“Rose,” “Yes Doctor?” “I’m coming to get you!”

is much what the presenter (Davina) always said during evictions in Big Brother UK.

Of course, this is slightly spoiled by wondering what the dalek was doing in the Thames (fishing?). There are perfectly good bridges (vis the famous publicity shot of the daleks on Westminster Bridge).

The cliffhanger that scared me the most was Seeds of Doom ep 1. In the Antarctic Base, a crew member goes to see to his sick friend, but the bed is empty and in the dark corridors his totally mutated attacks him, strangling him to death.

I didn’t sleep for a week. (I was 7).

The Bad Wolf ending is unusual in its degree of sheer US-style heroism: ‘I’m going to rescue Rose from the middle of the dalek fleet, save the earth and then wipe every last stinking dalek out of the sky’. It’s not really a ‘peril’ cliffhanger, but a kind of ‘how on earth is he going to manage THAT’ cliffhanger.

One of the most puzzling and exciting cliffhangers of my childhood was Deadly Assassin 1. The doctor appearing the assassinate the Time Lord President. The next week of school we were all full of theories. Which has to be a sign of a good episode ending.

I hates and hates and hates the “next week” reel.

Lost has had some brilliant cliffhangers too over the 4 series but obv this is a more integral part of that show as it’s one big arc unlike Who (where the cliffhangers for nu-Who multi-parters have usually been sucky).

Yes, Mark, I am but a sapling. The first Who I remember in real-time is Carnival Of Monsters, distinct memories of the Doctor and Jo inside the machine, wandering about on the giant circuit boards. I am also, however, sad enough to be a big enough Who fan to have obsessively watched it.

Well I thought it had been officially confirmed that he’d be in the specials and the Christmas one but the sources all blur into one for me…

The ‘maybe we’ve been fooled’ thing just irks even more and I had a similar feeling with Lost and the twists and turns - almost approaching a sense of repaying bad faith towards viewers who can no longer be ‘trusted’ to not look at spoilers. I think spoilers are fine as long as it’s only yourself you’re spoiling it for. Conversely I don’t get much enjoyment out of everyone speculating (often with some arrogance) about what might happen next as people are often too good at this and effectively spoil it without even realising (I am quite poor at this and rarely try and anticipate when I’m watching a story unfold - a ‘lights off’ approach - so it’s sour grapes to an extent but sometimes I spoil myself as the thrill of knowing sometimes surpasses the thrill of not knowing). I just feel that with both Lost and Who it feels too much like the writers have gone out of their way to sow the doubt seeds but at the expense of the plot or flow of the storyline. This ties in again though with my own impatience and frustration with lengthy but dripfed arcs and sagas. I’d have preferred it if they’d been able to say DT signed up for 4-5 series from the start so you could settle down and enjoy the man at work without all the irritating speculation.

ANYWAY: hartnell cliffhangers i remember (traumatically) from watching em in real-time = just two i think

1: from earth invasion daleks (whatever it’s called) when the bedford van* is chased and rayed and set aflame by the dalek ships, after the resistance guy and susan have only just jumped to safety behind some rhododendrons

2: regen of Doc1 into Doc2 (always my favourite), which was fascinating and distressing — the first Doc2 ep i remember as being in colour (it wasn’t), with pools of mercury shimmering on the planet’s alien surface

*where mum and dad worked and i lived had a bedford van as a staff vehicle, and i was often in it, hence no doubt the intensity of the identification

Terminus 1 is marred slightly for me by the fact that Romo Pirate dude has “ooh it’s my big line” syndrome a bit. Great set-up and situation though.

City Of Death P2 is up there for me as well: Doctor locked in dungeon in modern day Paris, escapes to 16th century Florence only to run straight into the same bloke who just locked him up is a great wtf moment.

Nearly all the cliffhangers in Inferno are great too.

The ending of Terminus P1 always sticks with me: “This is a leper ship. We’re all going to die!” is a different category of threat to a bloke in a big green suit that can be briskly side-stepped at the start of the next episode.

So it works brilliantly as a metacliffhanger too - not only “holy sh1t what happens next” but also “can they possibly have fooled us?”, anticipating our deviousness and thirst for spoilers and planting mocked-up set photos etc. I’m sure I’m not atypical of fans in having first thought “oh obv it won’t happen” and then thinking “but hold on….maybe…just maybe….” and letting that 5% of doubt creep in.

Actually, one of the most understated and best Toms might be Seeds Of Doom episode 3, with SJS strapped to the chair, bare arm showing, as the krynoid barely starts to emerge from the pod.

we know DT sticks around so it felt like a particularly contrived obstacle that ultimately won’t mean anything (other than a means of him being able to get with Rose, BUT WHO WANTS THAT?) rather than genuinely exciting like The Master turning from Jacobi to Simm.

I thought they showed the Emperor Dalek in the trailer though, scotching that idea completely…