Pete Messum Reviews...

Coming into this film, many expect it to be the same as Lord of the Rings , but it isn't. It is its own film in a way, rather than an exact prequel – where it is set before the Ring trilogy, but it isn't exactly the same feel as the trilogy. The film begins with a prologue showing how the dwarves were forced out of Eribor (or the Lonely Mountain) by Smaug, narrated by Ian Holm in the character of Bilbo Baggins, who appears on-screen shortly afterwards. It introduces you to Thror, Thrain and Thorin, and you find out what happened to the first two later in the movie. This prologue is great, and you don’t see that much of the dragon, which when he will appear in The Desolation of Smaug , will have much more of an affect and give some more tension. We then cut to see Frodo and Bilbo talking on Bilbo’s 111 th birthday, and it seems to be a little forced to make it an exact prequel to Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo and Bilbo do look very old and the scene is a little pointless,

Steven Moffat writes 2012's Doctor Who Christmas Special, and, after two incredibly unpopular specials (2010's 'A Christmas Carol' and 2011's 'The Doctor The Widow And The Wardrobe') which were, in fairness, terrible, I was worried coming into this episode. Thankfully, I had no need to be worried. This story carries on some time after The Angels Take Manhattan, and The Doctor (Matt Smith) has changes his costume (which is odd, seeing as they keep doing that) and now wears a more Victorian garb with some crazy top hat - he looks more like a psychopath version of Willy Wonka rather than the Time Lord - but it works for the story. He no longer wears a bow tie (until later in the episode) and instead wears an incredibly scruffy-looking tie. The TARDIS has also changed. In the summer of 2012, Doctor Who got a new studio, and they couldn't transport the 'old' TARDIS to the new studios, so they got their new production designer to design a new one. I