In literature, a cliffhanger was a literary device where a story ended in a precarious situation. This was sometimes accompanied by the phrase "to be continued".
In 2375, after Tom Paris objected to The Doctor pausing The Adventures of Captain Proton holographic program during the final chapter, the Doctor asked Paris if the phrase "to be continued" meant anything to him. (VOY: "Night")
Chapters of serials from the 1930s often ended in cliffhangers. According to Tom Paris, this was to bring people back into theaters. He designed cliffhangers into the chapter ends of his holonovel The Adventures of Captain Proton, including one that stated "Chaotica fires his fiendish death ray! Certain death for Proton, as his rocket ship bursts into flames!!!" Harry Kim pointed out that the recap was inaccurate and that they did not burst into flame at the end of the last adventure. Paris stated that cliffhangers were "the lost art of a hyperbole." (VOY: "Bride of Chaotica!")
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"To Be Concluded
Next Week"
Star Trek itself has of course used many cliffhangers, typically signified by the intertitle baring the fourth wall-breaking caveat "to be continued...", or in the case of the first and only Star Trek: The Original Series cliffhanger, "The Menagerie, Part I", "to be concluded next week". The first episode to air after the cliffhanger was typically recapped by a narrator, or in the case of "The Menagerie, Part II", a narration disguised as a captain's log.
"...And The Adventure Continues..."
While not a cliffhanger in the truest sense, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock left the door open to future productions with the intertitle stating "...And The Adventure Continues...".
The first season ending cliffhanger was for the production of the TNG Season 3 finale "The Best of Both Worlds". Since then, cliffhangers have been introduced for mid-season two-parters and during episode arcs.
The next such iteration would not return until the finale of the TNG Season 3 cliffhanger finale "The Best of Both Worlds", which appeared with a simple black screen and the words "to be continued". This same title card was repeated for "Chain Of Command, Part I" and "Descent", however the spacing of the words on the card used in the latter was noticeably wider.
Seventeen years after "The Best of Both Worlds", Family Guy satirized its ending by using the same title card font and cliffhanger music (both scored by Ron Jones) for its cliffhanger episode "Stewie Kills Lois".
In many cases, later TNG and DS9 cliffhangers generally overlaid the words on a black screen.
(DS9: "The Circle", "The Homecoming", "The Maquis, Part I", "The Search, Part I", "Homefront" and "The Way of the Warrior" (in syndication))
In other cases, they were overlaid over the final frame of the scene.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2's season finale, "Hegemony", ended with the words "To Be Continued...".