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The Second Doctors' sonic screwdriver was the first such device used by the Doctor and was somewhat primitive in its capabilities relative to later designs. Prior to the creation of this sonic screwdriver, both the First and Second Doctors were seen to utilise sonic devices, with the latter of these inspiring the screwdriver's genesis.
Uses
This iteration of the sonic screwdriver functioned as a conventional screwdriver, without physical contact with screws. (TV: The War Games) opening up hatches, panels, control panels (TV: Fury from the Deep, The War Games) and prison cell doors. (AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks) On occasion, the Doctor also used it to cut through a section of a wall (TV: The Dominators) and to override a security lock. (AUDIO: Helicon Prime)
He also used it to destroy the Dalek crystal at the heart of a mind projector. (AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks) It was also used to dismantle a Hawker (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Mirror) and Smythe's controls for the 1917 War Zone. (TV: The War Games)
History
Early sonic devices
Quadrigger Stoyn's workcase contained a sonic screwdriver when he brought it into what became the Doctor's TARDIS to decommission it. Following the First Doctor's procurement of the ship and Stoyn being left behind on the Earth's moon, the screwdriver was presumably left behind in the TARDIS with the rest of the toolcase. (AUDIO: The Beginning)
As described by a Gowenn shuttle computer aboard the Sou(ou)shi ship, the First Doctor once used an "unknown sonic device" to crack the code for the launch sequence of said shuttle. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby) Later, the Robot Doctor, with the knowledge and personality of the Doctor as he was on his visit to the planet Mechanus, suggested that some sort of "unlocking device" would be useful, suggesting it be "based on the principle of sonics". (AUDIO: Fugitive of the Daleks) Later, the First Doctor definitively did not possess a sonic screwdriver, leaving him confused and somewhat irritated when the Twelfth Doctor utilised a future model. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)
During his travels with Polly Wright and Ben Jackson, the Second Doctor built a sonic device on the Hotel Galaxian while imprisoned by the Selachians. He used it to trip the lock in the room they were trapped in, but the device was destroyed in the process. He pledged to make a more permanent version one day. (PROSE: The Murder Game)
The first sonic screwdriver
Indeed, the Second Doctor was later observed by a young hippie called Summer to pull "some little gadget" out of his pocket and use it to unlock a door. (PROSE: Wonderland) He was also carrying a device he actually described as a "sonic screwdriver" not long after he had welcomed Jamie McCrimmon aboard the TARDIS. On the island of Kenga, the Doctor brought the device out of his pockets along with a bag of sherbet lemons and his Five Hundred Year Diary, displaying the items to Polly. Despite possessing the device, the Doctor still picked a lock on the island instead of using the sonic. (AUDIO: The Forsaken) Later, on Santespri, the Doctor used his new sonic screwdriver only after determining that his ordinary method of lockpicking would be intractable. (PROSE: Dreams of Empire)
The Second Doctor used sonic screwdrivers of a different design, including one looking like a life jacket safety whistle, (TV: Fury from the Deep) or like a metal penlight (TV: The War Games) which could get a trigger attachment. (TV: The Dominators)
The screwdriver was destroyed by Skaar, leading the Doctor to decide to build a new and more advanced version. (AUDIO: Wrath of the Ice Warriors) Nonetheless, it was also used by the Eighth Doctor after being destroyed "centuries ago", with the Doctor claiming to his companion Sam Jones that this was possible because "It's a Time Lord tool. Time doesn't work the same way for Time Lord tools." (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
The Eighth Doctor also carried a similar rod model near the end of his life: Cylindrical and silver, with a blue emitter diode tip, he used it in a surgical procedure to scan his patient and to seal incisions. This model could glow with an "almost white" light and emit great heat, be used to sharpen surgical instruments and be turned "on" and "off". (PROSE: Osskah)
A rod version of this screwdriver was kept in the Twelfth Doctor's office at St Luke's University. (TV: The Pilot)
The sonic was found in the Remembered TARDIS by Jo Jones. (TV: The Three Doctors [+]Loading...["The Three Doctors (TotT TV story)"])
Behind the scenes
The sonic screwdriver prop
- In Victor Pemberton's script for Fury from the Deep, it was simply described as the Doctor's "own version of a screwdriver". When seeing a normal screwdriver in rehearsals, production assistant Michael Briant suggested using another prop and the device having sonicwaves, Patrick Troughton then took a penlight from the visual effects department. (DWM 277)
- While shooting Fury from the Deep, Troughton accidentally lost the original prop and it had to be replaced at the last minute by Peter Day[1] with the safety whistle[2] of Deborah Watling's life jacket outfit.[3]
- In Episode 6 of Fury from the Deep, the Second Doctor uses one of his devices together with some amplifiers to produce a "sonic laser soundwave" but it is unknown if this is the sonic screwdriver, and if so whether it was the retrieved original prop or not. The combined props are seen in a surviving alternate take of the climax battle of the episode, in which a sort of medical hammer appears to be lodged in the amplifier and manipulated by Troughton.
- The Second Doctor's slim penlight prop from The War Games has been identified as a Eveready model no. 1980 (1968-70 version).[2]
- Doctor Who: Legacy mobile game contains a premium pack called "Sonic Adventure", which is centred around finding various sonic devices used by different incarnations of the Doctor and by several other characters. The playable characters form this premium pack represented almost every model of sonic screwdriver encountered in the DWU.
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Extract of Peter Day's interview by Richard Bignell for Loose Cannon Productions' Doctor Who - The Making of Fury from the Deep
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Essay by Lee Moone
- ↑ Account report of Frazer Hines