“Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They’re scientific instruments, not water pistols!” the War Doctor (John Hurt) says to Ten (David Tennant) and Eleven (Matt Smith) as they meet for the first time in “The Day of the Doctor.” Just a few moments later when all three come under a new threat and Ten and Eleven are once again aiming their ‘water pistols,’ the exasperated War Doctor exclaims, “The pointing again! They’re screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?”
Let’s give Hurt’s character a slight reprieve because he may have had no idea how The Sonic has been upgraded since the old days. Though, technically, since he regenerated from Eight (Paul McGann) he should have some meager knowledge of the new-improved capabilities. Still, originally, it was for picking locks and (thanks to a quick check of the insightful TARDIS Data Core) it could also project sound which comes in right handy when detonating bombs. By the time of Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, though, that handy gizmo was being practically aimed like a weapon to thwart all types of incoming nasties. In a nice tip of the hat to critics who have grown weary of the all-purpose gadget, “The Day of the Doctor” has Clara Oswald seemingly surprised by the fact that the doctors have become so dependent on the sonic device that when thrown in a dungeon cell with a wooden door (the device “doesn’t do wood”) they don’t even bother to manually check if they are locked in. She says, “Three of you, in one cell, and none of you thought to try the door?” To them, what’s the sense. It’s kinda sorta like looking for a pay phone when the cell battery dies.
The screwdriver was written out of the series in 1982’s “The Visitation” during the Fifth Doctor’s (Peter Davison) run. A reptilian humanoid Terileptil destroyed The Sonic with a laser blast. The camera lingers on the beyond repairable tool so there’s no doubt in viewers minds it’s really gone for good. The Doctor laments, “I feel as though you just killed an old friend.” The series producer at the time, John Nathan-Turner, according to Wikipedia, was eager to get rid of the device because of the limitations it caused to the script writers, and yet somehow, miraculously, the Doctor is able to get along without it (though it’s worth mentioning that in 2007’s “Time Crash,” the Tenth Doctor collides with his earlier celery-sporting self and mocks, “Oh no, of course, you must have went hands free, didn’t you, like, ‘Hey, I’m the doctor. I can save the universe using a kettle and some string, and look at me, I’m wearing a vegetable.’”).
However, in the 1996 TV movie, the versatile screwdriver made its way back into the hands of the Doctor and has been used in full force ever since. Sidebar: In 1989’s Ghost Light, the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) yanks two utility devices from his pockets including a cumbersome looking radiation detector. One can only assume he began working on The Sonic soon after to lighten his load.
Much has been made, in various fandom circles over the years, of whether Superman is too powerful a superhero and unless a bad guy had a pocketful of Kryptonite how could he honestly fight and win against a demigod. For a story to work thematically, the audience has to believe our hero could possibly lose or else we know the ending before it starts, right? And for that reason among others, there are guidelines in place that once the TARDIS lands, the time traveler can’t simply go back inside his own timeline to correct certain situations that have become thorny, though there are “wibbily wobbly timey wimey” exceptions.
But what about the sonic screwdriver that can be used for virtually any sticky situation, including “repairing electronic equipment; re-attaching materials such as barbed wire; detecting, intercepting and sending signals; remotely operating the TARDIS; burning, cutting, or igniting substances; fusing metal; scanning and identifying substances; amplifying or augmenting sound; modifying mobile phones to enable ‘universal roaming’; disabling alien disguises; resonating concrete; reversing teleportation of another entity” (via Wikipedia). Whew! That’s quite the accomplished list. But is it a deus ex machina device that makes it a bit too convenient to get out of a predicament?
What say you: Is it time to lose the sonic screwdriver again, or perhaps limit its functions, or maybe just leave it as it is?
It seems for the time being The Sonic is safe in its role for the upcoming season. In the marvelous Peter Capaldi debut “Deep Breath,” Twelve, while still regenerating, swipes a horse to pursue an exploding dinosaur and escapes being bound up, saving Clara in the process, thanks to the handy device. I’m sure there’s always another way, but it’s so much easier with the sonic screwdriver.
David Cranmer is the publisher of the BEAT to a PULP webzine and books and editor of the recent collections The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform and Other Stories and A Rip Through Time: The Doctor, the Dame, and the Device.
Wizards & magic wands have a storied history. I say leave it.
