William "Billy" Doyle was the man Rimmer believed himself to be when the Dwarf team was attacked by the Despair Squid. While exploring the SSS Esperanto, the Dwarfers were attacked 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.