The TARDIS slowly materialised in front of a plain white stone wall. Rose stepped out first, followed by Martha and the Doctor. "Where are we?" Rose asked with a grin.
"Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze!" The Doctor beamed. "Nice and cold. Lovely. Ladies, have you met my friend?" He gestured up towards the Statue of Liberty, standing tall and majestic behind them.
"Is that... Oh, my God!" Martha laughed, looking up at the Statue of Liberty in awe. "That's the Statue of Liberty!"
"That's amazing!" Rose jumped up and down with excitement. "I've always wanted to go to New York! The real New York, not New New New New... oh, you get the idea."
"Gateway to the New World! 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free...'" The Doctor looked around with a grin.
"That's so brilliant," Martha gazed at the view of the Manhattan skyline. "I agree with Rose, I've always wanted to go to New York too."
"Well, there's the genuine article!" The Doctor looked at the view with admiration. "So good, they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam..."
"I wonder what year it is," Rose tilted her head in curiosity, and pointed out to the skyline. "'Cause look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet."
"Work in progress!" replied the Doctor cheerfully. "Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around..."
"November 1st, 1930," Martha replied as she held up a discarded newspaper.
"You're getting good at this!" The Doctor turned to see the newspaper, taking it and reading it. His expression darkened, and Rose looked at him in concern.
"Eighty years ago..." Martha looked around in excitement. "It's funny, 'cause you see all those old newsreels in black and white like it's so far away... but here we are! It's real. It's now!" She laughed, and glanced at the Doctor and Rose. "Come on then, you two. Where do we go first?"
The Doctor held up the newspaper with a sigh, showing Martha the headline, which read 'HOOVERVILLE MYSTERY DEEPENS'. "I think our detour just got longer."
"Hooverville Mystery Deepens..." Rose frowned. "What's Hooverville?"
They headed over to Central Park, where the Doctor continued his explanation of Hooverville to the girls. "Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the USA, came to power a year ago," he explained as they strolled through the park. "Up till then, New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then..."
"The Wall Street Crash, yeah?" Martha frowned. "When was that, 1929?"
"Yeah," The Doctor nodded. "Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. Suddenly the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So they ended up here in Central Park."
"What?" Rose looked around carefully. "They actually live in the park? In the middle of the city?"
They arrived at Hooverville, Martha and Rose looking around in shock. The entire area was filled with shacks and tents, random fire barrels placed throughout the paths. It was a slum town, slap bang in the middle of New York. "Ordinary people. Lost their jobs. Couldn't pay the rest and they lost everything..." The Doctor looked around slowly, grimly. "There are places like this all over America. You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go."
The trio suddenly looked ahead as they heard two men shouting, and fighting. "You thievin' lowlife!" The first man punched the second, while others tried to break up the fight. "My loaf!"
"I didn't touch it!" The second man tried to scramble away, clutching his jacket tightly.
Solomon, an older, dark skinned man wearing a brown hat, strode out of his tent and shouted. "Cut that out!" The two men ignored him and kept on fighting. "Cut that out!" He repeated in a louder tone, pushing the two men apart. "Right now!"
"He stole my bread!" The first man shouted, his face red and angry.
"That's enough!" Solomon raised an eyebrow at the second man. "Did you take it?"
"I don't know what happened!" The second man replied, his eyes wild with fright. "He just went crazy."
"That's enough!" Solomon shouted as the first man tried to lunge after the second. Other residents heard the commotion and were wandering over to see what was happening. The Doctor, Rose and Martha wandered over, too. "Now think real careful before you lie to me."
"I'm starvin', Solomon!" The second man sheepishly reached under his coat, pulling out the bread and handing it over to Solomon.
"We're all starvin'..." Solomon broke the bread in half, and handed each man a piece. "We all got families somewhere. No stealin' and no fightin'. You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together! No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got."
The two men went their seperate ways, and the Doctor approached Solomon with a friendly smile. "I suppose that makes you the boss around here."
"And, uh, who might you be?" Solomon frowned.
