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[ronakpw]

Doctor Who: Split - Now Available!

Today is an incredibly special day for me. My Doctor Who fan visual novel 'Doctor Who: Split' has been published and is available to play now. 😄

This project was a labour of love for me. Sure, the process was a bit bumpy at times, but overall I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Believe it or not, I have wanted to make a Doctor Who visual novel since 2017(!)

Please check out the game by clicking on the link below! All you need to play the software is an Android smartphone or a Windows computer.

Re-posts appreciated! 🙏🏻

[ronakpw]

Doctor Who fans! If I may have your attention again… I can finally reveal the logo for Doctor Who: Split. 😄

Designed by the wonderful @sonjalikestodraw. 🎨

[ronakpw]

Ronak's Gaming Year-in-Review (2022):

Games I played for the first time in 2022:

Part Time UFO

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond

Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

Mario Strikers: Battle League

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

Blade Strangers

Kirby's Dream Buffet

Splatoon 2 (didn't complete)

Tetris Effect: Connected

PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC (didn't complete)

Pokémon Dream Radar

Pokémon Sword

Worldend Syndrome (didn't complete)

Pokémon Scarlet

Pokémon Snap (Nintendo 64)

Games I've played before that I played again in 2022:

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Maker 2

Super Mario 3D World + Browser's Fury

Pokémon Shield

New Pokémon Snap

Mobile Games I played in 2022:

Pokémon GO

Pikmin Bloom

Marvel Snap

Pokémon Masters EX

Pokémon TCG Live

Games I only played for a little while:

Pokémon UNITE

Burnout Paradise Remastered

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered

Fall Guys

Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection

ACA NEOGEO THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2003

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Overwatch 2

Kirby Fighters 2

Ultimate NES Remix

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

Mario Tennis (Game Boy Color) [Virtual Console]

Pokémon Crystal (Virtual Console)

SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy

Scar of the Doll

WITCH ON THE HOLY NIGHT Trial Version

Pokkén Tournament DX

Highlights of the year:

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Scarlet

Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby's Dream Buffet

Pokémon Masters EX (because they added Ash to the roster)

Pokémon Snap (Nintendo 64)

[ronakpw]

The Winter 2022 issue of The LLP Magazine is out. That means your boy just officially became a published poet! 😄

[ronakpw]

First Look at Doctor Who: Split

I want to share something *incredibly* special with y'all today. It's the first look at the Doctor Who fan visual novel that I'm producing, Doctor Who: Split.

Someone - or something - is hunting the Doctor inside the TARDIS, and it's up to Rose Tyler to save the day! But what does this mysterious entity want with the Doctor? 👀

Please stay tuned for more details! ���

[ronakpw]

Favourite TV & Film Composers

Murray Gold (Doctor Who)

John Williams (Star Wars, Superman, Harry Potter and Home Alone)

Hans Zimmer (Miscellaneous)

David Arnold (Doctor Who and Sherlock)

Michael Price (Sherlock)

Alan Silvestri (The Avengers)

Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther and The Mandalorian)

Natalie Holt (Loki)

Steve Jablonsky (Transformers)

[ronakpw]

I've been working on a Doctor Who visual novel. It's called Doctor Who: Split, and it features the Ninth Doctor and Rose. (Please note that this is a fan-game.) 👾

Today, I'd like to share some sketches of the Ninth Doctor from the game by @sonjalikestodraw with you guys and gals! 🖌️🎨

[ronakpw]

Some John Green Quotes That I Really Like:

“What I love about science is that as you learn, you don't really get answers. You just get better questions.” - Turtles All The Way Down

“Pain demands to be felt.” - The Fault In Our Stars

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.” - The Fault In Our Stars

“If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.” - Looking For Alaska

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” - Looking For Alaska

[ronakpw]

Favourite Video Game & Anime Composers:

Jun'ichi Masuda (Pokémon)

Go Ichinose (Pokémon)

Shota Kageyama (Pokémon)

Koji Kondo (Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Smash Bros., etc.)

David Wise (Donkey Kong Country)

Noriyuki Iwadere (Ace Attorney)

Shinji Hosoe (Zero Escape)

Yasunori Nishiki (Octopath Traveler)

Jesper Kyd (Hitman)

Kenji Kawai (Fate/Stay Night)

Yuki Kajiura (Fate/Zero)

[ronakpw]

My thoughts on Under the Lake

Sorry guys, but I found Under the Lake to be just meh. I was thoroughly bored by the end and couldn't wait for the episode to get over!

When they first released the Series 9 trailer, I was actually quite fascinated by the hollow-eyed ghost-like creatures and couldn't wait to see the episode(s) they featured in. It's a real shame, then, that I didn't like Under the Lake at all.

One reason for this, I guess, is that they never explained what the ghosts actually are. I wanted a sciency explanation for the ghosts (like in the Series 7 episode Hide), but we weren’t given an explanation at all. I guess/hope we will find out more about these ghosts next week.

I also didn't buy the whole business with the ghosts being transmitters transmitting coordinates. In fact, I'm not even sure I understood it properly.

Like I said before, I was quite bored towards the end and couldn’t wait for the episode to get over! Really hope the second part is better and explains everything properly.

