#series 12

Ryan & The Doctor were such good friends.

I'm not just saying that they were good like two people who get along. They were good for each other. Honestly, after how RTD wrote Ruby and Belinda's relationship with The Doctor, the whole Fam is that much more refreshing. They're a support network!

Wow is that why so many people hate on this era?? Are you just not entertained by people who legitimately help each other become the best versions of themselves? Lol oof pocketing that one for later... 😂

These two are truly underrated for their chemistry. They share plenty of comedic moments together and Ryan's scene with The Doctor in his last episode, The Revolution of the Daleks, is so candid. He shows so much maturity. It even becomes clearer that after he leaves, his reason for leaving is having found purpose in the time since being parted with the Tardis.

He knows he is needed by his friends. He feels important to the planet. He sees an opportunity to help in a way that flying around on the Tardis feels a bit like...running away from it all. He found purpose and he's going to run in its direction not the other 'round.

I love you, Ryan Sinclair.

Woah, whoops...how'd that picture get uploaded right here? 😳 *clearing throat; knocking things over in a rush*

This guy was an adorable ball of energy when he wasn't being Mr. Cool standing behind his Granddad taking in the whole of the universe. Just seeing sights and winning at FIFA against his mate. 😄

His most notable moments aside are definitely being the object of King James's affection, his big brother moment with Ada, when he emotionally supported a man he'd only just met give birth (so help me if y'all don't see the beauty of that moment from a science fiction and queer perspective), his conveyor belt moment in Kerblam!, his cute and dorky reaction to meeting Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the gadget bit in Spyfall, and the time he blew up a bunch of Cybermen on a dying world stranded in time and space.

Hey, I get it if you don't have taste and wanna be like "but he wasn't that well written" or "he was such a background character for most of the show" but I think it helps to pay attention to moments when they happen on screen. I'd say erase your biases too but that's not as easy of a solution. They're not exactly visible or easily perceived. Ryan Sinclair's bright and shining face, however, is right there! Clear as can be 😉 Just look at it!

Did you look?

...lol okay I'm done being a goober.

Here's to you, Ryan Sinclair (and Tosin Cole for playing the role)!

Bonus points for his last scene with Graham in their finale. He keeps trying; he keeps fighting to conquer his dispraxia. He isn't magically gifted with the ability to overcome it as a result of having traveled with The Doctor or anything like that; he simply has to keep at it. That's a highly motivating and emotionally validating subplot and it neatly coalesces with the grief of his grandmother. He's never weighed down by it because he and Graham learned how to open themselves up in their time with the Doctor. That vulnerability and the community that strengthens us in sight of grief becomes their parting gift.

Personally, I have very mixed feelings. On one hand, I absolutely love the moment in Timeslides where Lister goes into Rimmer’s photo and scuffles with Hitler, and the duet almost feels like a complete 180 on that. Lister fighting Hitler is a great show of the positives of his character - not just his morality, but also his courage, and a quality that I can’t name. It’s the polar opposite to Rimmer’s belief that ‘you can’t just stick one on the leader of the Third Reich’ - Rimmer kind of mythologises Hitler with this idea, and it’s very wrapped up in the way that he romanticises war. In contrast, Lister doesn’t care what position of power Hitler holds, only about the atrocities he’s committing. I don’t want to say he treats Hitler as an equal, because that’s misleading, but he treats him as human, someone who can and should be challenged.

However, Cured obviously has the key difference in that Hitler is not really Hitler, even before the reveal that Telford reprogrammed the androids. As far as Lister knows at the point of his duet, this isn’t the man who committed genocide, but rather someone who was forced to bear responsibility for the mistakes of his ancestors. This is fairly similar to Lister’s feelings towards the cat race and, in the novels, towards humanity (where he takes on responsibility of all of the human race’s wrongdoings to Earth simply because he’s the only human left).

I think there’s also something to be said about the way evil is represented in this episode - not as a choice, but as an illness. Lister suggests this idea even before the full details of the facility’s philosophy are revealed. To me, it makes perfect sense that Lister, as an optimist and a humanist, would want to believe that evil can be cured, that nobody actually wants to do awful things, that a better world is possible.

There’s also Lister’s relationship with Rimmer, where he continues to feel affection for a man who chooses wrong time and time again, where he empathises with the part of Rimmer that’s lonely and wants friends, where he tries to help Rimmer over and over. Of course Hitler’s guilt-tripping would work on him.

Finally, Hitler admires and praises Lister’s artistic expression in a way no one ever has before. He actually wants Lister to play his guitar - for them to play together. This is something Lister hasn’t experienced in a long time and will likely never get to experience again.

In a vacuum, I do like Hitler’s crush on Lister and Lister’s empathy. I get that it’s a funny visual. I don’t think the episode was trying to actually show the real Hitler in a good or empathetic light. I even think that Lister’s reaction is consistent with his character as a whole and possibly even with the character whose reaction to encountering the real Hitler was to attack him. However, there is still a part of me that’s a bit bothered by it and its stark contrast to Lister’s reaction to Hitler in Timeslides. There’s a part of me that feels like there’s a level of implicit homophobia in this portrayal. Maybe it’s to do with the recent rise in fascism, especially through fascist ideas that have gained footholds through jokes and memes. There are definitely bigger issues in this episode (the ableism surrounding Telford’s ‘faking’ of his disability and the ideas around empathy/mental illness), but still.