Doctor Who Easter Egg - Hitch Hikers Reference

UPDATE I have just been informed that the episode in question was series 17, "Destiny of the Daleks", episode 1, by Terry Nation. Douglas Adams was the script editor at the time.

There is another Tom Baker Episode, don't remember which one, that makes reference to THHGTG also. At the end of the episode I believe the Dr is sending one of his companions home and the guy protests by saying something to the effect of, "But I still haven't learned the meaning of Life, the Universe and EVERYTHING" To which the Dr. replies, " Oh, That! It's 42." And if I remember correctly, the episode ended there. I hope I am relaying this correctly, I saw the episode about 10-15 yrs ago when it first aired here in the US. Thinker1029

Non of the above are actual eggs, Douglas Adams, did write these scripts, and it is a well known fact that some of his ideas were carried onto Thgttg. Eggs are purely intentional, these, however are not.

So you're saying that the 42 and the title of Adams' book are actually easter eggs referring back to Doctor Who episodes? :) - Dano

In one Doctor Who series of episodes, a gruesome-headed alien time-traveller is stranded on primitive Earth and lives so long he is represented on Egyptian wall paintings. He asks the Doctor for help to travel back in time and undo the explosion which stranded his ship, but the denouement is that this accident should not be undone, as the cataclysm is what started life on the planet and the alien is malevolently asking to change history in a big way. This script, collaborated on by Douglas Adams, is the identical plot element found in Douglas Adams' DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY. Kind of a let-down, really, since the pacing and threads of the book were so tightly wound but the punch-line appeared to be warmed-over SF.

Cymro is wrong. These are eggs. ie, intended. What do you think these where? coincidence?

Douglas Adams was script editor for Dr Who through a large part of the Tom Baker era. There are a *lot* of Hitch-Hiker gags and references all the way through.

The dirk gently using elements from both City of Death and Shada, which he has freely admitted, also the entire plot of one of the HHGTTG novels is from an unused script Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen.

There's another Hitchhiker's reference in a later Doctor Who story, Ghost-Light starring Sylvester McCoy, the sevenbt Doctor. He's at a dinner party, and the waiter is a Neanderthal. The Doctor says, "Who was it that said Earthmen never invite their ancestors to dinner?" And the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie had the line "Life is wasted on the living" which was also taken from Hitchhiker's.

Also, in the Christmas Invasion Episode (bridging the gap between the ninth and tenth doctors), the Doctor, having just battled an evil alien warlord bent on conquering Earth all while still in pajamas and a bathrobe, mutters something along the lines of "I feel like Arthur Dent"