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 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) later that year, as well as allowing Jane Leeves to become part of the cast of Frasier (1993).
Originally the pilot was written by Linwood Boomer, but when Rob Grant and Doug Naylor came in, they did not like the script, so they wrote a new one. A poll was then taken with the cast (the names had been removed from the script, so prejudice would not be an issue) to see which was better. Grant and Naylor's script won. Yet when it came time to shoot it, most of Grant and Naylor's ideas were not used.
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.
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.