Trivia: Hiro's dad's license plate says NCC1701 (the actor playing Dad is "Star Trek's" Lieutenant Sulu), which is the registration number of the USS Enterprise on "Star Trek."
Trivia: The artwork created by character Isaac Mendez is actually done by Tim Sales, a comic book artist who is actually color blind. He does all his work in black and white and has other people insert the color.
Trivia: There are a number of other Star Trek references in Heroes. In episode 15 (Run!), Hope refers to Hiro as "Sulu." George Takei, who played the original Sulu plays Hiro's father. And at one point (and several other times throughout the show) Hiro gives the Vulcan hand symbol that Spock always used when he would say "live long and prosper." Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar, would also later play Spock in the 2009 reboot Star Trek.
Trivia: When Hiro buys the comic book, he pays with a 1000 yen note, which is a typical price for manga in Japan. This translates into approximately $8.48 American. As a typical 2006 newsstand price for comics is about $2.99, the vendor actually got more than his money's worth.
Trivia: After Hiro and Ando are in Vegas using Hiro's abilities to "cheat" at gambling, they are riding an escalator dressed in identical suits. This is an homage to Rain Man, when Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman are in Vegas, also using a special ability to gain the upper hand in gambling, and are also in identical suits on the escalator.
Trivia: Masi Oka (Hiro), who has an IQ of 180, appeared on the August 31, 1987 cover of "Time Magazine" for an article called "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids". Masi, who was 12 years old at the time, is the boy on the left of the cover which can be seen here: http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1987/1101870831_400.jpg.
Unexpected - S1-E16
Trivia: Stan Lee appears as a bus driver towards the end of the episode.
Trivia: The date on Hiro's watch, October 2, is the same date this episode first aired in most North American areas.
Trivia: Ashley Crow & Matthew John Armstrong, who play Sandra Bennett & Ted Sprague, are actually a married couple. He had to hold a gun to her in the show, which Matthew described as, "something he hopes his son never sees".
Trivia: www.primatechpaper.com was an actual website for the front company in the show. It also directs you to a phone number, 1-800-PRIMA16, which was also a working number about the front company, although no longer valid.
Seven Minutes to Midnight - S1-E8
Trivia: The title "Seven Minutes to Midnight" refers to the Doomsday Clock that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists prints to represent the global nuclear threat. The clock was originally started at Seven Minutes to Midnight when it was introduced during the Cold War and it was also Seven Minutes to Midnight when this episode of Heroes aired.
Trivia: In episode 18, "Parasite", Hiro finds the sword listed on the computer with the ID "CRM-114". This tag crops up in many Stanley Kubrick films, including A Clockwork Orange (as "serum 114") starring Malcolm McDowell, who also features in this episode.
Trivia: Cristine Rose, who plays Angela Petrelli, is only 14 years older than Adrian Pasdar, who plays her son Nathan.
Trivia: On the floor of Isaac's loft, the painting of the New York explosion was originally done in black and white. The pilot episode and a couple others were shot with the black and white floor. The color was added in post-production. After a couple of episodes of them having to digitally add color, and realizing they would be shooting in Isaac's loft a lot, the producers finally decided to have the floor painted to save time and production costs.
Chosen answer: Hiro's powers are still quite unreliable, and a locked closet door isn't a huge obstacle. Since Hiro knows he needs to rescue Ando, it's probably safer to try and bash the door down than risk teleporting to the wrong place or time.