The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The main setting of the series is the mining spaceship Red Dwarf which is 6 miles (10 km) long, 5 miles (8 km) tall, and 4 miles (6 km) wide. In the first episode, an on-board radiation leak of cadmium II kills everyone except for low-ranking technician Dave Lister, who is in suspended animation at the time, and his pregnant cat, Frankenstein, who is safely sealed in the cargo hold. Following the accident, the ship's computer Holly has to keep Lister in stasis until the background radiation dies down, a process that takes three million years.
Lister therefore emerges as the last human being in the universe, but not the only life form on-board the ship. His former bunkmate and immediate superior Arnold Rimmer is resurrected by Holly as a hologram to keep Lister sane. At the same time, a creature known only as Cat is the last member on board of Felis sapiens, a race of humanoid felines that evolved in the ship's hold from Lister's cat, Frankenstein, and her kittens during the 3 million years that Lister was in stasis.