"Harmless is just the word; that's why I like it. Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But I tell you what it does do: it is very good at opening doors."
The sonic screwdriver was a versatile tool and defensive weapon used by the Doctor from his second incarnation onwards.
Variants
The Doctor's sonic screwdriver
Mark I
A small, simple device similar to a penlight, first used by the Doctor in his second incarnation. (DW: Fury from the Deep)
Known uses
- Opening up hatches and panels (DW: Fury from the Deep, The War Games) and control panels. (DW: The War Games)
- As a conventional screwdriver (without touching the screws). (DW: The War Games).
- For cutting through a section of a wall. (DW: The Dominators)
Mark II
A larger and more elaborately detailed version, the Doctor began using this model in his third incarnation. It has yellow and black stripes. (DW: The Sea Devils).
Known uses
- Booby trap detector in the Masters TARDIS. (DW: Colony in Space)
- Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (DW: The Sea Devils)
- To open an electronic door. (DW: The Mutants)
- Undoing wrist clamps. (DW: The Mutants)
- Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
- It can only open electronic locks. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
Mark III
The Fourth Doctor remade his sonic screwdriver into a silver version that lacked the yellow and black stripes. It was capable of extending its tip.
Mark IV
The Seventh Doctor uses a sonic screwdriver like his mark III to lock the Master in a casket. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie). This is used throughout The Eighth Doctor's life.
- The mark IV is most likely Romana's sonic screwdriver that she gave the Doctor in NA: Lungbarrow)
Mark V
In his ninth incarnation the Doctor had a new model with a glowing blue diode at one end and a felt-tip marker on the other. The tenth incarnation of the Doctor also carried this model, until it was burnt out after modifying an X-Ray scanner increase the radiation output. (DW:Smith and Jones)
Known uses
- Detecting and stopping telepathic signals. (DW: Rose)
- Interfacing with a computer. (DW: The End of the World)
- As a medical scanner and diagnostic tool. (DW: The Empty Child)
- Obtaining money from a cash machine. (DW: The Long Game, The Runaway Bride)
- Battery charging. (DW: Father's Day)
- Resonating concrete. (DW: The Empty Child)
- Completely corroding thin metal (e.g. barbed wire) so that it crumbles into rust. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
- Re-connecting barbed wire. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
- Reversing teleport devices. (DW: Boom Town)
- Dematerialising the TARDIS and initalising TARDIS processes from outside the craft. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) )File:Sonic Screwdriver Mark 1.gifLater version of the sonic screwdriver
- To transfer its powers to the viewer's remote control. (DW: Attack of the Graske)
- As a lighter. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace)
- To make the Cybermen turn away from the Doctor's direction. (DW: The Age of Steel)
- To cut rope. (DW: The Age of Steel)
- To threaten the Wire. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern)
- To partially reverse the Abzorbaloff's absorption of Ursula Blake. (DW: Love & Monsters)
- Detonation of an explosive device. (DW: Doomsday)
- Get money from cash machine, at both regular and extra-high rates of ejection (DW: The Runaway Bride)
- To destroy the Robot Santas with sound (used in conjunction with a professioinal sound system). (DW: The Runaway Bride)
- 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 Doctor remade his screwdriver after the X-Ray incident. It was very similar to the Mark V, though somewhat larger. The Tenth Doctor has stated that almost nothing could interfere with its operation, save for hairdryers. (DW: Forest of the Dead) It does not work on wood; (DW: Silence in the Library) whether this weakness is unique to this model or common to all models is unknown; a simular weakness was mentioned the novel Catastrophea with the Mark II, though the canonicity of this event is up to question, as with all spin-off material. A crystal similar to the crystals sought after by the Giant Spiders of Metebelis III is used in the Mark VI sonic screwdriver. (IDW: The Forgotten)
Known uses
- Breaking into several motorway cars. (DW: Gridlock)
- Trying to strip off pieces of Dalekanium (DW: Evolution of the Daleks)
- Bypassing and turning off security systems. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
- In conjunction with a pipe organ, it produced hypersonic sound waves which lead to the death of the Lazarus Creature. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
- Scanning for the transformed Lazarus Creature after it escaped to Southwark Cathedral (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
- 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
- Uncorking a wine bottle (DW: Voyage of the Damned)
- Controlling a cable cart (DW: Partners in Crime)
- Breaking into a Silo on the Ood-Sphere (DW: Planet of the Ood)
- 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)
- Disabling the Crusader 50's entertainment system (DW: Midnight (TV story)
- Checking Crusader 50's control console for faults (DW: Midnight (TV story)
- Teleporting a Graske to the other side of the universe (DW: Music of the Spheres)
- An opera conductor's wand (a function which does not require engaging sonic output of the device). (DW: Music of the Spheres)
- As a Sonic Toothbrush. (DWAM: The Continuity Cap)
- Tinting the Doctor's glasses. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
- Opening 200 Bus doors.(DW: Planet of the Dead)
- Unnlocking handcuffs.(DW: Planet of the Dead)
Mark VII
In the Doctor's personal future, he would build a new version of the screwdriver with, in addition to the Mark V settings, red settings and damper settings. (The nature of these settings is not yet clear; however, it is suggested that a red setting is a more powerful setting than the blue one and maybe dampers reduce outside interference with the sonic - similar to a Bio damper) He gave it to River Song, both for her use and because it served as a way to save 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)
Related Tools
- Liz Shaw had her own sonic screwdriver, which she used to open the Doctor's TARDIS for him. (DW: Inferno)
- This appeared like the Doctor's Mark II.