God no. The screwdriver limits the writers, and that’s a good thing. Do you want the Doctor to be trapped in a cell to pad out the hour or create drama, or do you want him to stride out and get on with the good stuff?
It’s become a joke. But I don’t know how they could remove it now, when it’s been established how easily he can make another. But I wish they could.
I do think the screwdriver’s been overused in recent seasons, but on the other hand, it makes sense that a tinkerer like the Doctor would be constantly upgrading it.
Besides, it’s a function of the times we live in. In the ’60s and ’70s, people didn’t expect a device to have more than a few functions. The reason Star Trek‘s tricorders were called that is because they were based on what, in 1966, was the cutting-edge, futuristic technology of the portable cassette recorder, but they added two other functions (sensor and computer), so they were tri-function recorders. They do three whole things! How amazingly futuristic! But today, it’s different. When I got my new smartphone a few months ago, I used its browser, e-mail, photo, video, music player, voice recorder, notepad, GPS, calendar, flashlight, game, and other functions well before I actually used it to make or receive a phone call. These days we expect so much more functionality from our devices, so if the sonic screwdriver is to remain futuristic, it needs to have a comparable or greater level of versatility. And by the same token, just as we can’t get by without our devices, a lot of modern viewers would find it strange for the Doctor to get by without a device of his own.
I think that while the idea of a ‘Sonic-less’ doctor is interesting, that to really remove the screwdriver would be a great continuity loss.
It stands for ‘The Doctor’ not any particular doctor as it is the one thing that has tied 90% of the regenerations together. They all pull out the screwdriver and gizmo themselves out of whatever flavour of Jam that particular incarnation has created. There are arcane branches of wand-lore that presume a level of sentience in such tools. I think it would be more than technological loss if the Sonic disappeared.
Like many things, it is how you use it. Just because it can do all those things, doesn’t mean you have to always take that route.
A tool is as useful as the mind wielding it. If your first thought is how to wrap the plot around the use of the screwdriver, then you aren’t using the tool to it’s best options. You are letting the tool do the work.
Nah. It’s Doctor Who. It works within the context of the show, I think. Besides, as someone allready pointed out, it’s not really a screw driver. It’s a magic wand. And what would a wizard be without his wand. :)
I vote for keeping it. Although it is a bit magical, I always just think of it as the Doctor’s all purpose gadget… sort of like the future equivelent of the smart phone. I do hope they stay focused on using it as a tool, not any kind of weapon… and along those lines I agree it is kind of silly to be pointing it all the time. Also, the writers could come up with an instance/situation where it isnt useful but then show us in a later episode that the Doctor has upgraded it to deal with that situation/problem now… give us more of a sense that the Doctor tinkers with it occasionally to upgrade, give it new features.
While I”d certainly like it to be used less, I think it is now an essential part of the character and a way to get around the limitations of the 45-50minute run time of the new episodes with a single story to be told each time. Its hard to fit a setup and resolution without a short cut like the sonic. Plus the viewing audience likes the fast-paced adventure the sonic allows, that is just a change in viewer expectations.
I thought they were heading that way when the Doctor had to go without his screwdriver in The Eleventh Hour – he seemed so proud of having saved the world without it, I thought they were having a dig at its overuse. I guess not.
@5: Ninety percent of his regenerations? Let’s see… Counting the War Doctor, there have been 13 distinct Doctors now. The screwdriver debuted with the Second Doctor; the Fifth Doctor spent most of his tenure without it; the Sixth never used it; and the Seventh only used it briefly in the TV movie. So that’s really only about 9/13 or 69%. Even if we count Five and Seven, it only goes to 85%.
I’d say keep the sonic, but I would like to see it used a bit more sparingly. I thought “The Eleventh Hour” did a great job showing how the Doctor can still be the Doctor without the sonic screwdriver – I definitely do like when the Doctor uses his ingenuity to solve a problem rather than just pointing his tool at it.
-Andy
I appreciate everyone weighing in on The Sonic.
@2: Foxed, for the record, I love the sonic screwdriver but would just like to see it a bit less. In “Deep Breath”he really didn’t need it to swipe the horses, and in last week’s episode, I thought it was too easy to repair the Dalek. Tim_Paul (#6 comment) nails the issue spot on with “Just because it can do all those things, doesn’t mean you always have to take that route.”
