Trivia: "Meltdown" was originally planned to be the first episode of Series IV of Red Dwarf. However, the militaristic tone of this episode - and in particular Dave Lister's strident anti-war speech near The End of the episode - meant it fell foul of the BBC censors. The original planned transmission date (Feb 14 1991) coincided with the outbreak of "Operation Desert Storm" - the Gulf War...and the BBC felt that an "anti-war" episode of Red Dwarf would be inappropriate for a country at war with Iraq.
Trivia: During the famous 'double polaroid' scene, the look of shock and horror on Lister's face is real. The double polaroid apparently was a real picture of someone's genitals but nobody had told Craig Charles about it. Even Robert Llewelyn (Kryten) was in on the joke and the look on Lister's face is totally real.
Trivia: Red Dwarf's producer/director Ed Bye was taken seriously ill on the day of the studio recording of the episode "Dimension Jump". Paul Jackson, who was in 1990-91 effectively Ed Bye's boss, stepped in to cover, although he hadn't directed a TV show for about 7 years. But look at the credits for this episode...no one bothered to update or change them, and Paul Jackson was never credited for his work. The credits still say "Produced and directed by Ed Bye" even though on this one occasion, they weren't.
Suggested correction: Lister can only see M-Corp products and M-Corp employees. Cat is not an employee of JMC or M-Corp, so he disappears. Lister is the only member of the crew who is employed by M-Corp at this point.
Suggested correction: Cat was a descendant of the cat Lister brought aboard Red Dwarf. Would it be possible that the new owners might have stricter security controls, and Lister was sent to Stasis for a different reason?
Andy Benham ★
Inventing Deux ex machina explanations for a plot hole doesn't make it any less of a plot hole. M-Corp erases all of the Jupiter Mining Corporation's equipment, personnel and infrastructure from Lister's life. In no way is Cat a part of that. He has no connection at all to the Jupiter Mining Corporation, and until he meets him in Episode 1 no connection to Lister, either.
If M-Corp only erased JMC equipment from Lister's life, then Kryten, who belongs to DivaDroid and not the JMC, wouldn't have disappeared either. He disappears as he doesn't belong to M-Corp, not because he belongs to the JMC. Cat has no connection to M-Corp, as he wasn't a part of the JMC (as you pointed out), and is therefore erased for Lister.