Sonic screwdriver: Difference between revisions

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The Sonic Screwdriver was a versatile tool and defensive weapon used by the Doctor.

Technology and functions

The sonic screwdriver was a common and basic Time Lord device. If needed, a Time Lord could make one from scratch in very little time. (REF: Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary) The Eleventh Doctor implied that he chose to make the first sonic screwdriver (or an innovative model of one) instead of wooing a woman. (DW: A Christmas Carol) Other alien races were known to possess similar devices, such as the sonic pen used by Miss Foster (DW: Partners in Crime) and the sonic blaster obtained by Captain Jack Harkness. The name of the device itself suggests that it functioned using sound waves, although the actual workings of the device were never fully explained.

A Crystal similar to Metebelis Crystal sought after by the Eight Legs of Metebelis III was used in the Mark VI sonic screwdriver. (IDW: The Forgotten) There were also electrical components. (DWA: The Halls of Sacrifice)

The screwdriver had a multitude of settings, along with different versions of settings. The Tenth Doctor told Rose to use "setting 15B" to help him triangulate the source of the ghosts (DW: Army of Ghosts) and used 34-H to sink a ship (DWBIT: Second Wave). It was also said to have a setting 85. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment) The Ninth Doctor told Rose to use setting 2428D to re-attach barbed wire. (DW: The Doctor Dances) Sarah Jane used the Theta Omega setting to melt plastic vines. (DW: The Android Invasion)

The different versions of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers exhibited different capabilities and uses, such as the interception of signals ranging from transmat beams to conscious thought; ^{[source needed]} medical diagnostics and repair of organic parts; (DW: The Empty Child, The Vampires of Venice) cutting, but also re-attaching materials such as barbed wire; (DW: The Doctor Dances) operating Earth machinery such as computers and even cash machines (at regular and high eject speeds); (DW: School Reunion, The Runaway Bride) creating a spark to light a candle; ^{[source needed]} and, on the rare occasion, driving screws without touching them. (DW: The Ark in Space, The Doctor's Wife)^{[additional sources needed]} Although it was primarily a tool, it could also be used as a defensive weapon. The Tenth Doctor put it in a sound board to destroy the Robot Santas. (DW: The Runaway Bride) Although the Eighth Doctor once claimed that the device could destroy a Dalek's brain if held directly against the casing when activated, (EDA: War of the Daleks) according to the Tenth Doctor, the device could not be used to wound, maim, or kill living things. (DW: Doomsday) It could be used to destroy non-living objects or mechanisms or place living creatures in circumstances where they might die, if the situation required. ^{[source needed]}

From time to time, the sonic screwdriver needed to be recharged. (NSA: The Monsters Inside, DWA: Bizarre Zero) The sonic screwdriver was self-repairing and could send out a homing signal to any parts that had been severed. (DW: A Christmas Carol)

Sonic screwdrivers and similar technology could not unlock a deadlock seal; (DW: School Reunion);one of few exceptions was Miss Foster's sonic pen, which was able to open the deadlock seals on and within the Adipose Industries building when the Doctor's sonic screwdriver could not. (DW: Partners in Crime) Some or all versions were ineffective against wood, or in the presence of some models of hairdryers. (DW: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead, The Hungry Earth, PDA: Catastrophea)

Variants of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver

Earliest known sonic screwdriver in use. (DW: The War Games)

Mark I

The first version was a small, simple device similar to a penlight, used by the Doctor in his first (MA: Venusian Lullaby) and second incarnations. (DW: Fury from the Deep)

Known uses

Cracking the code for an aerodynamic shuttle. (MA: Venusian Lullaby)
Opening up hatches, panels and control panels. (DW: Fury from the Deep, The War Games)
For cutting through a section of a wall. (DW: The Dominators)
As a conventional screwdriver (without touching the screws). (DW: The War Games)

The "Door Handle"

File:The .jpg

Suspiciously sonic

Early in his third incarnation the Doctor employed a silver tool slightly larger than the Mark I sonic screwdriver but with a round emitter head similar to the Mark II. (DW: Inferno) Although never referred to as a sonic screwdriver, its appearance and in-hand use are uncanny. The Doctor described it as a "door handle" to a UNIT soldier but this was probably humour since his assistant Liz Shaw recalled his strange use of the term when operating her own copy of the device.

