Doctor Who: Every Penultimate Cliffhanger Episode Ranked From Worst To Best

Though it had all the best intentions in the run-up, Series 11 of Doctor Who fell apart right at the end, largely because the finale had very little impact. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos was actually more like a mid-season stand-alone ep, and if anything, should have served as a precursor to bigger things within that same season.

In fact, the two-parter was a convention completely absent in Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall's debut series, which was a real shame. Two-part episodes, with one or two occasional exceptions, have been a stunning method of closing off a series. The formula is simple: Establish a story, add a little a mystery, end the episode on a stomping cliffhanger, and watch the audience helplessly pile in for the finale to see how it all turns out.

There's no reason why this great tradition should be abolished. It worked consistently from the Eccleston one-off series, right through to the Capaldi years, although some worked much better than others.

It was to be Peter Capaldi's last ever season, bar his Christmas send-off. And on paper, it was quite a nice idea. We saw the return of the original Mondasian Cybermen, and John Simm's Master. The premise was a little muddled, but interesting enough to set the tone for the stunning finale, The Doctor Falls.

But there was one glaring problem: The BBC ruined all surprises with copious clip-dropping in trailers leading up to the episode. Once we knew that both the old-school Cybers and Simm's Master were to make an appearance, any impact the episode would have had was unfortunately vaporized. The fact that The Master had been planted disguised as another character was rendered pointless because we all knew he was set for a return anyway.

Is this good enough reason to put World Enough And Time at the bottom of the list? Well, Doctor Who is BBC's crown sci-fi jewel and they are therefore responsible for its marketing, so yes. They should have learned a thing or two from Marvel Studios about keeping secrets in the run-up to releases.