@6: Tim_Paul, my thoughts exactly.
@8: Neuralnet, I like your idea of showing him upgrading and adapting.
I wouldn’t want to see the screwdriver disappear altogether but it certainly doesn’t need to be used so much.
Mates, or show the enemy confiscating it from time to time or, perhaps, a few more advanced alien cultures where The Sonic fails to deliver.
@@@@@ 13 – I think the RTD era probably handled it best, where the screwdriver could get the Doctor out of any jam where it wasn’t more interesting to do it another way.
For instance, yes, Five went without the screwdriver, but the show wrung alot of drama and filler from locking him up roughly one whole episode every serial. The three Doctors in the 50th anniversary special were locked in a room, but it was interesting because the scene was used to discuss using the Moment and to set up having an older regeneration start calculations so a younger one can use them.
And it turned out that they weren’t locked up after all, which was a bit clever.
@16: I will agree that The Sonic, during the RTD era, seemed to be used a little less than it is now. Maybe, I’m wrong. Haven’t watched the brilliant #9 doc in awhile. And you make a good point that it did seem that #5,#6, and #7 really could have benefited from a screwdriver. My Uncle Charlie used to say “too much of anything good for nothing” and that seems to apply here. Or as I mentioned to Mates, in the above comment, lets see his enemies confiscating it from time to time or show them laughing at his screwdriver with superior tech of their own. It just needs to fail a little more often.
I’m going with the ‘keep the screwdriver but limit it’s capabilities’ option. I can buy that it would have extra functions beyond what the name suggests but currently it is a Deus Ex Machina device without any logic to it.
Think of it like a swiss-army-knife perhaps, a s-a-k has assorted functions but they are all basically lumps of metal that physically manipulate different objects in various ways, they cannot drive a car / summon meteors / read a book /manipulate the aether.
Basic functions should be limited to things that are believably related to sound/vibration manipulation.
– Damaging/heating dense materials with rapid vibration (metals, not wood).
– Moving small objects by creating dense sound waves/fields with notably physical effects, basically any regular s-a-k functions, a universal remote control. What the Sonic started as.
– Interfering with existing signals, sounds and fields with feedback and white noise.
– sending signals. Sound, radio, light, beacons etc. limited range and function.
Extra functions would be more related to the Doctor himself, not just any completely random power the plot may need. It would be quite believable for it to have a direct connection to the TARDIS for summoning/controlling purposes.
Limitations. Using it as a scanning tool makes sense but it has no readout so why does he stare at it as if it does? It would be more believable if he was able to tell what variations in sound meant using his superior Time Lord hearing. He’d enjoy lecturing his companions on their inability to differentiate seemingly identical sounds.
To interfere with a technology it would have to be near to it, preventing a teleportation in progress is one thing, reversing it remotely after it has happened makes no sense.
Keep it, but limit it. And if any knowledgable fan says “but it was able to do that in episode 200…” just chant la-la-la-i-can’t-hear-you.
@18: “Using it as a scanning tool makes sense but it has no readout so why does he stare at it as if it does?”
I think it’s got psychic circuits.
The use of the sonic as a scanner has bugged me a bit since the beginning of the new series. Tennant seemed to scan something and then listen to the device, so it made sense to me that he could derive information from the changes in the sound. Smith, however, is always scanning things, then doing that little flourish and looking at the thing, which led me to assume that the green core must have some sort of display in it. It doesn’t require a long explanation, but it bugs me that they never even offered one.
And don’t get me started on the psychic interface. I liked that it had thousands of settings, and only the Doctor knew what they all were, as in the “repairs barbed wire” setting. But I don’t like the idea that anyone can just think at it, and it’ll do whatever you want. That’s too far.
How does it compare with Batman’s Utility Belt in the 1960’s Adam West series? Should probably be a bit less than that…
@22: Batman and Robin’s utility belts probably had some TARDIS-like components of their own, since their pouches were bigger on the inside than the outside. They were constantly pulling out things that were way too big to fit in a belt pouch, up to the big fold-out Bat-Shields.
(Conversely, the makers of the recent Beware the Batman animated series mocked up their utility belt/equipment designs in cardboard to make sure that all of Batman’s gadgets actually could fit in the pouches in real life — which is a nice bit of attention to detail in a CGI cartoon that could easily cheat it.)