Known uses

Operating the automatic door to the Doctor's workshop at Project Inferno (DW: Inferno)

Mark II

File:CarnivalMonsters sonic screwdriver.jpg

Variation used during and following the Third Doctor's exile on Earth. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)

The Third Doctor's most-used model of the sonic screwdriver was much larger than the Mark I; its elaborately-detailed silver shape featured black and yellow stripes and red trim. It had a removable head which the Doctor would change with others, each performing a different function. (DW: The Sea Devils)

Known uses

Scanning for alarm systems in the Master's TARDIS. (DW: Colony in Space)
Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (DW: The Sea Devils)
To open an electronic door. (DW: The Mutants)
Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
Open electronic locks. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
A medium for hypnotising Aggedor (and Jo unintentionally) (DW: The Monster of Peladon)
As conventional screwdriver, on large, flathead screw. (DW: The Monster of Peladon)
Overloading the brains of Space Greyhounds. (IDW: The Forgotten)
To distract giant maggots. (DW: The Green Death)

Mark III

Sonic Screwdriver Mark III

The Third Doctor fitted the head of his sonic screwdriver with a cylindrical black magnet which enabled it to open bolted doors, especially when its polarity was reversed. (DW: Frontier in Space) This refit left the metal mostly unpainted, with a dark red emitter ring. The head of this model could be extended and the Fourth Doctor even removed it once, using the headless device as a mine sweeper. Before this model was destroyed its head was repainted twice after the original coat wore off. (DW: Keeper of Traken, Castrovalva) The Doctor went without a sonic screwdriver for some time after this model and Nyssa lamented the Fifth Doctor's decision not to replace it. (DW: Snakedance)

Known uses

To unbolt a door. (DW: Frontier in Space)
To fuse shut a sliding door. (DW: Planet of the Daleks)
To open a lift door. (DW: The Green Death)
To distract giant maggots. (DW: The Green Death)
To detect boobytrapped floor tiles. (DW: Death to the Daleks)
To break an hypnotic trance. (DW: Death to the Daleks)
To open a refinery door. (DW: The Monster of Peladon)
To remotely detonate mines. (DW: Robot)
To cut locks. (DW: Robot)
Undoing screws. (DW: The Ark in Space)
Repairing wires chewed by the Wirrn. (DW: The Ark in Space)
To fix a circle of transmat refractors. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
To breach a force field. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
To shut down Styre's robot. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
To sabotage a two-way radio. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)
Deactivate an energy loop opening up Sutekh's deflection barrier. (DW: Pyramids of Mars)
To shatter the Clynex. (DWM: The Naked Flame)
To create a temporary hole in Gallifrey's force field above the Citadel. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
Using the correct sonic frequency to return the Fourth Doctor and Ernestina Stott to normal size. (AG: Hornets' Nest - The Dead Shoes)
To open doors on Ribos. (DW: The Ribos Operation)
To unlock multi-levered interlocks to the Ribos crown jewels casket (DW: The Ribos Operation)
To open the door to the real Queen Xanxia's chamber. (DW: The Pirate Planet)
To free Romana from her bonds on a prison ship in hyperspace. (DW: The Stones of Blood)
To blow up a Dalek bomb. (DW: Destiny of the Daleks)
To unscrew the Zero Room's hinges and assist in constructing the Zero Cabinet. (DW: Castrovalva)
To disarm fusion bombs by reversing the polarity of the neutron-flow. (MA: Cold Fusion)
To open a door to escape confinement. (DW: Four to Doomsday)
To reverse the magnetic field on Monopticans. (DW: Four to Doomsday)
To short-circuit androids in conjunction with a pencil, the graphite acting as a conductive material for the screwdriver's power. (DW: Four to Doomsday)
To use as a component in the Delta wave augmenter, to induce sleep. (DW: Kinda)

Mark IV

Chang Lee discovers the sonic screwdriver the Seventh Doctor had at regeneration. (DW: Doctor Who)

Towards the end of his seventh life the Doctor fished a fourth type of sonic screwdriver from one of the tool kits in the TARDIS. This model was visually quite similar to the Mark III seen at the end of his fourth incarnation. It remained in use during the Eighth Doctor's time and had a torch built into the handle. Once, while suffering from amnesia, the Doctor was able to distract himself and operate this sonic screwdriver on instinct.

