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Post by omega on Oct 6, 2018 10:24:30 GMT
What for you makes an effective cliffhanger?
For me, one that influences the direction of a story, and one where you can’t predict what will happen next. You want to listen to the next episode to find out. If it means an extra mystery to solve, all the better to engage the listener for the rest of the story. However it’s got to make sense within the context of the story and can’t be so out of left field that even in retrospect it makes no sense.
What doesn’t work is the immediate peril cliffhanger when the main character like Doctor and or companions are held at gunpoint or even shot. Unless it’s a clone or some other kind of fake, or the characters are just sedated, you know that the execution will be aborted or something happens. He’ll escape the exploding spaceship somehow.
Another one ineffective use of cliffhanger is the reveal of a returning character being used as the cliffhanger, when the identity of the character is in the title or on the cover. One cliffhanger is Peri realising who she’s talking to and the episode ending with “You’re the Rani”. The story? The Rani Elite. Well done writer, you used a cliffhanger on what could have been gleaned from a glance at the cover. It’s been done so many times with Daleks and Cybermen.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 10:26:10 GMT
Peri and her undeath lol in Mindwarp-now that was an ending
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 12:30:16 GMT
The cliffhanger at the end of the first part of Dust Breeding is one of the best of any Doctor Who story, ever. (I didn't see it coming!) So I'd say cliffhangers that are a complete surprise are the best ones.
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Post by omega on Oct 6, 2018 20:58:06 GMT
The cliffhanger at the end of the first part of Dust Breeding is one of the best of any Doctor Who story, ever. (I didn't see it coming!) So I'd say cliffhangers that are a complete surprise are the best ones. Nev Fountain and Steve Lyons know how to do a corker of a cliffhanger. I’m quite partial to the cliffhangers in Children of Seth, adapted by Marc Platt.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 21:04:57 GMT
Don't think I've seen better cliffhangers than on TV with all parts of Enlightenment, parts 1 and 3 of Caves of Androzani, Utopia, Face the Raven, and Oxygen. They thrust forward the direction of the story in such a way that you want the next one NOW.
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Post by constonks on Oct 6, 2018 21:08:14 GMT
I relistened to The Yes Men the other day and it has three solid cliffhangers, all of which are reveals that change the direction of the story in some way: - Ep 1 ends with "Meg Carvossa was murdered!" - Ep 2 ends with Meg Carvossa showing up and aiming her gun at the Doctor and Polly. - Ep 3 ends with the robots rising up and yelling "Creag an tuire!" as they do so.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 22:02:56 GMT
What for you makes an effective cliffhanger? For me, one that influences the direction of a story, and one where you can’t predict what will happen next. You want to listen to the next episode to find out. If it means an extra mystery to solve, all the better to engage the listener for the rest of the story. However it’s got to make sense within the context of the story and can’t be so out of left field that even in retrospect it makes no sense. What doesn’t work is the immediate peril cliffhanger when the main character like Doctor and or companions are held at gunpoint or even shot. Unless it’s a clone or some other kind of fake, or the characters are just sedated, you know that the execution will be aborted or something happens. He’ll escape the exploding spaceship somehow. Another one ineffective use of cliffhanger is the reveal of a returning character being used as the cliffhanger, when the identity of the character is in the title or on the cover. One cliffhanger is Peri realising who she’s talking to and the episode ending with “You’re the Rani”. The story? The Rani Elite. Well done writer, you used a cliffhanger on what could have been gleaned from a glance at the cover. It’s been done so many times with Daleks and Cybermen. Its funny how the crap cliffhangers stick in the memory for all the wrong reasons. I am thinking of the amount of times Trial of a Timelord used the crash zoom on Colin's face as he reacted to something said by the Valeyard, or when encountering his opponents in a corridor with weapons - "I think this really might be the end!". The end of Ep 3 of Death to the Daleks, where a tiled floor pattern stops the Doctor and his Exillion friend in their tracks. Yeah that was a memorable one too. Quite happy to sit back and be reminded of the better examples here, as I tend to forget them in the flow of the story, though the "I'm not going to let you stop me now!" ending to Ep 3 of Caves of Androzani has got to be high up for sheer dramatic verve.
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Post by Whovitt on Oct 6, 2018 22:18:03 GMT
I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now, but the cliffhanger to Part 1 of Cobwebs was amazing! {Spoiler} The Doctor and Co discover their own dead bodies! Pretty hard to get out of that one
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Post by omega on Oct 6, 2018 22:41:40 GMT
What for you makes an effective cliffhanger? For me, one that influences the direction of a story, and one where you can’t predict what will happen next. You want to listen to the next episode to find out. If it means an extra mystery to solve, all the better to engage the listener for the rest of the story. However it’s got to make sense within the context of the story and can’t be so out of left field that even in retrospect it makes no sense. What doesn’t work is the immediate peril cliffhanger when the main character like Doctor and or companions are held at gunpoint or even shot. Unless it’s a clone or some other kind of fake, or the characters are just sedated, you know that the execution will be aborted or something happens. He’ll escape the exploding spaceship somehow. Another one ineffective use of cliffhanger is the reveal of a returning character being used as the cliffhanger, when the identity of the character is in the title or on the cover. One cliffhanger is Peri realising who she’s talking to and the episode ending with “You’re the Rani”. The story? The Rani Elite. Well done writer, you used a cliffhanger on what could have been gleaned from a glance at the cover. It’s been done so many times with Daleks and Cybermen. Its funny how the crap cliffhangers stick in the memory for all the wrong reasons. I am thinking of the amount of times Trial of a Timelord used the crash zoom on Colin's face as he reacted to something said by the Valeyard, or when encountering his opponents in a corridor with weapons - "I think this really might be the end!". The end of Ep 3 of Death to the Daleks, where a tiled floor pattern stops the Doctor and his Exillion friend in their tracks. Yeah that was a memorable one too. Quite happy to sit back and be reminded of the better examples here, as I tend to forget them in the flow of the story, though the "I'm not going to let you stop me now!" ending to Ep 3 of Caves of Androzani has got to be high up for sheer dramatic verve. Episode 1 for Caves of Androzani was also a great cliffhanger. You knew that it was the regeneration story, so all bets were off. It was a brutal cliffhanger for sure.
