In his memoir, Robert Llewellyn stated that during filming he would joke around and perform wild antics like he would on the set of the original series. While the original cast enjoyed his antics, the American actors found them distracting and embarrassing.
Two versions of this pilot film were produced. The second version cast Terry Farrell as the Cat. The show's failure to become a series freed her to join the cast of Jornada nas Estrelas: Deep Space Nine (1993) later that year, as well as allowing Jane Leeves to become part of the cast of Frasier (1993).
Chris Barrie was also offered the chance to reprise his role as Rimmer, but turned it down because he did not want to commit to a five-year contract.
In an interview on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show (2009), Craig Bierko admitted that the producers made a "huge mistake" in casting him as Dave Lister and that a "John Belushi type" should have been cast. In Red Dwarf: Dwarfing USA (2004), Danny John-Jules stated that Belushi would've been the only American actor who could've played Lister.
The original British cast was at first jealous of Robert Llewellyn for being cast in this pilot. Llewellyn was told to keep it a secret. But makeup artist Andrea Finch let it slip that she was going to the US to do Llewellyn's makeup.