Frankenstein

From Tongue Tied

"It's not as easy as that! Me and the cat, we're going to have a baby cat, and we're going to buy a farm on Fiji, and we're going to have a sheep and a cow and three horses, it's me *plan*, and no one can get in the way of it, not even you, and I do respect you! Sir!."
-Dave Lister (RD: The End)

Frankenstein was Dave Lister's pet cat. Lister smuggled Frankenstein on board Red Dwarf after shore leave on Mimas, one of the moons of Saturn. She is described in the novel Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers as one of the most expensive and healthiest cats he could find, as he knew the danger of an unhealthy animal aboard a spaceship, and that her name was a show name inspired by the classic horror character. Frankenstein was pregnant and Lister took good care of her, giving her milk while daydreaming of his plan to buy a farm in Fiji and live there in bliss.

Frankenstein was discovered by Captain Hollister, Red Dwarf's commanding officer, when Lister took pictures of himself with the cat and sent them to the onboard photography lab. ("The End") Hollister demanded Lister turn over the unquarantined Frankenstein to the ship's medical staff in order to dissect it, since it could carry disease that could spread to the crew as well as get into the ships machinery. He tells Lister: "Lister, a loose animal aboard this ship could get anywhere. It could get into the air ducts. It could get into Holly. You know, a little nibble here and a little nibble there, Lister, and before you know it we're flying *backwards*. Now I want that cat, and I want it now!"

Hollister mentions an incident on the space ship Oregon where a disaster was caused by rabbits. We can only imagine the massive amount of damage that can be done by these creatures.

It was Lister's refusal to turn over the cat that landed him on stasis where he was safely shielded by the radiation accident that killed the rest of the crew. The only other survivor was Frankenstein, who was hidden in the cargo hold, away from the radiation.

Frankenstein eventually gave birth to her kittens, and within three million years her descendants had evolved into an intelligent, humanoid Cat species: Felis sapiens, the last known individual of this species being the Cat.

Frankenstein was revered by her Cat descendants as the Holy Mother. Her basket also received special significance for the Cats, as it contained the last instructions of Cloister the Stupid, the Cat's god. These instructions were actually Lister's laundry list. ("Waiting for God")

Her name's inspiration is mentioned in the dialog of Series V's "Quarantine" in which The Cat (ironically her descendant) uses the name to insult Kryten causing him to point out that Frankenstein was the name of the creator and not the monster. He elaborated that "it is a common misconception held by all truly stupid people." It is in fact a common misconception in popular culture.

An alternate reality version of her is seen in Series VII during the events of "Ouroboros". She is depicted as a kitten when that reality's Lister acquires her and smuggles her aboard. However, Kristine Kochanski discovers her inside Lister's shirt while boarding Red Dwarf. She then sets about following regulation and disintegrating it, but she does not have the heart and ends up keeping the kitten. She is later discovered and thus Kochanski is sent into stasis just as Lister did in our dimension (thus making her the last human alive alive after their accident). Frankenstein being a kitten makes leads to questions about how she could be pregnant, assuming that the depiction is mostly accurate in our universe as well (and that an alternate Cat is shown to exist from that dimension).

In a parallel universe, Deb Lister's (Lister's female double) pet is not a cat, but a dog. It is unknown whether Debbie's dog was also named Frankenstein. (Parallel Universe") The "Space Corps Database" on the offical website calls her Dracula.