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 closely 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 Second 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."[1]
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 Three Doctors, it functions as a radiation detector. In The Sea Devils the Doctor used it to detonate land mines from a distance, which he did again later in Robot. This particular model had a movable section that bobbed up and down when in use. Also in Robot, the Doctor used the screwdriver as a "miniature sonic lance" to cut out a lock.
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 in Horns of Nimon.
The sonic screwdriver was written out of the series in 1982 when it was destroyed by a Terileptil in the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation in order to prevent the Doctor from escaping captivity. 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 and the subsequent episodes that have followed. The new sonic screwdriver seems to derive 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 while limiting its plot role to that of a tool, making the Doctor rely on his wits, companions or psychology to solve the episode´s central problem. Aside from opening locks and repairing objects, new uses in the TV series include detecting and sending signals, intercepting teleportation, lighting candles, reattaching barbed wire, driving screws and amplifying sound, usually to stun or incapacitate an enemy.
In Doomsday, The Doctor states that the sonic screwdriver does not kill, wound or maim. However in several episodes, including The Christmas Invasion and The Infinite Quest, the Tenth Doctor brandished or used it in a threatening manner several times, occasionally going so far as to use it to damage or destroy an enemy as he did in The Runaway Bride and The Lazarus Experiment. In Bad Wolf, School Reunion, Evolution of the Daleks and 42, it was unable to open objects locked with a "deadlock seal".
The new prop was notoriously fragile and was prone to breaking at the slightest strain. The toy version (made by Character Options Ltd.) was slightly larger to accommodate a working pen (with swappable ordinary and ultraviolet ink nibs), sound effects and batteries. It also includes an ultraviolet torch for viewing messages written in the ultraviolet ink. The Doctor Who production team at BBC Wales were so impressed by how much more resilient the toy sonic screwdriver was than the real prop, that they asked for and obtained moulds of the toy to use in the 2006 series.[2] The new prop is 7 inches long, like the toy, as opposed to the 5.75 inch version of the 2005 series.
Other sonic devices
- In the 2005 episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances", Jack Harkness uses a "sonic disrupter" capable of disintegrating structures ("digitising" them) and then reversing the damage done, among other functions (although the disintegration function is said by Jack to "drain the battery", in a cultural reference to modern mobile phones). The blaster and the screwdriver appear to be based on the same technology; it has a similar design to the new version of the sonic screwdriver, including its blue glow, and Harkness makes fun of the Ninth Doctor for using such a puny device. Both characters refer to the blaster being produced at "the weapon factories of Villengard" in the 51st century - which the Doctor also claims to have destroyed.
- In [[The Sarah Jane Adventures], Sarah Jane Smith wields a "sonic lipstick" which is a gift the Tenth Doctor gave her alongside a new model of K-9 in "School Reunion".[3]
- In "Smith and Jones", the Doctor reveals he had a "laser spanner" (like the sonic screwdriver) until it was stolen by Emmeline Pankhurst
- 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".
Other appearances
- In the Big Finish audio drama Sword of Orion, the Eighth Doctor reveals that his sonic screwdriver has a torch built into the handle, which he also used in The Idiot's Lantern.
- In the Big Finish audio Drama The Blood of the Daleks the Eighth Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to trace a transmission beam.
- The Seventh Doctor regained his sonic screwdriver in the Virgin New Adventures novels, with its first reappearance in The Pit, but it tended to be used rarely. In The Dying Days the Eighth Doctor used the device to reflect the sonic cannon of an Ice Warrior back at his attacker. The Virgin Missing Adventures novel Venusian Lullaby established that the First Doctor had one.
- In the New Series Adventures, it was used to cauterise wounds, as a soldering iron and to 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 and The Nightmare of Black Island, it was used simply to provide light, but in The Monsters Inside, it ran out of power in the process. In Only Human, the Doctor informs Quelly that it contains 29 computers. In The Stone Rose, it was used to sedate animals, and it in The Last Dodo it was used to distract them. Also in The Last Dodo it was used to liquefy tarmac, and then undo the process. (The Last Dodo)
- Sonic Screwdriver is also the name of a fanzine published by the Doctor Who Club of Victoria.
- A very similar pen-shaped multipurpose device called a "servo" was used by the intergalactic superspy Gary Seven in the 1968 Star Trek episode "Assignment Earth".[1]
- The Sixth Doctor used a hand tool called a sonic lance in Attack of the Cybermen.
- The The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game parodies the sonic screwdriver with tools such as the ultra-plasmic awl.
- In the BBC Radio 4 science-fiction comedy Nebulous, there is a parody of the sonic screwdriver in the sonic crowbar.
- In the Torchwood episodes Day One and End of Days, Captain Jack Harkness is seen to use a green device somewhat similar to a sonic screwdriver. Its origins and function are unknown.
- In the Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts a replica of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver can be seen on Toshiko Sato's desk.
- In a The Catherine Tate Show Red Nose Day sketch, Catherine Tate's teenage tearaway character Lauren Cooper accuses her English teacher played by David Tennant of looking suspiciously like "the Doctor". After much provocation, he pulls out a sonic screwdriver and uses it to transform her into a Rose Tyler action figure.
- A sonic screwdriver briefly appears as an obtainable item (although it is never used for anything in the book) in the 1980's Fighting Fantasy book Sky Lord.
References
- ^ Cook, Benjamin (June 26, 2002). "Friend of the Earth". Doctor Who Magazine (318): 10–14.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Toys and Games". BBC. 2005-07-26. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "The Sarah Jane Adventures - The Official Site" (HTML). Mr Smith's Attic Explorer. BBC. Retrieved 2006-12-21. (UK Access Only)