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Post by Sir Wearer of Hats on Oct 6, 2018 23:01:31 GMT
Dragonfire episode 2.... is not a good cliffhanger. Or resolution. Or story for that matter.
That nice Professor Yana turning into the Master would have made for a great cliffhanger, especially if we got an episode of the Master pretending to be Yana after killing Chantho, rising tension, the slow realisation of the Doctor ... it would have been amazing.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 23:03:41 GMT
It's a rather broad question. For us - who are always gonna come back anyway for BF and Who - what makes a good cliffhanger is more likely to be a twist or a reveal. But we're the choir being preached to....in general the only thing that makes a good cliffhanger is anything that gets the audience to come back. In Who it tends to be peril.
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Post by Whovitt on Oct 7, 2018 0:23:32 GMT
Oh, another fantastic one - Part 2 of The Two Masters! I don't think anyone saw THAT coming... {Spoiler} The Two Masters is perhaps my favourite Big Finish release because of this twist, as the Master body-swapped with himself is just the most inspired idea ever, especially since he's actively hunting himself down to kill himself
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Post by barnabaslives on Oct 7, 2018 0:44:51 GMT
I think the best cliffhangers literally have someone hanging from a cliff... Sorry, just kidding...
I think Twice Upon A Time must have a great cliffhanger, Thirteen's been falling out of the TARDIS ever since last Christmas. :-)
I'm assuming she might be The Woman Who Fell To Earth, but I can't wait to find out how she keeps from turning into Fourteen on impact - and please let it not be a truck full of mattresses. :-)
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Post by omega on Oct 7, 2018 1:26:55 GMT
I think the best cliffhangers literally have someone hanging from a cliff... Sorry, just kidding... I think Twice Upon A Time must have a great cliffhanger, Thirteen's been falling out of the TARDIS ever since last Christmas. :-) I'm assuming she might be The Woman Who Fell To Earth, but I can't wait to find out how she keeps from turning into Fourteen on impact - and please let it not be a truck full of mattresses. :-) I think the literal cliffhanger once happened on the locally made soap Shortland Street. The most infamous Doctor Who example is in Dragonfire. The Doctor was supposed to be reaching down for a handhold, but this didn’t come through in the televised version. Dont forget The Eleventh Hour started with the Eleventh Doctor hanging out of the TARDIS as it was on a collision course through London and towards Leadworth. Enemy of the World ends with the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria trying not to be sucked out of the TARDIS into the vortex.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2018 3:02:05 GMT
I think the best cliffhangers literally have someone hanging from a cliff... Sorry, just kidding... I think Twice Upon A Time must have a great cliffhanger, Thirteen's been falling out of the TARDIS ever since last Christmas. :-) I'm assuming she might be The Woman Who Fell To Earth, but I can't wait to find out how she keeps from turning into Fourteen on impact - and please let it not be a truck full of mattresses. :-) I've this great image of the Seventh Doctor standing over some factory blueprints with a compass: "Let's see... 1976, we'll have that fire, so the retaining wall will be rebuilt there... Main production line will be upgraded in 1992, putting the computer control there... Mattresses should therefore be stored... There? There. Oh, and there was that zoning scuffle in 1969, of course. Yes... So today, I should land... There!" It's kind of interesting, the series starts out with cliffhangers that essentially act like chapter endings ("It's down there somewhere, in the city..."). After a while, it slowly transitions into characters being in the midst of very direct physical jeopardy (Romana shoved off a cliff) and now, we've kind of shot the moon back to those chapter endings because of the audio medium. In both cases, a good cliffhanger is all about antici... ...pation. What keeps the audience enrapt in the story. Things are looking dire here, but don't go away, because we've got just as much compelling content coming up in the next episode:
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Post by eric009 on Oct 8, 2018 8:20:33 GMT
a cliff lol
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Post by eric009 on Oct 8, 2018 8:22:36 GMT
Main Range 180. 1963: The Assassination Games part 1
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Post by omega on Oct 8, 2018 8:27:46 GMT
Main Range 180. 1963: The Assassination Games part 1 Part 3 has a great one. {Spoiler} It's the Doctor, Ace and the Counter-Measures team comparing notes to work out the scheme the bad guys have put together, and the Doctor declaring "let's go save the world". A great use of the ensemble cast and Counter-Measures guest cast, a clever way to deliver exposition and psyche the listener for the final episode.
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Post by Timelord007 on Oct 8, 2018 8:38:33 GMT
A ending with a cliffhanger.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Oct 8, 2018 8:59:12 GMT
Can I tell you at this time next week?
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