The sonic screwdriver is a fictional multifunctional tool in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who and its spin-offs, used by the Doctor. Like the TARDIS, it has become one of the icons of the programme, and spin-off media such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood have replicated its functions in devices such as the sonic lipstick, sonic blaster, sonic probe, sonic modulator and sonic cane.
The sonic screwdriver was introduced in 1968 in the story Fury from the Deep, and used twice more (The Dominators and The War Games) during the Second Doctor's tenure. It became a popular tool for the Third Doctor and Fourth Doctor. It was written out of the series in 1982 due to the limitations it caused when writing for the show. It then featured briefly in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, before making a full return in the 2005 continuation of the series.
Throughout the programme, there have been many different versions of the sonic screwdriver, as with subsequent Doctors the design of it was changed. It has also been destroyed on a number of occasions, thus leading to the introduction of the next model, though keeping the same data and usage. Not all iterations of the Doctor have used the sonic screwdriver on screen; the Fifth Doctor in fact opted not to replace his after it was destroyed in "The Visitation".
The Twelfth Doctor loses his sonic screwdriver to the creator of the Daleks, Davros, after lending it to him when he was a child. In the last episode of series 9, the Doctor received a new sonic screwdriver from the TARDIS in place of the sonic sunglasses he had been using temporarily in the meantime.
Despite the Doctor's claim not to entrust his screwdriver to anyone, he lends one to his own doppelgänger in "The Rebel Flesh," and again supplies Rory Williams for its third job in his care in "The Girl Who Waited," after having given or loaned Rory one in "A Good Man Goes to War" and slipping him one in "The Big Bang". Before Rory, he lent the screwdriver to Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler to investigate the computer room class in "School Reunion". Afterwards The Doctor made a Sonic Lipstick for Sarah Jane before departing for more adventures. He also gifts one to River Song in "The Husbands of River Song," which is then used by the Tenth Doctor to "save" her life in a previous TV story, "Forest of the Dead."
Functions
The functions of a sonic screwdriver are based on its power over sound waves, radiation, wavelengths, frequencies, signals, and electromagnetism. It is shown to hack, disable, activate, and otherwise control technology from almost everything, allowing it to remotely control almost any machinery, mechanisms, and computers it is applied to, allowing it to open locks, detonate explosives, remotely activate electronics, override most systems, activate computers, and cause some energy weapons to burst into flames or sparks. There is technology the sonic is unable to interface with, such as wood, or the isomorphic controls seen in "A Christmas Carol". It also is capable of causing chemical reactions that allow the Doctor to turn eyeglass lenses black like sunglasses and causing cut barbed wire to regenerate (setting 2428B). It is also capable of detecting, amplifying and controlling certain energies, sound, signals, frequencies, and waves, allowing the Doctor to intercept a teleporting individual and send them where he chooses, scan and identify matter, send out communications, enhance sounds, signals, and frequencies, and acting as a catalyst or conduit for energies. Sonics are also capable of calculations, such as in The Day of the Doctor (2013), when the War Doctor used calculations to allow the sonic to work on wood, the calculations of which appeared partly done on the Tenth Doctor's sonic and completed in the Eleventh's. The War Doctor also used his sonic in tandem with the Tenth and Eleventh's to create a force field wave to repel a Dalek.
These are more specific functions of the sonic screwdriver: Unlocking or locking a door Burning or cutting certain substances Remotely detonating specific machines or explosives Amplifying sound waves and the power of an X-ray machine beyond its normal capacities Disarming weapons and electronics Flashlight Intercepting and conducting teleportation Hacking an ATM Regenerating barbed wire on a fence Darkening eyeglass lenses to transform them into sunglasses Microphone (when connected to an audio amplifier) Detecting and interpreting signals Conducting medical scans Fixing Locking the coordinates of the TARDIS Tracking alien life Using red setting or dampers Controlling the properties of atoms and molecules on a small scale Operating computers, whether their origin is alien or human Providing geolocation Lighting candles Creating a force field wave with two (or possibly more) other sonics to physically repel a Dalek (it may have to be the same sonic device at different points in its own time stream) Modifying a mobile phone Disclosing and deactivating camouflage Disarming robotics Scanning and classifying matter Shattering glass Creating an "acoustic corridor" for speaking with someone far away Shocking neural centers of living organisms Downloading a person's consciousness and transferring it into a computer hard drive (only seen in a special model created by The Doctor as a gift to River Song) Triggering particular protocols of the TARDIS Tightening and loosening screws Resonating concrete Creating glass-like walls ("Force Field") Creating holographic screens Reconstructing the TARDIS Hijacking traffic lights Creating a field that silences all noise Performing advanced calculations Aside from being a tool, the sonic screwdriver can be used and considered as a defensive weapon, which is effective for a few types of assault weapons, but not designed to kill or injure living things as the only way it can really hurt or incapacitate an organism is by emitting painful bursts of sound, or, as of "Day of the Moon" (2011) by blasting a green wave of energy to incapacitate a target, though only the Eleventh and Twelfth's sonic has been shown to do the latter.
