New York City, previously known as New Amsterdam and later as old New York, (TV: New Earth, PROSE: Time and Relative) was a city in New York state and one of the largest and most impressive cities in the United States of America, described by Sam Garner as "the city of a million stories". (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) According to the Eighth Doctor, the traffic was always terrible. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
Geography
New York City was separated from Union City in New Jersey by the Hudson river. (COMIC: Spiral Staircase)
New York City consisted of several boroughs including Manhattan, (TV: Daleks in Manhattan) Brooklyn (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror) and Queens. The boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn were separated by the East River. (AUDIO: The Great White Hurricane)
The city possessed an extensive subway system with train routes typically designated by numbers, like 3 train, or letters, like R train. (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror)
The Grand Central Station was a busy and opulent transportation hub. (AUDIO: The Authentic Experience)
Many of the streets in New York City were numbered. Many Manhattan streets running in the East-West direction were called streets, while those going in the north-south direction were called avenues. Some streets were divided into the west and east parts. (COMIC: Spiral Staircase) It was not uncommon for the same street to appear in several boroughs, like 44th Street in Manhattan and Brooklyn. (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror, Spiral Staircase)
History
18th century
In 1790, New York City's total population was 33,131. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1799, the Seventh Doctor visited New York City. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
19th century
In 1800, New York City's total population was 60,515. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1810, New York City's total population was 98,373. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1820, New York City's total population was 123,706, 5,390 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1822, the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith met St. Nicholas in the garden of a New York City mansion. This encounter was observed by Clement C. Moore and it inspired him to write "Twas the Night Before Christmas." (PROSE: A Visit from Saint Nicholas)
In 1830, New York City's total population was 202,583, 17,773 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1840, New York City's total population was 312,710. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1850, New York City's total population was 515,547, 235,733 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In August 1851, the 30.86 m schooner-yacht America, representing the New York Yacht Club, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in seventeen days on its way to the Isle of Wight, where it won the British Hundred Guinea yacht race, thereafter known as America's Cup Race, on 22 August. (TV: Enlightenment)
In 1860, New York City's total population was 813,669, 383,717 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1870, New York City's total population was 942,292, 419,094 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1872, the Third Doctor and Brod visited New York City, where they met Theodore Cassells and boarded the Mary Celeste. (COMIC: A Stitch in Time)
In 1880, New York City's total population was 1,206,209, 478,670 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
On the evening of 11 March 1888, the Great White Hurricane began with rain, which then turned into heavy snow with strong winds reaching 85 miles per hour. The drifts of snow were as high as 30 feet. People were stuck in their houses. Trains could not operate on elevated tracks. Fifteen thousand passengers were stranded in them for hours. Over the course of 36 hours, hundreds of people died. The First Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright witnessed this event first-hand when they visited New York City. Barbara remembered it being described in history books as the worst snowstorm to hit heavily populated areas. (AUDIO: The Great White Hurricane)
In 1890, New York City's total population was 1,515,301, 839,347 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
Jack Harkness visited Ellis Island in 1892. He died there but returned to life immediately after. This event made Jack realise that he could no longer die permanently. (TV: Utopia)
An 1890s New York City street. (COMIC: The Weeping Angels of Mons)
In the 1890s, four Ovids — beings of pure thought who travelled from world to world in crystal spheres — became trapped in New York City. Their presence caused people's dreams and nightmares to manifest in reality. The First Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright were able to free the Ovids from the Manhattan theatre in which they were stranded with the assistance of Harry Houdini. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors)
20th century
In 1900, New York City's total population was 3,427,202, 1,270,080 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1904, Ryan Sinclair saw the Thirteenth Doctor escape from 200 cyborg clones of Harry Houdini in the New York City subways. (PROSE: The Secret in Vault 13)
In 1910, New York City's total population was 4,708,083, of whom 1,044,257 were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
1920s