Sometimes I feel that several past episodes have had similar niggles and that I've only started to have issues with the show now because I'm beginning to grow out of it.

And that thought scares me because I love Doctor Who to bits!

Anyway, see you all again next week.

Verdict: 2/5

[ronakpw]

The Witch’s Familiar - Review (Sort of)

It was, erm, okay, I guess?

Please, guys, don't be mad at me! I didn't think it was a particularly bad episode or anything, but I just didn't 'feel it'. You know what I mean, right?

The episode did have some great bits, won't lie to you. But it also had bits that didn't make much sense, at least to me. This review is divided into two halves - one half where I talk about the things I liked and one half where I talk about the things I didn't like.

First, the things I liked.

So, one of the bits I really loved was that flashback scene in the beginning. Loved that Baker-to-Hartnell-to-Capaldi sequence! I really dig stuff like this.

Another little nugget I really dug was when the Master mentioned her daughter and how the Doctor gave her that brooch all those centuries ago when they were still on Gallifrey. I really dig references to, as the Master calls it, 'the olden days on Gallifrey'. That's because I really love every little bit of revelation we get of the Doctor's life before he stole his TARDIS and ran away. So I really liked this bit, even though it was just a few lines of dialogue.

Another great thing the episode succeeded in doing was making us sympathise with Davros. Feel for him. I should've realised that that sleazy old swine was just manipulating the Doctor - it was quite predictable, really - but, believe it or not, I didn't! I actually fell for it! That's how masterfully the scene was executed.

Also loved the reveal of the Daleks' vocabulary filter. That scene where Missy makes Clara say all these different phrases before the Dalek machine filters it out and says something entirely different adds another layer of horror to the Daleks. Although unlikely, the blob inside could literally be saying, “Get me out of this thing, I don’t want to be a killer!” and the Dalek machine translates it to “EXTERMINATE!” and shoots.

Browsing Reddit deepened my understanding of Davros and his worldview, and it really helped me understand the Doctor/Davros scenes better. Davros is a jingoist - he is a product of a highly xenophobic, tribalistic, militaristic culture that prizes survival at all costs, and protecting one's own is exactly the sort of tribalism he believes in. It's for that reason that Davros wants to know about the Doctor's relationship with his own people (like why he ran away from them and generally likes to dissociate himself from them), and why he congratulates him on learning that the Time Lords survived the Time War (although letting Davros in on that was a stupid move by the Doctor - something I've talked about later in this article). Even though he hates the Time Lords, their survival, he thinks, is something the Doctor should be proud of - cuz it's something Davros would be proud of.

Lastly, this episode was far more focused than The Magician's Apprentice. The Magician's Apprentice took a lot of time to get to the point and all that hopping around the Universe was really distracting. Also, there were many scenes that didn't add much to the story. It’s true that the Witch's Familiar, too, suffers a little from this - the Doctor/Davros scenes don't do much for the plot - but like I said before, I now have a newfound appreciation for those scenes after browsing Reddit. I'm planning to re-watch the episode soon, and I expect the Doctor/Davros exchange to be one of the episode's real highlights.

Now onto the niggles.

Why the hell would the Doctor leave Gallifrey because of that two-mighty-races-hybrid prophecy? What's the logic? Come on, Davros! You're meant to be smarter than this! And where did that prophecy even come from?

Also didn't like this whole sewer/graveyard business. Daleks decay and die? And they liquefy? And then their brethren dump them into sewer-like graveyards? Just didn't buy it.

Also, at the end, when the Daleks are being stuffed by liquefied, decaying angry Daleks left to rot - that just didn't seem like a proper resolution to me. Don't think you can exactly call it a deus ex machina ending - it was definitely set up earlier on in the episode with Missy and Clara - but it definitely didn't feel like the right way to conclude things, if you ask me. Besides, how did the Doctor know about the sewers? And how did he know that the Daleks Davros feeds off also includes dying, decaying Daleks from the sewers? And that revitalising them would make them revolt? That's one hell of a leap of faith, if you ask me. Daleks are pretty one-dimensional - I just don't buy the idea of dying Daleks revolting against their brethren. I honestly think that, just like me, the Doctor fell for Davros' puppy eyes, too, and just pretended he had a plan all along when things worked themselves out for him.

Also, why did the Doctor go and tell Davros that Gallifrey survived, eh? That wasn't a very wise thing to do, and if you honestly ask me, it was one of the stupidest things the Doctor has ever done. All the more reason I believe the Doctor really did fall for Davros' puppy eyes at first.

And, at the end, when the Doctor talks to Kid Davros about mercy - that was great, too. But, honestly, it still doesn't make sense why that would be the reason Davros gave Daleks the concept of mercy and snuck the word into their vocabulary. That's just not how he designed the Daleks to be. It just doesn't make sense. Also, people who've started looking throughout the show's 52-year-old lore for instances when a Dalek says 'mercy', look no further. The Stone Dalek in The Big Bang says 'mercy' several times once it learns the River Song's identity.

Anyway, that's all I have to say right now. If you have any thoughts on any of the points I have raised or questions I have asked, please feel free to reply to me on Twitter. I'm @ronakpw. See you all later!

Verdict: 3/5 (Like Missy, I'm rounding up.)