Known Uses

To lock the casket containing the Master's remains. (DW: Doctor Who)
Mantienace on new parts in the TARDIS console. (DW: Doctor Who)
To turn Cybermen against each other. (DWM: The Flood)
To disorient a Rescue Operational Security Module. (BFA: Embrace the Darkness)
Used by Romana II to raise the bulkheads between her and the Matrix chamber. (BFA: Neverland)
To jam motion-sensitive sensors long enough for the Doctor and his companions to get to safety. (BFA: Scaredy Cat)
To lock the TARDIS console room away from the rest of the ship until it can repair itself during a Hellion attack. (BFA: Absolution)
To track residual energy traces. (BFA: The Girl Who Never Was)
To reactivate a long-dormant telegraph machine. (BFA: The Girl Who Never Was)
To oscillate the atoms of wickerwork to weaken the structure. (BFA: Dead London)
To vibrate Molluscari from their shells by duplicating the precise frequency necessary. (BFA: Orbis)
To open the organic locks used by the Zygons. (EDA: The Bodysnatchers)
To destroy a Dalek's brain (when placed directly against the Dalek's casing around its head). (EDA: War of the Daleks)
To repel ghosts. (EDA: Vanderdeken's Children)
To open a door in a force field large enough for the Doctor and his companions to travel through. (EDA: EarthWorld)
To open the chest of the mobile nuclear weapon Fatboy. (EDA: Eater of Wasps)
To decapitate the King of Beasts of the Babewyn. (EDA: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
To lock a bank vault from the inside. (EDA: Trading Futures)
To temporarily disable an electron bomb. (EDA: The Tomorrow Windows)
To subdue hostile dogs. (EDA: The Deadstone Memorial)
To disrupt the control signal for floating magnetic discs. (EDA: To the Slaughter)

Mark V

File:Sonic screwdriver - Doomsday.png

The version used by the ninth and tenth incarnations of the Doctor. (DW: Doomsday)

Towards the end of his eighth incarnation, the Doctor had a new model with a glowing blue diode at one end. The Ninth Doctor carried this model, but rarely used it unless absolutely necessary as he preferred direct confrontations with his foes. Unlike his predecessor, the Tenth Doctor used this model often as he liked tinkering with technology to make devices he needed. However, this version was burnt out by accident after the Doctor used it to modify an x-ray radiation output to over 5000%.(DW: Smith and Jones)

Known uses

To heal Osskah Longspan's body. (ST: Osskah)
To destroy the controls of a lift. (DW: Rose)
To detect and stop telepathic signals. (DW: Rose)
To interface with a computer. (DW: The End of the World)
Opening a door. (DW: Aliens of London)
To control a lift. (DW: World War Three)
To cause rain via atmospheric excitation. (DWM: Death to the Doctor!)
To obtain money from a cash machine. (DW: The Long Game)
Opening off a panel to Satellite Five's mainframe. (DW: The Long Game)
Obtaining access to Satellite Five's core computer. (DW: The Long Game)
Freeing the Ninth Doctor from his manacles. (DW: The Long Game)
To charge a battery. (DW: Father's Day)
To act as a medical scanner and diagnostic tool. (DW: The Empty Child)
To corrode thin metal (e.g. barbed wire) so that it crumbles into rust. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
To re-connect barbed wire. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
To unlock handcuffs. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
To set up a resonation pattern in concrete. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
To reverse teleport devices. (DW: Boom Town)
To destroy a television camera. (DW: Bad Wolf)
To dematerialise the TARDIS and initialising TARDIS processes from outside the craft. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
To blow up a remote control Christmas tree. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
To transfer its powers to a remote control. (DW: Attack of the Graske)
To ignite swamp gas. (DWA: The Hunt of Doom)
To stop the emergence of Mirrorlings from mirrors. (DWA: Mirror Image)
To dislodge and reinsert teeth. (DWM: The Lodger)
To light a candle. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace)
To cut rope. (DW: The Age of Steel)
To locking and unlock a hatch in Cybus Industries (DW: The Age of Steel)
To threaten the Wire. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern)
To illuminate Rose. (DWA: Warfreekz!)
To reverse an anti-gravity umbrella. (DWA: Smart Bombs)
To partially reverse the Abzorbaloff's absorption of Ursula Blake. (DW: Love & Monsters)
To de-activate a living graphite scribble. (DW: Fear Her)
To partially crack glass so it can be smashed with the push of a finger. (DW: Army of Ghosts)
To detonate an explosive device. (DW: Doomsday)
To get money from cash machine, at both regular and extra-high rates of ejection. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To unlock a taxi door and window. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To scan a life form for information, specifically Donna Noble. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To detonate the head of a roboform (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To search a phone for an app or a feature. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To hack into the H.C. Clements website. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To bypass the key needed to access the secret basement in H.C. Clements. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To summon the Tardis using Huon particles. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To cut a spider web. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To destroy the Robot Santas with sound (used in conjunction with a professional sound system). (DW: The Runaway Bride)
To detect heated water. (DWA: The Halls of Sacrifice)
To overload Cybermen. (DWBIT: The Power of the Cybermen)
To crash an aircar. (DWBIT: Time of the Cybermen)
To confuse the antibodies of a living planet. (DWBIT: Lonely Planet)
To increase the radiation output of a device such as an x-ray scanner; this action burned out the screwdriver. (DW: Smith and Jones)