- Romana constructed her own sonic screwdriver. Her version so impressed the Doctor that he attempted (unsuccessfully) 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 in Partners in Crime, with a similar design, described as sleek, to the 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 mentions that he once had a "laser spanner" as well but that Emmaline Pankhurst took it from him. (DW: Smith and Jones)
- Mrs Wormwood was in possession of a ring called only her sonic disruptor (SJA: Enemy of the Bane).
- Jackson Lake carried what is most likely the most primitive iteration of the sonic screwdriver. His version was a regular 19th century screwdriver which he claimed to be sonic by virtue of it making a sound when it was hit against a surface. (DW: The Next Doctor)
Technology and Functions
The sonic screwdriver is apparently the product of Gallifreyan technology since other Time Lords (i.e. Romana) use the device and understand it enough to construct their own versions of it. The name of the device itself suggests that it functions using soundwaves, although the actual workings of the device have never been explained. The screwdriver also seems to have a multitude of settings, along with different versions of settings, as during Army of Ghosts he tells Rose to use "setting 15B" to help him triangulate the source of the ghosts. As shown in The Lazarus Experiment the device is shown to have a setting 85, (this may be the one used to open doors) though it is likely to have more; how the Doctor as well as his companions, many of whom have considerably less experience with it, are able to sift through these settings so quickly with only a single button is, likewise, left ambiguous, though the screwdriver may be have telekenetic controls for its individual settings, much like the TARDIS.
The different versions of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers have exhibited different capabilities and uses, such as the interception of signals ranging from transmat beams to conscious thought; medical diagnostics and repair of organic parts; cutting, but also re-attaching together materials such as barbed wire; operating Earth machinery such as computers and even cash machines (at regular and high eject speeds); creating a spark to light a candle. Although it is primarily a tool, it can also be used as a defensive weapon, such as when the Tenth Doctor put it in a sound board to destroy the Robot Santas. (DW: The Runaway Bride) However, according to the Tenth Doctor, the device cannot be used to wound, maim or kill living things. (DW: Doomsday)
Sonic screwdrivers and similar technology cannot unlock a deadlock seal (DW: School Reunion); one of few exceptions is 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. This suggests that certain sonic devices can be tailored to open certain deadlock seals, much like a key to a certain lock. (DW: Partners in Crime) Some or all versions may be ineffective against wood, or in the presence of some models of hairdryers. (DW:Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).
Behind the Scenes
- The tool was retired during the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation as it was felt it had become overused. It was absent for the Sixth Doctor TV era and all of the Seventh, except in Doctor Who: The TV Movie in which the Seventh Doctor was seen to use it to lock the Master's remains away, and 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.
- 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, knowing that the fans would want a properly sized "prop" based on the show. This means that the toy and the "real" Screwdriver are the same size.
- Many websites that offer this toy state that the Sonic Screwdriver is an extention of the TARDIS, or that it contains part of the TARDIS's essence. This is unconfirmed, though given the advanced technology used to create it, as well as its seemingly endless list list of abilities, it makes sense. However, it does not take into account that the Doctor has actually had at least two, which were hand-built and modified.
- 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 feature 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 swiveling 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 features was also dropped from the eventual prop model.
- There are two main versions of the 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.