What are some of the best “to be continued” episodes of all time? I’d prefer two-episode shows rather than season ending cliffhangers or shows that carry over all the time (Heroes, Lost), but there’s a couple of season-enders I need to mention.
My list:
Doctor Who: The Empty Child. The great one with the kid from WW2 who kept saying “Are you my Mommy?” That episode got me hooked on the new series.
WKRP: Johnny Fever takes a job in NY…
Star Trek TNG: The Best of Both Worlds. “Mr. Worf. Fire.”
Dallas: “Who Shot JR?” Probably the best cliffhanger of all time.
[sub]Apparently I tried to start this thread last night after many, many, many drinks. Needless to say the results were spectacularly bad. Apologies to those of you who had to see that.[/sub]
At least in my childhood the dominant was was “I am Locutus.” For the continuation of that one my chemistry teacher’s wife bootlegged a copy of the continuation from the TV station she worked at and then we all gathered at his house to watch it about 3 weeks early.
Space Above and Beyond several POWs are being finally returned to Earth (including one of the main characters wife? girlfriend? I don’t remember for sure but she was the main reason he’d joined the fight) and the aliens are finally negotiating with humans for peace. The aliens suddenly suggest that they evolved on Earth first and left long ago. They also reveal that they were known to a few groups on Earth before they attacked and gave fair warning to get the hell out of their territory. One of the Earth reps angrily denies it all and then taunts the ambassador until the alien goes nuts and sets off a bomb seriously injuring the leader of the Squad then the aliens launch a huge attack on the POW convoy killing off another main character who goes down fighting. All these loose plot threads. Is the POW convoy going to be destroyed? What’s going on with the alien claiming to be from earth? Did shady individuals cover up the alien contact for profit? Tune in next season…of course there wasn’t one. Oh well.
Quantum Leap’s “The Leap Home” were two terrific episodes, the first making a great story about family whose message came completely unexpectedly, and the second for it’s triple-twist ending.
“Trilogy” from the same show was a great three-episode story.
I’m going to have to vote for the entirety of the TV show Key: The Metal Idol. Whoever wrote the script was god of timing and each episode ended on a cliffhanger. It’s impossible to watch the series without watching it all since you can’t not put the next episode in. (Essentially you would need to stop mid-episode.)
Buffy, I think it was season 5, the one with Glory the goddess. Buffy is unambiguously dead, we’ve seen the body, and she’s been buried. Hard to beat that one.
You had Leo get shot by Hank, Agent Cooper shot by an unknown assailant, Audrey at One Eyed Jack’s about to be served up to her father, the mill burning with Catherine and Shelly inside and Pete rushing in, Nadine attempting suicide, Leland murdering Jacques Renault and Lucy announcing her pregnancy.