Mark VI

The tenth incarnation made a similar model of the screwdriver after losing the previous version in the X-ray incident, visibly modifying only the colour scheme of the handle. It was heavily relied on by the Tenth Doctor to help him get out of tight spots. This model was damaged during the Doctor's tenth regeneration and the TARDIS' subsequent crash, as well as by Prisoner Zero and was ultimately destroyed when the Eleventh Doctor used it to overload technology to alert the Atraxi. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Known uses

File:Mark VI sonic - The Eleventh Hour.png

Mark VI Sonic screwdriver being used by the Eleventh Doctor. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Opening air-tight seals. (DW: Gridlock)
Trying to strip off pieces of Dalekanium. (DW: Evolution of the Daleks)
Lighting a bunsen burner from a distance. (DW: Evolution of the Daleks)
Bypassing and turning off security systems. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
Producing hypersonic sound waves which led to the death of the Lazarus creature in conjunction with a pipe organ. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
Scanning for the transformed Lazarus creature after it escaped to Southwark Cathedral. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
Disabling robotic flies. (DWBIT: Exhausting Evil)
Disabling security orbs. (DWBIT: Wrath of the Warrior)
Modifying hearing aids. (DWBIT: The Screaming Prison)
Reversing teleport feeds. (DWBIT: Warriors' Revenge)
Sinking a ship. (DWBIT: Second Wave)
Resonating a floor to destroy it, via crystal gems. (DWBIT: Operation Lock-up)
Melting chocolate by increasing the resonance frequency of a torch. (DWBIT: Crimes and Punishment)
Giving mobile phones the ability to call across time and space. (DW: 42, Planet of the Dead)
Completing the life's work of Professor Yana, allowing the human race to travel to Utopia (DW: Utopia)
Locking the TARDIS navigational systems to only allow travel between its current position and its previous position. (DW: Utopia)
Fixing a decades-broken vortex manipulator. (DW: Utopia)
Destroying a security camera. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
As a soldering iron to make perception filters using TARDIS keys. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Uncorking a champagne bottle. (DW: Voyage of the Damned)
Looping temporal energy of a fraxis pod back into a zygma drive. (DWBIT: Blooms of Doom!)
Shattering robot assassins. (DWBIT: A Suitable Showdown)
Used with Miss Foster's Sonic pen to create an ultra-high frequency (DW: Partners in Crime)
Controlling a cable cart. (DW: Partners in Crime)
Breaking into a silo on the Ood-Sphere. (DW: Planet of the Ood)
Creating a stasis beam. (DWBIT: School of the Dead)
Disabling a Sontaran teleport. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)
Scanning shadows for the presence of Vashta Nerada. (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)
Showing a hologram of Donna Noble. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
Tinting a helmet visor (DW: Forest of the Dead)
Disabling the Crusader 50's entertainment system. (DW: Midnight)
Checking Crusader 50's control console for faults. (DW: Midnight)
Teleporting a Graske to the other side of the universe. (DW: Music of the Spheres)
Opening the casing of a cleaning robot. (DWBIT: Carnage Zoo)
Teleporting onto a Nim spacecraft. (DWBIT: The Day the Earth Was Sold, The King of Earth)
As a sonic toothbrush. (DWA: The Continuity Cap)
Tracing distress signals. (DWA: The Ghost Factory)
Modifying a gravity converter. (DWA: Skydive)
Disabling a Cyrronak Robot. (DWA: Highway Robbery)
Scanning slime. (DWA: Doomsilk)
Cancelling out a phonic blast. (DWA: We Will Rock You)
Shattering ice. (DWA: Arctic Eclipse)
Scanning the President of Earth for alien influence. (DWA: Return of the Klytode)
Blowing up a fire hydrant. (DWA: Creature Feature)
Atmospheric excitation to cause rain. (DWA: Mudshock)
Tickling a lion with sonic waves. (NSA: The Slitheen Excursion)
Repairing an overloading distribution box. (TDL: The Graves of Mordane)
Downloading a journal. (TDL: The Colour of Darkness)
Detecting and illuminating ultraviolet characters. (TDL: The Game of Death)
Remotely controlling environmental controls. (TDL: The Game of Death)
Detecting the arrival of spacecraft. (TDL: The Pictures of Emptiness)
Picking up traces of psychic spoor. (DWM: Mortal Beloved)
Tinting the Doctor's glasses. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
Stopping and winding up a winch. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
Opening bus doors. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
Unlocking handcuffs. (DW: Planet of the Dead, The Eleventh Hour)
Incapacitating a Gizou. (IDW: Fugitive)
Detecting time traces. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
As an actual screwdriver, without touching the screws. (DW: Dreamland)
Disabling a Shimmer. (DW: The End of Time)
Switching the Hesperus' power off. (DW: The End of Time)
Changing the course of the TARDIS. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Opening a "crack" in space-time. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Overloading all technology in Leadworth (to the point where the screwdriver itself exploded). (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
Making toast and butter. (NSA: Dead Air)

