Quarantine - S5-E4
Kryten: What a smee... What a smee... What a smee - hee.
Terrorform - S5-E3
[The Unspeakable One rises in front of Rimmer]
Rimmer: Boy, am I glad to see you. You must be the Unspeakable One. Just to fill you in, there's been a gigantic administrative cock-up. Some of your staff have somehow mistaken me for a virgin.
Unspeakable One: Stop your putrid whining, you dank gift of rectal public hair.
Rimmer: Sorry. Yes, I do tend to jabber on when I'm a bit nervous.
Terrorform - S5-E3
[Rimmer has been chained up]
Rimmer: Is this the British Embassy? Does it even look the remotest bit like the British Embassy? I want to know who you are, what I'm doing here, and I want to know now.
Hooded Guard: In accordance with the appetites of the Dark One, the vicious ruler of this domain, we, the holy legions, proffer up this sacrifice to slake the vile depraved thirsting of the Unspeakable One.
Rimmer: Well, that's cleared that up.
Terrorform - S5-E3
[Rimmer is being taken by a group of hooded guards on a cross]
Rimmer: Look, I don't know who you are, or what you think you're doing, but I demand my right to a phone call.
[The guards stop]
Rimmer: Yes, I thought that'd stop you. I thought the threat of legal action would have you running for cover.
[Rimmer is now being dragged by the guards]
Rimmer: Look, I'm trying to keep my temper, but you really are pushing your luck now miladdikins.
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.