A horse possessed by the Cuculus tries to kill the Eleventh Doctor and Harry Houdini. (PROSE: Houdini and The Space Cuckoos)
In 1920, New York City's total population was 5,620,042, 2,028,160 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering) In this year, the Cuculus attempted to invade Earth starting with New York City. The Eleventh Doctor came to New York and worked with Harry Houdini to defeat the Cuculus. (PROSE: Houdini and The Space Cuckoos)
In 1923, Miraclo the Magician was hypnotised by the Lepus Warriors to activate a warp gate leading to their dimension during his popular New York show. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald confronted the Lepus Warriors and convinced them to stay in their own dimension. (COMIC: The Hat Trick)
The Twelfth Doctor, Clara Oswald, and Harry Houdini trapped by Diamanda. (COMIC: Theatre of the Mind)
In 1925, Harry Houdini summoned the Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald to New York after he was trapped in a prison created from his memories. The Doctor and Clara helped him escape the prison and destroy the alien crystal that created it. (COMIC: Theatre of the Mind)
In 1927, Jack Harkness was sent on a mission to kill a Brainspawn intended to infect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here he met Angelo Colasanto. The two began a relationship. Upon Angelo's release from Sing Sing Prison the following year, he discovered Jack's immortality, resulting in Jack being repeatedly killed by a number of local residents. (TV: Immortal Sins)
1930s
Dalek Sec and two other Daleks in a New York theatre. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
In 1930, the population of New York City, or, as Charlotte Wills claimed, Manhattan, was 1,867,000. (TV: The Gathering) At this time, the Cult of Skaro established a base of operations underneath the Empire State Building. At the same time, a community of the homeless, known as Hooverville (one of several Hoovervilles across the United States as a result of the Great Depression), had been established in Central Park. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks)
The Weeping Angel Statue of Liberty approaches Winter Quay. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
By 1938, the Weeping Angels had established a "farm" in Winter Quay, a Manhattan apartment building to which Angel's victims from the future would be sent backwards in time to live out their lives. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) In the same year, River Song, under the alias Melody Malone, set up the Angel Detective Agency to investigate the Weeping Angels invasion of New York City. (PROSE: The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery)
In October 1938, the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard met Orson Welles and stopped the Laiderplacker from invading Earth. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
1940s & 50s
In 1940, New York City's total population was 7,454,995, 2,138,657 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1950, New York City's total population was 7,891,957, 1,784,200 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
1960s
A dinosaur in New York. (COMIC: The Monsters from the Past)
In the 1960s, the Second Doctor, John and Gillian visited New York City, where they defeated the plans of a mad scientist to liberate zoo animals with his reanimated dinosaurs. (COMIC: The Monsters from the Past)
In 1960, New York City's total population was 7,783,314, 1,558,690 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In October 1963, the Queen Mary travelled to New York City from Southampton. (PROSE: Ghost Ship)
In 1964, an aeroplane which left New York City with a crew of eleven and hundreds of passengers landed in London with no one aboard, not even the pilot. The matter was investigated by Professor Rachel Jensen of the Intrusion Counter-Measures Group. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)
In April 1965, the Latter-Day Pantheon (aliens posing as modern-day gods) visited the city and established a short-lived religion based on their worship. (PROSE: Salvation)
In 1965, there was a major riot in Harlem. Group Captain Ian Gilmore and Professor Rachel Jensen believed that it was caused by a person with psychic powers designed by the Soviet Union to provoke extreme emotions in people. However, they had no proof of this. (AUDIO: Peshka)
In 1966, the First Doctor, Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton, and Vicki Pallister briefly landed on the Empire State Building and encountered Morton Dill. Shortly afterwards, the Daleks briefly landed on the Empire State Building in their time ship and encountered Dill. (TV: The Chase)
In the summer of 1968, the Jane Fonda incarnation of Iris Wildthyme lived in New York and became involved in the life of Andy Warhol. On 3 June, the Eighth Doctor and Samantha Jones visited Iris and witnessed Valerie Solanis shooting Warhol. (PROSE: Femme Fatale)
In July 1969, the FBI tracked down River Song to a New York skyscraper that was under construction. While here, she also observed the presence of the Silents. River jumped off the edge of the building instead of surrendering and was saved by the Eleventh Doctor, who materialised the TARDIS in the path of her fall and opened the doors of the swimming pool. (TV: Day of the Moon)
1970s
In early 1970, a sick Melody Pond regenerated in a New York alley, to the horror of a homeless man who fled the scene. (TV: Day of the Moon) Around this time, New York City's total population was 7,824,756, 1,437,023 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1971, the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon defeated the Quarks in New York City. (COMIC: Martha the Mechanical Housemaid)
