fan of the story as a whole, but The Doctor and The Master shaking hands ("One last hope...") was a brilliant moment. Mel's scream into the credits in the Vervoids section of Trial is also brilliant, as is the "Aaand.... CUT!" moment in Varos. And as rubbish as the following three parts are, the end of part one of Thew Space Museum is still surprisingly chilling.

Props must go out to The Name...'s cliffhanger, too, for possibly setting the internet ablaze with discussion more than any other cliffhanger in the show's history.

And on a more sentimental note, I will always be fond of the cliffhanger to Alien's Of London - I hate the story itself so very much, but THE DOCTOR WAS SCREAMING IN PAIN AS THE MUSIC STING CUT IN! There it was, right there on the screen - a BRAND NEW DOCTOR WHO CLIFFHANGER! For the first time since 1989!!!!!

I like different cliffhangers for different reasons.

Utopia, in its execution and fanboy glory.

The Leisure Hive where Tom has his limbs ripped off. Traumatised me!

And the double-whammy in Earthshock: ("Destroy them at once!") ("Oh bo- [Ka-boom!]")

I agree that the most effective cliffhangers these days are the ones that present you with a situation that is completely unlike anything you might have been expecting, or at least introduce a new element out of nowhere that hook you into the next episode.

Amy's pregnancy reveal is one of those - you think the situation's been resolved, the story is being wrapped up back in the TARDIS, and then BOOM! Why's the Doctor pointing the screwdriver at Amy? We're blindsided, but it ties into earlier plot elements perfectly. I just love those moments when the viewer is forced to change tracks.

The surprise meta-regeneration is also one of those. Being surrounded by Daleks, and then that happening out of nowhere, is something else entirely - the peril is almost forgotten. Although you know the Doctor won't die, you still don't know what it'll mean in terms of the show.

The Human Nature ending I'm less sold on. Having the characters put into mortal peril, such being trapped in a room with monsters advancing, or dangling from a height, isn't interesting because you know the main characters will escape. You know the Martha won't be killed, and there would be no value in killing off Joan at this point in the story, so the only question is the how, which is less interesting.

At the risk of being negative, the one cliffhanger resolution that stands out as being something I particularly disliked was Rise of the Cybermen. The 'sacrifice' of using the only hope they have to restart the TARDIS is dismissed in seconds, as it turns out the tiny fragile power source/Cyberman killing device can be recharged at any time.

Remembrance of the Daleks 1, City of Death 1 and Full Circle 1.

Ooh, and Talons 1

Maybe The Daleks 1 and the one with the repetetive Daleks from Power of the Daleks

And Resurrection of the Daleks episode 1

The Stolen Earth. How can you beat a cliffhanger that sees the doctor mid regeneration. Even though most of us either highly suspected or knew he wouldn't actually change because something or other would have leaked months before about the new actor, it was still an amazing way to end an episode.

I spent a week with a big inside voice saying 'no way is he changing for real, not possible without the media having got hold of it months ago' but also with a smaller voice in my head saying 'but maybe'

The greatest cliffhangers and ending in my opinion are Earthshock Part one, Planet of Fire Part one, Caves of Androzani Parts one and two and TOATL (Mindwarp) Part eight. The latter is stunning. Nicola Bryant's performance as the bald Peri/Kiv was very disturbing, breathtaking and brilliant and the sixth Doctors responce was very emotional. "You've killed Peri".

NuWho had some good cliffhangers like Utopia when the Master is revealed.

This is a great example actually along with all the others already mentioned doctor blue box

I do love the end of Utopia too and the end of Night of the Doctor with John Hurt wasnt half bad either when John Hurt turned round. I mean it was John Hurt ELEPHANT MAN how cool !!

The death of Rory in the Sulirian story i thought was shocking at the time because it was the real one but not sure if that counts as a cliff-hanger but a great episode ending.

Ref Classic Who the death of Adric in Earthshock was truly unexpected at the time so a great episode ending with no theme music afterwards to emphasise the event.

I really thought Rory was gone for good at the end of the Silurian two-parter. It was a shock to see him back in The Pandorica Opens as a Roman soldier.

This cliffhanger, I absoloutely love too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ZzXDGD-_A

The Space Museum Part 4 where the Daleks suddenly unexpectedly appear. I also like the Daleks appearance at the end of Army of Ghosts, when everyone had been assuming that the Cybermen were the main enemy. However, as I've said before, I think they missed a trick on that one by revealing the Cybermen too early - if they'd been revealed a few of minutes before the end and then the Daleks had appeared a couple of minute later it would have been a real wow moment.

Time of Angels - THE BEST (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's one thing you never, ever put in a trap)

ALSO,

School Reunion (Sarah Jane and K-9)
42 (I don't know why but I really liked the last scene of this episode)
The End of the Time (regeneration)
Pandorica Opens (cliffhanger)
Wedding of River Song (very memorable dialogue with Dorian)
Time of the Doctor (regeneration)

The episode where Amy sees the astronaut whom she knows will later kill The Doctor, so she fires a gun at him and then realises too late there's actually little girl inside and screams.

It's so dramatic.

The end of Turn Left when Donna tells The Doctor "2 words." We all expected her to say Rose Tyler but instead she said Bad Wolf

I love the Vervoid story. The Ruth Baxter cliffhanger is fantastic.

Deadly Assassin part 1. The Doctor running to stop whoever's going to shoot the President but then finds the gun, picks it up and seems to shoot the President himself. lol

That whole episode is just weird from start to finish, there's no companion to talk to so it feels very dream-like.

I love the cliffhanger of Invasion of the Dinosaurs ep 3 for that very reason, it's a real WTF moment.

Sarah Jane falling from the rocket scaffolding in Genesis Of the Daleks. Unique heart-stopping ending

I really like the Deadly Assassin story too! The ending to one of the episodes where a train is seen coming towards the Doctor, is good.

I also very much like cliffhanger ending to one of the parts of The Android Invasion, where Sarah is revealed to be an Android duplicate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...Tn7GiBkUo#t=54

I recently watched Invasion of Time and I liked how it seemed to be all resolved and everyone is happy then they stop and the Doctor turns around and there are 5 or 6 Sontarans just standing there in Galifrey.

Apparently, IOT was originally going to be a four part story, but at the last minute, the production team changed their minds, and turned it into a six-parter, instead.