My predominant thought on seeing this: "How did Janeway get the smegging holovirus?" "Mr Flibble's third cousin twice removed is very cross." I am such an uber-nerd.
Not sure why Mr Flibble hadn't crossed my mind... but a few minutes with Photoshop as that's preferable to driving out to buy some Jaegermeister and Red Bull...
Thanks kindly, and that's smegging glorious! Also starring Tom Paris as Lister, Tuvok as Kryten, the EMH as Holly and someone please suggest a Cat as I can't think of anyone.
Jadzia Dax! Especially as Terry Farrell was in the Red Dwarf USA pilot as Cat... She actually steals the show as Cat, had the second pilot been been allowed to proceed I do wonder how RD USA might have improved... but of all the UK comedies that have translated to US comedies, only "Man About the House", "Steptoe & Son", and "Til Death Do Us Part" (Three's Company, Sanford & Son, All in the Family respectively) really took off. That I'm aware of. I know of a few that failed ("Faulty Towers" had "Amanda's By the Sea" and "Are You Being Served" had "Beane's of Boston"...) Found a promo pic online of RD USA: She's a real Farrell cat!
Man, I'd actually forgotten she'd played the Cat! I just remembered Hinton Battle. What a travail it all was, regardless. It does look to have had potential, though. Wonder if any of it's available online, or were they fed into the waste grinder and their bits flushed into space?
At least at the time of Red Dwarf season 5 DVD release (2005-ish?), the first pilot was still retained - hence higher quality clips used in a documentary. A shame they didn't get the rights to both and have them as extras. And to think Linwood Boomer developed the US version and co-wrote the pilots, he's the same guy behind "Night Court" and "3rd Rock From the Sun" - two hilarious shows (IMHO). At times he's onto something but a lot of the jokes, especially those ported from the original, just didn't translate. Some YouTube channels feature both pilots. Amazed anyone had them to leak them. Hinton as Cat was pretty good, but Farrell as Cat just feels more original and not trying to do the impossible of outdoing Danny John-Jules. The actors were all rather good, but the scripts were so flat and the characters were just walking diorama parts. The 2nd pilot improves on this, partly due to changing Cat so dramatically. Both pilots are lacking but both aren't as rotten as their reputations suggest. The 2nd one might have taken off if the network bought it, but they did not.