As far as my opinions on the cast go, I liked Joanna Going, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Roy Thinnes as Trask, both of the Barbaras (Blackburn and Steele), and Jim Fyfe. Michael T. Weiss was okay. I'm lukewarm on Thinnes as Roger, as well as Jean Simmons, who I thought was a bit old for the part. I did not like Ely Pouget's version of Maggie, I found Lysette Anthony to be a very mediocre Angelique, and don't even get me started on Ben Cross.
As for the 2004 pilot, I can't really say, having never seen it. I can't really picture Alec Newman as Barnabas, and I fully agree that it was a mistake for a "traditional" DS retelling to toss out the hair colors, as silly as it may sound. I always found it interesting how Curtis cast a blonde woman as the villain and a girl with black hair as the heroine. Casting Kelly Hu as Julia was also a mistake in my opinion - if Barnabas had an exotic beauty like her lusting after him, why would he bother with the girls who have no interest in him, and after at least one failed attempt at converting one of them to Josette?