Mark VII

The Mark VII sonic screwdriver (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Following the Mark VI's destruction, the Doctor received a new Sonic Screwdriver from the TARDIS. It differed radically from the previous model, having “claws” and a green diode, rather than blue. It also had copper plating in various places, similar to the new TARDIS interior. (DW: The Eleventh Hour) Unlike the previous marks, which had "settings", this version had a psychic interface, in which the user simply pointed and thought of the function they wished it to perform. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler) This version of the screwdriver was destroyed when a sky shark bit it in half and swallowed the top half. (DW: A Christmas Carol) The Doctor left it with Kazran Sardick , saying that he was "going to need a new one." (DW: A Christmas Carol) The Doctor had duplicates of this screwdriver, which he continued to use throughout his travels. When the Shansheeth took his TARDIS, the Doctor mentioned that they took it from him. He also mentioned that this screwdriver was more than just sonic, but did not mention what else it was. (DW : Night Terrors)

Known uses

Scanning Starship UK's engine room. (DW: The Beast Below)
Scanning voting booth for memory erasing function. (DW: The Beast Below)
As a torch. (DW: The Beast Below)
To force a star whale to regurgitate by overloading its chaemo-receptors. (DW: The Beast Below)
Making a star whale's voice audible to the human ear. (DW: The Beast Below)
Amplifying an electrical beam. (DW: The Beast Below)
Opening the chest plate of an Android's controls and (unsuccessfully) attempting to defuse the bomb inside it. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
To increase a signal's strength. (DW: The Time of Angels)
To scan Father Octavian's computer. (DW: The Time of Angels)
Opening the entrance hatch of a space ship. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Isolating the lighting so that the Weeping Angels could not drain the power. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Redirecting all the power to the doors in order to open them. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Determining the nature of the cracks throughout time and space. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
To send a signal through to Amy's communicator to help guide her through a forest. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Uploading software. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
Simultaneously healing and analysing wounds. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
Blocking out the effects of perception filters. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
Scanning lifeforms. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Scanning piles of dust for traces of children. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Detecting where lights are. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Exploding lightbulbs. (DW: Amy's Choice)
Breaking open padlocks. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
Hacking into computer records. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
Displaying energy barricades which are usually invisible to the naked eye. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
Activating bio-programmed soil. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
Scanning for heat signatures. (DW: Cold Blood)
Disabling Silurian weapons. (DW: Cold Blood)
Scanning an infection. (DW: Cold Blood)
Locking the TARDIS doors. (DW: Cold Blood, The Doctor's Wife)
Opening the gate to the London Underground. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Opening up a discarded Dalek dome. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Bypassing Dalek security seals. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Opening up control panels in Kaalann. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Accessing the Visualiser eye and repowering it. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Tampering with the Dalek Emperor's casing. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Activating a Dalek console trap. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Constructing a Dalek Vision Disruptor. (VG: City of the Daleks)
Heating water and ice. (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Giving a Cybermat a "Cyber-Migraine". (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Distracting Cybermats. (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Fixing platform lift control panels. (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Closing and locking a door to a Cyber-conversion room. (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Unlocking Cyber-conversion unit manacles. (VG: Blood of the Cybermen)
