The Doctor never goes anywhere without his trusty sonic screwdriver. His famous device has taken many forms over the years, and there seems to be no end to its weird and wonderful uses. Here are some of the best sonic screwdriver moments from the Time Lord’s many adventures…
5) “There! That should do it!”
For many people, their first encounter with the sonic screwdriver was in the TV movie when the Seventh Doctor, freshly in the possession of the Master‘s remains, sealed the casket with his trusty device. “There! That should do it!” he proclaimed.
It didn’t, alas, and it wasn’t long before the ‘Master morphant’ had seized control of the TARDIS, forcing it to crash-land in San Francisco, 1999. This may have been due to the fact that the Doctor, shockingly, was using his sonic screwdriver back-to-front! You see, the Seventh Doctor had never used a sonic screwdriver on screen up to this point, so the actor Sylvester McCoy was unfamiliar with the prop. The production team were equally unfamiliar, as none of them had ever shot a Doctor Who adventure before.
To be fair, only the most hardcore of fans would have noticed this blunder, had it not been blurred out in post production. It’s still a lovely moment, though, and a welcome return for the Doctor’s sonic after a 14 year absence.
4) “I feel as though you’ve just killed an old friend…”
Speaking of the 14 year absence, prior to the TV movie the last time the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on screen was in the 1982 story ‘The Visitation.’ Sadly, it was in this adventure that the Time Lord’s sonic screwdriver was seemingly destroyed forever, after it was blasted by a terileptil. A mournful Doctor looked down at its charred remains and said, “I feel as though you’ve just killed an old friend…”
This sad moment was a conscious decision on the part of the production team, although the writer Eric Saward never intended for the sonic screwdriver to be destroyed forever. In a later interview, he said that he believed that there was a cabinet somewhere on the TARDIS where the Doctor had a whole stack of such devices, and could simply produce another one whenever he felt like it.
Alas, this was not to be. The producer John Nathan-Turner was not a fan of the Time Lord’s trusty sonic, feeling that it was used too much like a ‘magic wand’ to get the Doctor out of scrapes, and preferred instead for the Time Lord to rely on his wits and ingenuity. As such, this was the last time the sonic screwdriver was seen during the classic run of the show.
3) No, not the minefield!
The Third Doctor was one such incarnation who liked to use his sonic screwdriver like a wand, and he found no end for its uses during his tenure. In fact, it was the Jon Pertwee era which really brought the sonic screwdriver to the fore. Prior to Pertwee taking the role, the trusty sonic had only been seen twice before.
And perhaps the most famous example of the Third Doctor’s sonic’ing comes during the 1972 adventure ‘The Sea Devils.’ This is during the iconic scene in which the eponymous monsters emerge en masse from the ocean, and the Time Lord and Jo are forced to make their way through a minefield in order to escape. Naturally, the sonic screwdriver acts as the perfect landmine detector, and the Doctor uses it to map out a clear path – after he’s blasted a sea devil, that is!
2) “It’s a sonic screwdriver. Never fails!”
No list of the best sonic screwdriver moments would be complete without the scene that started it all. The Doctor’s trusty device made its debut in the 1968 story ‘Fury from the Deep‘ when the Time Lord discovered a mysterious box on a beach. He produced a device from his coat so that he could open it and take a look inside, and when Jamie enquired as to what this strange implement was, the Doctor replied, “It’s a sonic screwdriver. Never fails!”
We then got to see the sonic screwdriver in action. Alas, this moment is missing from the BBC archive, but from what we can tell, viewers did actually get to see the sonic screwdriver in action as a real screwdriver – not as a landmine detector / casket sealer / door opener! The device literally did what it said on the tin, and unscrewed the mysterious box.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the last time that the Second Doctor got to use his sonic screwdriver. It made a return appearance in Patrick Troughton’s final story ‘The War Games,’ which thankfully exists in its entirety. In episode three, the Doctor desperately tries to convince some soldiers that he is from another time, and uses his sonic to remove a screw from one of their guns.
1) “What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?!”
Perhaps one of the funniest scenes involving the sonic screwdriver comes in the 50th anniversary special ‘The Day of the Doctor.’ In the adventure, the War Doctor gets to meet his Tenth and Eleventh incarnations, and he is slightly frustrated (and confused) by his counterparts’ use of their sonic devices. The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors tend to wave their screwdrivers around like guns whenever they’re confronted, and the War Doctor is distinctly unimpressed.
“Am I having a midlife crisis?!” he blusters. “Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They’re scientific instruments, not water pistols!”
This remark doesn’t seem to faze the two Doctors, though, and it’s not long before they’re back to their water pistoling manoeuvres when confronted with a line of warriors. “Oh, the pointing again!” the War Doctor exclaims. “They’re screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?!”
This certainly would have been funny to see. After all, as the Ninth Doctor pointed out in ‘The Doctor Dances,’ his sonic screwdriver is more than capable of assembling a good number of shelving units!
So there we are – just some of the best scenes involving the Time Lord’s trusty sonic. Which moment is your favourite? And which ones would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
My top fave be the Day of the Doctor one when the War Doctor thinks the 10th and 11th Doctors mad to toy with sonic screwdriversa. And a big way to show the old man being zero as senile and frail as many see elders as.