Trivia: When the crew of Starbug have to decide which of the two "Dave Listers" aboard is the real thing, they line both up for a test of their guitar playing ability. One "Dave Lister" plays a blistering, dazzling, guitar solo; the other plays dreadfully. The rest of the crew immediately know that the one that played the guitar brilliantly is the 'fake'. (Dave Lister only THINKS he can play guitar well - in fact he's hopeless at it.). The hands that we see playing the 'brilliant' guitar solo belong to "Roxy Music" guitarist Phil Manzanera. (Grant Naylor had originally wanted to get 'Queen' guitarist Brian May to play the solo, but he wasn't available).
Trivia: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor originally tried to get Brian May to film the guitar solo scene, but he was unavailable. However, Anita Dobson (May's wife) asked if there was a part for her, and she was given the part of Captain Tau. The writers have since said if they'd known she was interested they would have written her something more substantial.
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.