Disassembling a Chronon Blocker. (VG: TARDIS)
Opening an electronic door. (VG: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
Activating emergency light switches. (VG: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
Turning on the lights inside a generator. (VG: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
Unsuccessfully attempting to stun the Krafayis (possibly due to being unable to find the right prozactic setting), appearing to please it instead. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
Opening the door to a time ship. (DW: The Lodger)
Changing a hologram between its different forms. (DW: The Lodger)
Scanning Stonehenge. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
Lighting flaming torches. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
Scrambling a Cyberarm's circuits. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
Scanning the Pandorica. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
To open, close and lock the Pandorica. (DW: The Big Bang)
Amplifying a satellite dish to scan for an exploding TARDIS. (DW: The Big Bang)
Giving orders to androids. (WC: The War of Art)
To reconfigure the binaries in the TARDIS. (VG: Evacuation Earth)
Heating up a teapot. (WC: Snowfall)
To confirm the isomorphic nature of a control panel. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
As a lure to attract a Sky fish. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
Attempting self-reconstruction via signalling its other half. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
Transmitting Abigail's singing from one broken segment to the other. (DW: A Christmas Carol)
Unlocking a door. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Scanning a spacesuit. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Confirming if a nanorecorder is on telepathic transmission or a replay. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Unlocking Amy's restraints. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Stunning the Silence. (DW: Day of the Moon)
Protecting two versions of Rory Williams from falling victim to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (NSA: Touched by an Angel)
Scanning the Flesh. (DW: The Rebel Flesh)
Unlocking a grating. (DW: The Almost People)
Locking a grating into place. (DW: The Almost People)
Dissolving Gangers. (DW: The Almost People)
Closing doors inside a Cyber Ship. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Opening doors on Demon's Run. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Detecting if a person is fatally wounded. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Disabling a force field. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)
Disarming Melody Pond. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Hailing the Eleventh Doctor's sonic cane. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Disabling privileges from the the Teselecta's crew. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
Activating George's toys. (DW: Night Terrors)
Scanning for monsters. (DW: Night Terrors)
Failing to freeze the Peg Dolls. (DW: Night Terrors)
Detaching the veiw glass from the visitation facility. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Augmenting the veiw glass to work disconnected. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Locking on to Amy's timestream. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Igniting a cannon. (VG: The Gunpowder Plot)
Opening a fake door. (DW: The God Complex)
As a microphone. (DW: The God Complex)
Switching off CCTV monitors. (DW: The God Complex)
Creating a high pitched noise to grab attention. (DW: The God Complex)
Detecting electrical interference. (DW: Closing Time)
Scanning for lifesigns. (DW: Closing Time)
Repairing and activating a lift. (DW: Closing Time)
Fusing the controls of a Cyberman teleporter. (DW: Closing Time)
Overloading/imploding a Cybermat. (DW: Closing Time)
Taking apart a Supreme Dalek. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Scanning a Dalek's database for information. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Freezing the Teselecta in place. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Scanning a Headless Monk head box to confirm its contents. (DW: The Wedding of River Song)
Scanning Albert Einstein's mutating liquid. (DW: Death Is the Only Answer)

Mark ?

In the Doctor's personal future relative to being called to the Library in the 51st century, he upgraded the screwdriver with, in addition to Mark VI settings, "red settings" and "damper settings". He gave it to River Song, both for her use and, unknown to River, a Neural Relay, which saved River's Data Ghost for uploading into the main computer of the Library. (DW: Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead).

