Tiffany Knight, from Astoria, poses in front of a “Doctor Who” time machine dressed as the show’s River Song. (Rahav Iggy Segev)
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Who is that mysterious woman in the fedora and trench coat, slinking into cozy Prospect Heights bar the Way Station?
Her name’s Tiffany Knight, and she’s from Astoria, but for this throng of “Doctor Who” fans, she could pass for the hero’s former love interest, River Song (played by Alex Kingston).
And that blue police box she’s leaning against near the bar? OK, it’s actually an embellished bathroom — but for the purposes of this crowd, it’s a TARDIS: the time machine in which the titular Doctor embarks on his interstellar adventures in the long-running British sci-fi series.
Fans of the show — so-called Whovians — come to admire the TARDIS, sip Sonic Screwdrivers and mingle at Brooklyn’s first self-proclaimed nerd bar.
At Sunday’s midseason premiere, enthusiasts are decked out: Many gents sport sprightly neckwear per the Doctor’s frequent motto: “Bow ties are cool!” Others favor fezzes (briefly cool) and long, striped scarves (from an earlier-era “Doctor”). One young woman even shows up in black body armor, topped with a rhino-head mask. (It’s called a Judoon, and it’s a policeman from outer space.)
“Sunday nights are awesome to come and hang out,” says Knight, a 25-year-old actress, singer and ardent “Who” fan. “This is a good time to meet people.”
Management aims to please, running three showings of the new episode. All of them are packed.
“We just had our two-year anniversary,” says Way Station owner Andy Heidel, 44, “and it’s amazing, all these fans making the bar their home. A lot of people don’t have BBC America, so it’s great to show the episodes here on our big screen.”
“Doctor Who,” a cheeky, campy series that began in 1963, revolves around a time-traveling alien known as The Doctor. He’s been through 11 incarnations now — actor Matt Smith plays the current one — and he generally has earthling companions in tow as he saves various species (often ours, and frequently in London) from imminent peril.
The midseason premiere of the show (which airs on Saturdays, but is screened at the bar on Sundays) brought the BBC 1.5 million viewers, second only to last fall’s season premiere. At the Way Station’s party that night, they only planned to screen the episode once, and ended up with a line down the block before the bar even opened its doors.
When Heidel and a friend decided to disguise the bathroom as an homage to “Who,” they thought the concept was hilarious and brilliant. “But we had no idea everybody else would think so,” he says.
It’s clearly the main attraction, and a steady stream of fans have their photos snapped in front of it. “You get to pee in a TARDIS. Where else can I say that?” exclaims 31-year-old Kristin Sirota, in costume as The Doctor’s former companion Amy Pond, who travels from Midwood as often as she can.
In the bathroom hangs a framed note from Smith: “Bow Ties Are Cool! Stay Cool! Pee Happily! love, Matt Smith/The Doctor.”
The star popped in with friends one afternoon when the bar was near empty. “Everyone was so mad! It would have been nice to have been able to welcome them,” laments Sadie Harrison, 25, co-host of the Sunday screenings with her boyfriend, Sean Proper, 37. They met here nearly two years ago and are “the bar’s first couple,” says Harrison.
They’re definitely not the only Whovians to have found love at the sociable Way Station. In addition to Sunday screenings of “Who,” as well as other shows and movies, the bar hosts free comedy, live music and “nerdeoke” — “karaoke sung by a bunch of nerds,” explains bartender Alissa Atkinson, 29, clad in a TARDIS-print dress. “Basically, for a lot of people that wouldn’t go to bars at all because they feel like outcasts — here’s the place they can feel totally comfortable.”
Harrison says the average IQ surpasses that of most watering holes. “We have a lot of Ph.D.s,” she says. “People are talking science, politics — a lot more of that.”
But one thing they don’t take too seriously is the show — unlike some people. “One of the hardest crowds I’ve had is for ‘Star Trek,’ ” she says. “They don’t think any of it is funny. Whovians, we’re a little more about the joyousness.”
Additional reporting by Tim Donnelly
sstewart@nypost.com