THE YEAR WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

The year according to WRONG NUMBER. Although that's never quite true. Because as usual many of the incredible books, films and television shows I encountered hailed from slightly more distant pasts. No room for them on such a list. Instead, here are some highlights from 2012, give or take. 


TELEVISION
I've opted to showcase some particularly outstanding episodes, rather than just listing my favourite shows. 

DOCTOR WHO 

Series 7 episodes

"The Snowmen"

"The Angels Take Manhattan"

"Asylum of the Daleks"

FRINGE

Season 5 episodes

"An Origin Story"

"The Bullet That Saved the World"

"Black Blotter"

SHERLOCK

Series 2 episodes

"The Reichenbach Fall"

"A Scandal in Belgravia"

GAME OF THRONES 

Season 2 episodes

"Valar Morghulis"

"Blackwater"

"Garden of Bones"

MAD MEN

Season 5 episodes

"The Other Woman"

"The Phantom"

"Commissions and Fees"

PARADE'S END

Miniseries

Note that I'm a little behind with BREAKING BAD and COMMUNITY, which is the only reason they do not make an appearance. Catching up on DVD.

BOOKS

I'm including graphic novels and audio dramas. Just because.

LONDON FALLING 

Paul Cornell

THE ISLANDERS 

Christopher Priest

WINTER JOURNAL

Paul Auster

THE TROUPE

Robert Jackson Bennett

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9

FREEFALL (Vol. 1)

Writers: Joss Whedon and Andrew Chambliss Artist: Georges Jeanty

ON YOUR OWN (Vol. 2)

Writers: Andrew Chambliss and Scott Allie Artist: Georges Jeanty

ANGEL & FAITH 

LIVE THROUGH THIS (Vol. 1)

DADDY ISSUES (Vol. 2)

Writer: Christos Gage Artist: Rebekah Isaacs

BONELAND 

Alan Garner

DOCTOR WHO: DARK EYES

An audio drama by Nicholas Briggs

DOCTOR WHO: LOVE AND WAR

An audio drama based on the novel by Paul Cornell

Adapted by Jacqueline Rayner

There remains a stack of 2012-ish books sitting at WRONG NUMBER HQ, begging to be read. Soon my pretties, soon... 

FILM
I used to put way too much effort into producing a top ten movies of the year, but that was back in the pre-fatherhood days when I was a super regular cinemagoer. To be fair, I did get out to the cinema a bit more again this year. Yay for me.

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

(Dir: Drew Goddard)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

(Dir: Peter Strickland)

SKYFALL

(Dir: Sam Mendes)

ARGO

(Dir: Ben Affleck)

THE AVENGERS

(Dir: Joss Whedon)

INTO DARKNESS

The facts as they stand are these:

The most times WRONG NUMBER has watched a film in the cinema is SIX. 

The film was J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK from 2009. 

The prospect of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is becoming a dangerously all consuming one for WRONG NUMBER.

The Into Darkness ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER had BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH telling WRONG NUMBER - in no uncertain terms and with THAT voice of his - that this is the film. 

The IMAX screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was going to feature THE FIRST NINE MINUTES of Into Darkness, but WRONG NUMBER had arrived there a day early.

The MIDDLE EARTH stuff will be covered in another blog post. 

The disappointment of not getting those first nine minutes can only be HINTED AT here.

The first nine minutes will be seen - in the NEARISH FUTURE - even if that is the main reason for turning up at an IMAX.

The full TEASER TRAILER has just sent WRONG NUMBER over the edge, not into darkness, but into ill-advised blog posts that are best skipped to the end, where you can stop listening to him babble on and start watching the good stuff. 

Click here to watch:

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS TRAILERS