Known uses

Activating and disabling gravity platforms. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
Fixing light bulbs. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
Storing the consciousness of a human (specifically River's). (DW: Forest of the Dead)
Increasing mesh densities to over 800%. (DW: Forest of the Dead)

Related tools

Liz Shaw had her own version of the Doctor's "door handle" device, which she used to open the door to the Doctor's shed. (DW: Inferno)
Romana II constructed her own sonic screwdriver. Her version so impressed the Doctor that he unsuccessfully attempted to swap sonic screwdrivers with her. (DW: The Horns of Nimon) She later gave it to the Doctor. (NA: Lungbarrow) This resembled a smaller, slimmer version of the Doctor's Mark II.
The Master had a similar tool, called a laser screwdriver. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
Captain Jack Harkness and later River Song possessed a sonic blaster. (DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)
Using stolen and incomplete UNIT design plans, Toshiko Sato created a sonic modulator. (TW: Fragments)
Miss Foster had a sonic pen with a design similar to the Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver. (DW: Partners in Crime)
The Doctor gave Sarah Jane Smith a sonic lipstick, a similar tool. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
The Doctor mentioned that he once had a laser spanner as well, but Emmeline Pankhurst took it from him. (DW: Smith and Jones)
Mrs Wormwood was in possession of a ring called a Phonic disruptor. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
The Sixth Doctor defeated Cybermen using a sonic lance, similar in function to the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor was also able to use it as a weapon. (DW: Attack of the Cybermen)
The Eleventh Doctor used a sonic cane to contact Amy Pond and Rory Williams while they were miniaturised inside the Teselecta and to scan the Teselecta. (DW: Let's Kill Hitler)
While trapped on Apalapucia for thirty-six years, Amy cobbled together a sonic screwdriver from various pieces of technology, although she insisted on calling it a "sonic probe". She later admitted it was a sonic screwdriver. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Jackson Lake carried what is likely the most primitive iteration of the sonic screwdriver. His version was a regular 19th century screwdriver, which he claimed was sonic by virtue of it making a sound when it was struck against a surface. (DW: The Next Doctor)

Behind the scenes

The sonic screwdriver was retired during the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation, as it was felt that it had been overused. It was absent for the Sixth Doctor era and all of the Seventh, except in Doctor Who, in which the Seventh Doctor used it to lock the Master's remains away; the Eighth Doctor recovered it at the end of the film. The tool was reintroduced with the Ninth Doctor and has become the show's most frequently used gadget besides the TARDIS itself. It has since appeared in many Seventh and Eighth Doctor audio adventures from Big Finish Productions.
For unexplained reasons, the Tenth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver had a green casing in The Infinite Quest.
During early production of Series 1 (2005), the production crew decided to switch from their original prop to one based on the toy Sonic Screwdriver because the first prop was prone to falling apart. The production team secured moulds of the toy replica in order to make a more reliable prop for the next season.
Early conceptual art of the modern era Sonic Screwdriver feature a different "tube" section, with notes referring to "glowing organic circuitry", and a movable ball-joint on the emitter, to allow use around corners and in tight spaces. Instead of the "glowing circuitry," the actual prop and toy reproductions featured a black "swivel," like a simple helix. When given a personal copy of the concept art, David Tennant himself commented on the lack of the swivelling emitter.
Another early piece of concept art, similar to a simple Bitmap drawing, reveals that the black "cap" at the reverse end of the Sonic Screwdriver was intended to be an opening set of "feet," allowing the Sonic Screwdriver to plug into a section of the TARDIS console. This feature was also dropped from the eventual prop model.
There are two main versions of the Mark VI Sonic Screwdriver - one has a slide feature with button, and one which does not slide and has a fixed button. The two prop types varied each episode.
When the Doctor handles the screwdriver, the clinking noises produced (when he throws and catches it) are created by repeating the motions with a corkscrew, the handles of which bump against the casing to produce the required noise. These noises are then dubbed over the footage.
A toy of the Mark VII (Matt Smith version) was seen in "Light Echoes", an edition of "The Sky at Night" broadcast on BBC4 on Wednesday 5th October 2010. The screwdriver was (jokingly) used to scan a part of the LOFAR radio telescope, then under construction in Chilbolton, Hampshire, UK.
In the original script for The Eleventh Hour, the Doctor referred to the Mark VI Screwdriver as "Level 4000" technology.
The Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver toy has a total of four sound effects, two of which alternate with every other button press. The third is activated by pressing twice, and holding on the third button push. The fourth is activated with three presses and a hold on the fourth push. However, in some models of the toy, over-use of the hidden sound effects causes the sound functions to eventually break, leaving only the LED functional.

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Technology and functions