 Actress Adjoa Andoh, who plays Martha Jones's mother - Francine Jones, first appeared in Doctor Who under heavy make-up as the chief Cat Nun, Sister Jatt in "New Earth".
The first Doctor Who story that Director Graham Harper worked on was nearly 42 years ago, when he was a floor assistant on "The Power of the Daleks".
42 minutes is the approximate length of a standard episode of the revamped show (minus titles and credits).
42 was the age that Executive Producer, Russell T Davies, reached when the revamped show began in 2005.
To date, Elvis has had 21 number ones in the UK music charts; The Beatles have had 17. Interestingly 42 minutes was the length of The Beatles' last live gig, performed on the roof of Apple HQ and Elvis Presley died when he was 42.
42, according to "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Douglas Adams, the author, was both a writer and script editor on Doctor Who.
Another instance on television that follows the format of real-time-action is the classic US series 24.
"Burn with me" were the last words of Plasmavore Florence Finnegan, who featured earlier this season in "Smith and Jones".
The spaceship in this story was originally called Icarus II. However, midway during recording it was discovered that Sunshine - a science-fiction film with a solar theme due for release in the United Kingdom in April 2007 - featured a spaceship called the Icarus II. It was agreed that the name of the craft in "42" could be changed through altered graphics, editing and dubbing without undue difficulty, and so Russell T Davies rechristened it the SS Pentallian, after the Pentalion drive mentioned in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen".
Similar themes to those in this story were explored in the Tom Baker story "Planet of Evil".
For the first time since Doctor Who had returned in 2005, a mid-season transmission break was scheduled between the previous story "The Lazarus Experiment" and "42" due to the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest on the 12th May. Nonetheless, Doctor Who still made headlines on that day when Kylie Minogue confirmed that she would be appearing in the 2007 Christmas special.
The end of this story contains a trailer for the first episode of the next story "Human Nature/The Family of Blood".
Following on immediately after this story, on BBC3, was the seventh chapter of the third series of Doctor Who Confidential, "Space Craft" presented by Anthony Head.
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The Firsts:
The first time a Doctor Who story or episode title only has numbers in it.
The first story where events take place in 'real time'.
For the first time since the show returned in 2005, a mid-season transmission break was scheduled between the previous story and this.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Chris Chibnall.
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(Position = 7 out of 10)
(Position = 136 out of 200)
