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

10. The Hospital Design Had To Be Approved By Lawyers

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

Shortly after arriving on New Earth, the Doctor eyes up a nearby hospital, remarking that someone inside Ward 26 wants him to pay them a visit.

We don't actually see much of the hospital's exterior in the episode, but even so, those few brief glimpses we get of the majestic building were still quite tricky to implement - from a legal perspective, that is.

Davies tweeted that lawyers representing a "billowing-sail hotel" in Dubai actually got in touch with the Doctor Who team to ensure that the design of the New Earth hospital wasn't infringing on any copyrights.

Presumably, Davies is referring to the Burj Al Arab, which opened in 1999. And yes, it does look remarkably similar to the New Earth hospital. Thankfully though, Doctor Who passed this legal hurdle with flying colours!

Burj Al Arab hotel Dubai
Pexels
In this post: 
Doctor Who
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

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!