Sonic screwdriver

The sonic screwdriver is a fictional tool in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Its most common function is to operate virtually any lock, mechanical or electronic, and thus open doors for escape or exploration. It has also been used for repairing equipment, as an offensive weapon, and occasionally even to drive screws. Like the TARDIS, it has become one of the icons of the programme, and is intimately associated with the Doctor.

History

The classic series

The sonic screwdriver made its first appearance in the serial Fury from the Deep (1968), written by Victor Pemberton. It was then used by the Doctor as a multi-purpose tool from that point, with occasional variations in appearance over the course of the series. However, ownership of the concept was retained by the BBC, much to the chagrin of Pemberton, who later told an interviewer for Doctor Who Magazine, "I'm very cross that the sonic screwdriver — which I invented — has been marketed with no credit to myself. ... It's one thing not to receive any payment, but another not to receive any credit."

Its abilities varied somewhat from story to story and the way it worked was never explicitly explained. However, the name implies that it operates through the use of sound waves to remotely exert physical forces on objects, such as the mechanisms inside locks. In The Sea Devils the Doctor used it to detonate land mines from a distance. This particular model had a movable section that bobbed up and down when in use.

The Doctor's Time Lady companion Romana constructed a sonic screwdriver of her own, first seen during the Fourth Doctor serial City of Death (1979). It was smaller and sleeker than the Doctor's, and he was sufficiently impressed with her design that he attempted (unsuccessfully) to swap screwdrivers with her. The Third Doctor's human companion Liz Shaw also used a sonic screwdriver in Inferno.

The sonic screwdriver was written out of the series in 1982 when it was destroyed by a Terileptil in the serial The Visitation. This was done by Eric Saward on the instructions of producer John Nathan-Turner, who felt that the device had become an easy way out for writers, since the Doctor could use it to get out of just about any situation.

Saward had written out the sonic screwdriver believing that the Doctor would simply get a replacement from the TARDIS. However, Nathan-Turner did not want such a scene at the end of this story, or any others. The series remained sonic screwdriver-free until it ceased production in 1989 (although the Sixth Doctor was occasionally seen using a "sonic lance") and it was not until the 1996 Doctor Who telemovie that the Doctor was seen to have a sonic screwdriver again, with a design that could be telescoped out for use and collapsed again when done.

The new sonic screwdriver

A completely redesigned sonic screwdriver, with a glowing blue light in addition to the sound effect, appeared in the 2005 series revival. It continues to be featured in the new 2006 series. The new sonic screwdriver seems to derived from the same technology as the new TARDIS console, with the extended portion of the prop bearing a resemblance to the central column of the console. In contrast with Nathan-Turner's attitude that the sonic screwdriver had become a cure-all the new production team gave it even more functions than previous versions.

Aside from opening locks and repairing objects, new uses include: to detect and stop thought signals projected by the Nestene Consciousness (Rose); as a computer interface tool (The End of the World, The Christmas Invasion, New Earth); to intercept teleportation signals (The End of the World, Boom Town); to extract credit from a cash machine (The Long Game); to charge up a battery (Father's Day); as a medical scanner (The Empty Child, New Earth); to resonate concrete and reattach barbed wire (The Doctor Dances); to destroy mechanical devices (The Long Game, Bad Wolf), to remotely activate an "emergency programme" in the TARDIS (The Parting of the Ways), to light a candle (The Girl in the Fireplace), to deactivate electronics and to cut rope (The Age of Steel), to partially reconstruct people absorbed by the Abzorbaloff (Love & Monsters), and to disrupt ionically powered constructs (Fear Her). The setting to reattach barbed wire is setting 2428-D, implying that it has at least that many functions.

The new prop was notoriously fragile and was prone to breaking at the slightest strain. The Doctor Who production team at BBC Wales were so impressed by how much more resilient the toy sonic screwdriver (produced under license by Character Options) was than the real prop, that they asked for and obtained the toy model and moulds for the 2006 series. The toy version is slightly larger to accommodate a working pen (with swappable ordinary and invisible ink nibs), sound effects and batteries.

It remains to be seen what other functions surface in the 2006 series, but in The Christmas Invasion the Tenth Doctor used it more as a weapon, and has brandished it in a threatening manner several times so far. However, in Doomsday, The Doctor states that the sonic screwdriver cannot kill, maim or harm. In Bad Wolf and School Reunion, it was unable to open objects locked with a "deadlock seal". In Army of Ghosts, it disrupts a Cyberman control signal being transmitted through bluetooth earpieces, killing the people being controlled.

Other appearances

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game parodies the sonic screwdriver with tools such as the ultra-plasmic awl.

In the Big Finish audio drama Sword of Orion, the Eighth Doctor reveals that his sonic screwdriver has a torch built into the handle.

In the Eighth Doctor novel Alien Bodies, the Time Lord Homunculette has a sonic monkey wrench. A later Eighth Doctor novel, Father Time, features an amnesiac Doctor attempting to recreate the sonic screwdriver with 1980s technology, eventually producing a bulky device nicknamed the "sonic suitcase".

In the 2005 series episode The Doctor Dances, Jack Harkness carries a 51st century sonic blaster, which, among its other functions, can digitise and reintegrate its targets.

In the New Series Adventures, it was used to cauterise wounds and stop a clockwork mechanism (The Clockwise Man), to tie someone up to a chair by welding wires to the chair (Only Human) and to examine electronic standing stones (The Deviant Strain). However, some alien locks are impenetrable; in the Ninth Doctor Adventure Winner Takes All the Doctor fails to open a lock with it and concludes that it "hints at alien involvement". In The Monsters Inside, it was used simply to provide light, but ran out of power in the process. In Only Human, the Doctor informs someone that it contains 29 computers. In The Stone Rose, it was used to sedate animals.

Sonic Screwdriver is also the name of a fanzine published by the Doctor Who Club of Victoria.

References

External links