10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Modern Doctor Who

9. EVERY Episode Has A Cold Open

One of the defining features of Classic Doctor Who is the cliffhanger.

Before the end of each episode, someone would die, there would be a big reveal of a crudely scary monster, or the Doctor would hang off a cliff for no reason, before we heard that oh-so-iconic sting sound effect, and jumped into the credits.

When the show came back in 2005, serialised cliffhanger storytelling had largely fallen out of fashion, but cold opens were all the rage, so each episode started out with one.

Or did they?

Though in our minds we all just think that every episode starts with a cold open, there are a few notable omissions. Weirdly, RTD1 series openers Smith and Jones and Partners in Crime don't have cold opens, even though Series 2 opener New Earth does have one – as do the six Moffat series openers that came after.

Less unusual and more commonly known is the fact that Rose doesn't have a cold open either, although it is funny that the episode that brought the show back omitted one of its defining features!

Of course, when showrunner Chris Chibnall took the reins, he removed the cold open altogether (and The Woman Who Fell to Earth doesn't even have a title sequence). You'll hear it said that he then reinstated them for Series 12, but again this is a case of the memory playing tricks – Spyfall Part 1 has one, but for some reason they then vanish until episode seven, Can You Hear Me.