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 David Tennant
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 almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.