Doctor Who: 12 Cool Details Russell T Davies Just Revealed About New Earth & Gridlock

11. New New York Was Inspired By Star Wars

Doctor Who New Earth New New York Rose Tyler
BBC/Twitter: @russelldavies63

One of New Earth's flagship cities, New New York is a massive collection of futuristic skyscrapers and hovering vehicles, all surrounded by an enormous bed of water.

It's a true feast for the eyes, and for fans of sci-fi entertainment - in particular, Star Wars - it may look a little familiar.

And that's because Davies specifically name-dropped the iconic movie franchise in his initial synopsis for the episode (see the image below). More specifically, he wanted New New York to be "all towers and whizzing shuttles", mentioning the Star Wars city of Coruscant as something that the design team should look to for inspiration.

Doctor Who New Earth Russell T Davies synopsis
Twitter: @russelldavies63

Coruscant was prominently featured in the Star Wars prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, so it was probably quite fresh in Davies' mind when he and his team were envisioning and executing New New York, somewhere between 2003 and 2006.

Coruscant Star Wars
Lucasfilm
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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!