Colonel Sebastian Doyle was the man Lister believed himself to be when attacked by a Despair Squid. While exploring the SSS Esperanto, the Dwarfers were assailed by the Despair Squid, which sprayed Starbug with its hallucinogenic ink. Starbug crashed into a sandbank and the crew were killed upon impact. They then awoke in a Total Immersion Video Game arcade, where they were told that the past four years were actually spent in a simulation.