History 1968–1982 and 1996
The sonic screwdriver made its first appearance in the serial Fury from the Deep (1968), written by Victor Pemberton. It was used thereafter by the Second Doctor as a multi-purpose tool, with occasional variations in appearance over the course of the series.
Its abilities and overall appearance varied greatly during the classic series. The name implies that it operates through the use of sound waves to exert physical forces on objects remotely. During the Second Doctor's tenure, it functioned much as its name implied—using sonic waves to dismantle equipment or to bypass locks. In addition, it was used as a welding torch in Episode Five of The Dominators (1968). In the audio commentary for The Sea Devils (1972), Michael Briant claims to have suggested it as a one-off gadget in 1968.Commentary on DVD of The Sea Devils
During the Third Doctor's tenure, producer Barry Letts was adamant that the device should not become a cure-all for the series and limited its use to avoid writers becoming over-reliant on it. During this time, the device underwent significant design changes. In The Sea Devils, the Doctor used it to detonate landmines; Michael E. Briant explains that this was feasible, stating that the sonic waves shook the mines. In The Three Doctors (1972–73), the sonic screwdriver is almost unrecognisable, being a unique, one-use prop with a plastic red spherical head. In the DVD commentary, Letts himself remarks on the thickness of the prop and the fact that it belies the idea that it was the regular one, prompting Katy Manning to question whether it was indeed a sonic screwdriver.Commentary on DVD of The Three Doctors This was due to the serial being produced out of transmission order: the original sonic screwdriver prop went missing during the recording of Carnival of Monsters (1973), requiring a new prop to be built for the rest of the season; The Three Doctors was recorded after Carnival, but set before it, so the screwdriver could be seen to revert to its previous appearance for one story after The Three Doctors before receiving a more permanent redesign thereafter.
During the first three years of the Fourth Doctor's tenure, producer Philip Hinchcliffe further reduced the use of the sonic screwdriver. Exceptions include Robot (which was the last story to be produced by Barry Letts), where it was again used to detonate mines, and as a "miniature sonic lance"The Sixth Doctor uses a hand tool he calls a "sonic lance" in Attack of the Cybermen to cut out a lock. Aside from unlocking doors, the device was greatly downplayed during the Fourth Doctor's second and third seasons. It saw a resurgence once Graham Williams took over as producer in 1977. In the final story of season 15, The Invasion of Time, the Fourth Doctor conceded, "Not even the sonic screwdriver can get me out of this one."
It featured regularly in season 16 during the Key to Time saga. The Doctor's Time Lady companion Romana constructed a sonic screwdriver of her own similar to the Doctor's. It is depicted as being smaller and sleeker than the Doctor's, and he was sufficiently impressed with her design that he attempted to swap screwdrivers with her in The Horns of Nimon (1979–80). By season 18, both script editor Christopher H Bidmead and producer John Nathan-Turner were eager to downplay the device as much as possible.
The sonic screwdriver was written out of the series late in season 19, in the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation (1982). It is destroyed by a Terileptil to prevent the Doctor from escaping a holding cell; in response, the Doctor sorrowfully remarked, "I feel as if you've just killed an old friend." Eric Saward later explained in a 2005 DVD interviewCommentary on DVD of The Visitation that this was done on the instructions of producer John Nathan-Turner. Saward had written out the sonic screwdriver, believing that the Doctor had "a cupboard full of them" in the TARDIS. On the basis that a device that could help in any situation was very limiting for the script, Nathan-Turner decided that it would not return.Commentary on DVD of Castrovalva The Tenth Doctor joked about the Fifth Doctor's lack of sonic screwdriver in the mini-episode "Time Crash" (2007), commenting that he "went hands-free" and could "save the universe using a kettle and some string." The device did not appear again for the remainder of the original series.
In the Doctor Who TV Movie (1996) and "The Night of the Doctor" (2013), the Seventh (TVM), Eighth (both), and the War Doctor ("The Night of the Doctor") were seen to have a new sonic screwdriver with a telescopic mechanism, similar to its predecessors but with subtle differences such as a gold/brass band on the handle, a flat base, and a red emitter tip.
2005–2010
A redesigned sonic screwdriver appears in the new series, with a blue light in addition to the sound effect. In its first incarnation, the prop used in the new series was fragile and prone to breakage. Over the course of the next two years, the props were continually repaired and modified, with some additions being a new thumb slider design and different colours of wires used in the clear channel when extended.