On 24 December 1975, the Seventh Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex defeated the Kellenian invasion of Earth in New York City. (PROSE: Presence)
1980s & 90s
The Sixth Doctor and Frobisher went to New York City in 1980 to pick up Peri Brown, who had taken some time off from her travels in the TARDIS to visit the city and see the Dodgers play baseball. (COMIC: Time Bomb)
Around this time, New York City's total population was 7,071,639, 1,670,199 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman in New York City. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)
In 1983, Gumshoe Periodicals had their headquarters in New York. (PROSE: The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Enemy)
In 1990, New York City's total population was 7,322,554, 2,032,531 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
In 1996, a colour blind man obsessed with "Through the Eye of Eternity" drove a Buick through the front of a New York restaurant after being served the wrong cheeses on his pizza. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
21st century
2000s
During the first seconds of 1 January 2000, New York, along with the rest of the world, was nearly destroyed by the Eye of Harmony. (TV: Doctor Who)
Around this time, New York City's total population was 8,008,278, 2,871,032 of whom were foreign-born. (TV: The Gathering)
On 11 September, the World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists. (AUDIO: The Longest Night, PROSE: Touched by an Angel)
During the early 21st century, occult-oriented street gangs such as the Witchkids spread throughout the city (as well as the world). The Seventh Doctor, on a mission of his own, visited the city as part of his overall plot against the Butler Institute. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Warhead)
UNIT maintained a base in a skyscraper high above Manhattan. It housed a war room, research into Project Indigo and the main Osterhagen key. Martha Jones was stationed there following the defeat of the Sontaran invasion. In 2009, after the Earth was transported to the Medusa Cascade, a Dalek task force took the base, killing many of its personnel although Martha escaped using the Project Indigo teleport. The city itself suffered Dalek bombardment. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
2010s
In June 2010, the Vykoids attempted to enslave the population of Manhattan. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
During the Miracle in 2011, typhus and hemorrhagic fever spread to the city. (TV: Escape to LA)
Charlotte Wills claimed that, around 2011, Manhattan had a population of less than 1,867,000, misreading the 1930 statistic as pertaining to just Manhattan. (TV: The Gathering)
New York was among the world's major cities where forces of flying Cybermen emerged led by Missy. Taking to the skies, they created a cloud of cyber-pollen above the city. These pollen clouds would then rain upon the graves, recruiting the dead of the Earth into a new Cyberman army. When control of the Cyberman army went to the hands of the recently converted Danny Pink, he ordered all Cybermen to return to the skies and self-destruct, taking the pollen clouds with them in their combined explosions. (TV: Death in Heaven)
In 2018, the Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon saw Bleak House as a song and dance spectacular on Broadway, New York City. The Doctor didn't expect much of it, but after seeing the show he thought it was brilliant. (COMIC: The Greed of the Gavulav)
Events surrounding the return of Anubis
Many residents of New York of Mexican descent lived in Sunset Park neighbourhood. In the 21st century, the first local councillor of Mexican origins by the name of Ricardo Mendoza was elected. He organised the first Day of the Dead festival in Green-Wood Cemetery. The festival was marred by the invasion of Cerebravores, resulting in an advisory for all residents of Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace and Borough Park neighbourhoods to stay at home. The invasion was stopped by the Tenth Doctor with the help of Gabby Gonzalez. (COMIC: Revolutions of Terror)
Soon after that Shreekers followed a group of Echoes to Earth and started hunting them down in the streets of New York and elsewhere. In their attempt to call for help, Echoes caused an increase in noise pollution that became unbearable for many people. The Doctor and Gabby used the Empire State Building as a gigantic antenna to stop the merciless hunt. (COMIC: Echo)
A gestalt being calling himself Mr Ebonite organised auctions selling extraterrestrial artefacts in the Rockefeller Center. Upon learning about one such auction, the Doctor contacted the New York UNIT Headquaters who closed the place down. (COMIC: The Fountains of Forever) Ebonite also kept a special miniaturised environment called the Arena of Fear at a sub-basement of the Rockefeller Center complex, which the UNIT did not find. (COMIC: Arena of Fear)
An Osiran quantum harvester sold at one of the auctions was bought by a famous Oscar-winning actress Dorothy Bell. (COMIC: The Fountains of Forever) She merged with the artefact and gained the power to harvest quantum possibilities. She used her new powers to increase the height of the Empire State Building so that it could rival the Freedom Tower and to build more bridges to New Jersey over the Hudson. The activation of Osiran technology in New York brought about a visit from the Seeker, an artificial intelligence serving Anubis, the last of the Osirans. The Seeker's gigantic pyramid-shaped spaceship hovered over New York blotting out the light until Dorothy agreed to submit herself into the Seeker's hands. (COMIC: Spiral Staircase)
