Red Dwarf

*this is the REAL pilot not the 15 min promo with female cat*

After watching this pile of drivel I was one step from cracking the VCD in my hand so that i could symbolically kill at least one of the copies of it.

The acting is at best ... questionable. And at worse...? well there was more life in a "dawn of the dead" zombie.

The script is almost identical to "the end" with a few changes for the american market (baseball cards etc)... but somehow it dont seem ...right. the canned laughter as well makes it a chore to watch.

Still Robert Llewellyn is (and always will be) a gem to watch.....and Jane Leeves makes a fine holly (all be it her British accent sometimes...just sometimes comes through ..making u think u are back watching the UK series).

Havent seen the promo 15 mins that was made after this...but have seen pictures of Terri Farrell in a cat suit..so its not a complete loss I would think...

(acctually on reflection it would be bad....Red dwarf was mostly about a man..who has lost his only true love 3 million years ago and will never see female company again..so to have a female character would be pointless)

This version of Red Dwarf is strictly a worthless footnote. The script is almost completely cribbed from the original British episode "The End" with a poorer cast, flat performances and nothing original to speak of.

It is astonishing that Someone thought it useful to Americanize what was already a classic comedy on both sides of the Atlantic. That Someone must think all Americans are parochial morons who would be alienated by the original. This is yet another failed attempt to de-Anglicize a British hit. At least this version died before being officially aired.

Just watched a very poor quality copy. In fact I'm quite glad it was a poor quality copy because if it was good quality I would probably have been even more aware of how rubbish this was. (Kryten being the only exception).

Lister was too "Wholesome American", his character needs to be more scummy. Rimmer wasn't arsy enough. Cat looked to be reasonably well cast but there really wasn't enough of his character in the pilot to draw any real conclusion. Holly was also okay except perhaps a little too chirpy. Kryten, well Kryten was played by Robert Llewellyn so you can't really go wrong there.

If the Americans want to watch Red Dwarf why don't they just buy the original episodes off the BBC instead of butchering an absolutely timeless cult classic. I actually feel dirty, I need to watch an original episode to cleanse that detritus from my mind!

I saw a pretty poor copy of this but the bottom line is that it lacks the punch, clarity and humor of the original series.

The characters are thin, unbelievable, two dimensional copies of the flawed but warm and likeable characters in the original series. The only actor who came from the original series is Robert Llewellyn who tries hard but is let down by the rest of the cast and the direction.

There's something seriously wrong with the timing of the humor. It's set up as if it was a sitcom not a comedy. The timing should be quite different however the canned laughter track is timed for a sitcom not for a comedy show and thus makes all of the comedy fall totally flat.

If you like Red Dwarf, give this a miss. If you haven't seen the original Red Dwarf then beg, borrow, steal or buy the original (or look for re-runs on PBS) but give this remake a wide, wide berth.

As a lifelong Red Dwarf fan I'd obviously heard of this and seen a few clips but never until today actually sat down and watched it.

What it is is a strange re-hash of the first episode from around the time of series 5 of the UK original. It's fascinating to see what choices have been made and, strangest of all, what works. Namely - Kryten and the slicker integration of Kochanski.

The central crux of the entire of Red Dwarf is the relationship between Lister and Rimmer, and they throw this down the river in favour of a strangely out-of-place but evergreen Robert Llewellyn spoon feeding the plot to the woefully miscast Craig Bierko. He's a Craig yes, but the similarities end there.

Thankfully - it all fell apart and it stands now as an odd and forgotten curio and a testament to how remarkably well constructed, well cast and well conceived the original version is.