"I'm the Doctor! This is Rose, and Martha," he gestured to his companions with a smile.
"A doctor," Solomon scoffed, warming his hands by the fire. "Well, we got, uh, stockbrokers, we got a lawyer, but you're the first doctor. Neighbourhood gets classier by the day."
"How many people live here?" Rose asked softly, glancing around at the several tents and shacks, feeling sorry for the inhabitants.
"At any one time, hundreds," Solomon replied. "No place to go. But I will say this about Hooverville. We are a truly equal society, black, white, all the same. All starving," He laughed. "So you're welcome. All three of you. But tell me, Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me..." He pointed up at the Empire State Building. "That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, and we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?"
High up on the Empire State Building, two construction workers were out on the girders, hoisting up a bucket on the ropes. "Right, no more!" The first worker sighed.
"There you go. Hoist!" The second man shouted over the wind.
Inside an unfinished part of the 100th floor, the site foreman was arguing with Mr. Diagoras, a suspicious-looking man with slicked-back hair, wearing a dark pinstriped suit and spats. "I'm tellin' ya, the men won't stand for it!" The foreman frowned. "I mean, are you outta your mind? I've got five hundred men working seven days a week flat out, and you want us to go faster?"
"The new masters demand it," Mr. Diagoras replied simply.
"But we're on schedule!" The foreman sighed exasperatingly. "What's the problem?"
"The mast on this building needs extra work completed by tonight."
"Tonight?!" The foreman stared at Mr. Diagoras. "No way. It's impossible!"
Mr. Diagoras turned to him slowly. "That's an order."
"Yeah? Well, one word from me and every man on this site stops working," The foreman replied angrily. "So go on. Tell your masters that."
"If that's your attitude, I think you should tell them yourself..." Mr. Diagoras stood up slowly, walking towards the lift and pressing the call button.
"Yeah, well, I ain't afraid of no man in a suit," The foreman scoffed, and paused. "These new bosses? What's their names?"
"I guess you could say they're from outta town," Mr. Diagoras replied with a smirk dancing on his lips.
"Italians?" The foreman frowned, sensing something was off.
"A bit further than that."
"How much further?"
Mr. Diagoras smirked. "Beyond your imagination."
"What's that supposed to mean?" The foreman asked angrily. "Who are they? Mr. Diagoras, who're we working for?"
Mr. Diagoras stepped away from the lift, standing beside the foreman. "Behold your masters!" The lift bell dinged and the doors slid open to reveal the blue menacing glow of a Dalek eyestalk. The bronze Dalek was guarded by two pig slaves, as it moved out of the lift slowly.
The foreman gazed at the metal creature and the two pig slaves in disgust and confusion. "What the hell?"
"I have been summoned," The Dalek stated, the light bulbs on its dome flashing. "Explain! Explain!"
"It can talk!" The foreman backed away, horrified. "How does it talk? And what the hell are they?!"
"I'm sorry, my lord," Mr. Diagoras bowed his head in respect to his master. "But this man is refusing to complete the work."
"Then we must replace him." The Dalek replied simply, in its monotone voice.
"Is anybody gonna tell me what the hell is happening here?!" The foreman turned to Mr. Diagoras nervously.
"Use him!" The Dalek cried. "Take him for the Final Experiment."
The pig slaves moved forward, grabbing the foreman by his arms. "Hey, what's goin' on?" The foreman struggled madly as they took him into the lift. "Let go! Let go of me! Get off me, ya freaks! Mr. Diagoras, will you tell 'em? Listen!" Mr. Diagoras simply stood by and watched as the lift doors slid shut.
"The Empire State Building must be completed in time!" The Dalek uttered.
"It will be," Mr. Diagoras tried to sound reassuring. "Trust me. Labour is cheap and that man can be replaced."
"The plan must not fail. The gamma strike has accelerated. We need more bodies immediately." The Dalek's eyestalk turned up to point directly at Mr. Diagoras.
"Yes, Master."