Jack Harkness visited Sunset Park in Brooklyn while tracking Ebonite. (COMIC: Cindy, Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook)
Later 21st century
In 2067, New York was destroyed by nuclear bombs during the secret Myloki war. (PROSE: The Indestructible Man)
Due to its cold climate and northern latitude, the Ice Warriors sent their Seed Pods here to create an atmosphere lethal to humans, but which the Ice Warriors could thrive in. This plot was foiled when the Second Doctor used the Weather Control Unit to destroy the pods with rain. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
22nd century
In approximately 2157, the Daleks destroyed New York City in the course of their invasion of Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase) The city had yet to be rebuilt in its entirety by Steven Taylor's native time period. (PROSE: Salvation; AUDIO: Return of the Rocket Men) When it was eventually rebuilt, it was with enough difference that 25th-century native Vicki Pallister could identify the original New York at a glance as "Ancient New York". (TV: The Case)
By the late 22nd century, the New York waterways were a tourist attraction. (PROSE: Fear Itself)
23rd century
In 2254, New York City was among the major cities where bases were set up by the Daleks, intending to turn Earth into a Dalek production planet, in their attempted invasion which was foiled by the Seventh Doctor. (GAME: Dalek Attack)
Later history
The Twelfth Doctor, Grant, Lucy Fletcher, and Jennifer Fletcher in the ruins of New York. (COMIC: Ghost Stories)
Many centuries after the 21st century, most of New York City was obliterated in a battle between the US Army and the Smoke. The conflict ended with the military being destroyed, leaving the Smoke in control of what remained of New York. Using his superpowers, the Smoke ruled over the surviving citizens of New York with an iron fist. (COMIC: Ghost Stories)
After the inhabitants of the Nerva Beacon recolonised Earth in 16087, the main settlement Nerva City was built on the former site of New York City. (AUDIO: Wirrn Isle)
By the time of the founding of New New York on the planet New Earth prior to 5000000023, the city had been re-created fourteen times, prompting the Tenth Doctor to joke that New New York would more accurately be called "New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York". (TV: New Earth)
Undated events
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The Seventh Doctor finds a Stellograt in the Macy's Christmas tree display. (PROSE: The Grotto)
One Christmas, a Stellograt crashed its ship on the roof of Macy's and tried to live inside the department store. The Seventh Doctor and Ace came to Macy's, found the Stellograt, and took it back to its homeplanet. (PROSE: The Grotto)
Other realities
In Roma I, Manhattan was discovered during the reign of Romulus Augustus. By the 19th century, the island housed the villa of Marcus Americanius Scriptor's family. It contained a central park, a building which was once the tallest in the world, and a number of renowned galleries. Jupiter Libertatis was on an island south of the villa. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)
In an alternate timeline in which Nazi Germany won World War II as a result of the Seventh Doctor and Ace accidentally leaving laser technology in Colditz Castle in October 1944, the Nazi scientists were able to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons. They subsequently bombed New York City, forcing the surrender of the United States and winning the war for Germany. (AUDIO: Klein's Story) Similarly, one timeline created during the second time front of the War in Heaven had the Nazis bombing New York with V-4 weapons. (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage)
In an alternate timeline created by the Chronomasticon, (PROSE: Playing for Time) New York City was pillaged by the Víkingrs in 1963. Gloria Carson met Aldis during the pillaging and the two left New York on a roadtrip. (PROSE: The Víkingr Mystique)
During the Year That Never Was, Martha Jones visited New York City and saw it in ruins. (PROSE: The Story of Martha)
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart married Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, the Queen coerced the President of the United States into surrendering to the British Empire by threatening to obliterate New York City with a fictional death ray. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
Behind the scenes
- Though they did not film any scenes involving actors, members of the Doctor Who production team visited the city in 2006 to shoot some of the location footage seen in Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. In post-production, the team altered to make the city look as it had in 1930 to ensure that the scenes matched the scenes shot back in Great Britain featuring the main actors and extras. The New York filming marked the first time in the decade since Doctor Who, that any production of Doctor Who had taken place outside of the UK, and first filming ever done in the United States.
- Russell T Davies considered having the city destroyed in The Stolen Earth but decided against it. (REF: The Writer's Tale)