The screwdriver is the least of the problem. There’s just too much muchness with Doctor Who anymore, in my opinion, and a lot of fat to be trimmed—namely this odd obsession with regenerations. Imagine if the James Bond series had this hang-up (oh yeah, well, he gets plastic surgery every few years!). New actors come in, old ones go out. Get over it already.
@22: Gerry__Quinn, Ha! NOTHING tops Batman’s 60’s utility belt.
Gallifreyan tech doesn’t come close and that’s saying something.
@25: Right. I doubt the sonic screwdriver has a compartment where the Doctor carries sardines in case he just happens to come across a helpful seal.
The point of the sonic screwdriver is supposed to be so that the Doctor doesn’t get hung up on little problems, like how to get through a locked door, while he’s trying to solve the big problems of saving the universe. Of course, it can be overused as much as any plot coupon can.
Interesting to note that Doctor Who doesn’t seem completely dependent on all its gadgets. We haven’t seen the psychic paper much lately, and it used to be it came out in practically every other episode.
One has to note that about an hour after Hurt’s second complaint all three Doctors use their sonics to disassemble a Dalek. So there’s that.
@26: sardines! too damn funny. And just doing a quick check I see Batman carries kryptonite against his friend Superman as “insurance” just in case. Smart move there, Bruce.
@28: yeah, the War Doctor came around fairly quick.
I think the screwdriver is actually helpful to plots. Like others point out, it helps to cut out some dull “trying to escape/determining what we are dealing with” kind of stuff.
Kind of like the translator function on the Tardis saves us from “learning the language” montages, and the psychic paper saves us from “the Doctor convinces folks to trust him” montages.
Taking away The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver would be like taking away Macyver’s Swiss Army Knife.
@31: Actually one of the fun parts of the old series was how the Doctor managed to get people to trust him (despite initially locking him up or trying to kill him) simply because he was the only one who knew what was going on and how to deal with it, or by his sheer strength of character. Tom Baker was particularly good at dominating a room with sheer personality. Psychic paper is kind of a crutch. Although, yes, I admit that the whole process of suspicion leading to gradual trust, fun though it could be, was also kind of repetitive after a while.
The all powerful sonic screwdriver is an invitation to scriptwriters to be lazy and sloppy. Sadly they tend to accept the invitation.
@33 Yeah, but in the BakerT days he could spend an entire half hour episode trying to win people round. These days we just don’t have the time for that to happen, we’ve got 45-50 minutes for an entire story which has to include character stuff (to keep the actors sweet), action-adventure, some jokes for the kiddies watching, and (for reasons that escape me) a couple of scenes showing the companion du jour’s domestic home life. Seriously I would be happy never to see Earth again for a couple of seasons, and would be happy to chop that, but it has been a staple of the revived Who, so it is not going any time soon.
The sonic and the psychic paper are both just ways to deal with the new time constraints. Given that audience expectations are a snappy-fast cut adventure series, to contain all the above and still feel like it is fast-paced they need something.
@35: I would like to see The Doctor leave the Earth behind, for awhile, as well. I understand it is his job to protect this planet but his explorations of other worlds was a big kick of the classic era.
@36. Yes, yes, yes–a greater variety of environments! And an alien companion or two, without the reliance on any character from which the audience can view the show, which can become a crutch, though the switch can be disturbing if made too abruptly, which I don’t think would not happen in Doctor Who like it did in Northern Exposure.
I can see how the sonic screwdriver has become relied on too much as per plot device. And the same with the psychic paper tho’ I always thought it funny :).
I think it’s best off with reasonable limits. The original intent of the device assumes that it used sonic waves to create resonation that would vibrate locks open and cause screws to “unscrew”… so, fine, resonation.
It’s clear, however, that the sonic screwdriver is named thus in much the same way as we name a Swiss army knife: It does a lot more than the name suggests. It can scan (though how the Doctor reads it by looking at it is anybody’s guess); if it made sounds the Doctor could interpret, that would work. It would be like having R2D2 in his pocket. And it can detect and interpret signals, allowing him to tap into transmissions.
And maybe we can allow that its sonic waves create solid shapes made up of the molecules in the air, giving him solid “tools” beyond what his fingers can manage. The kind of physical tools you’d expect in a Swiss army knife, plus maybe a flashlight.
I think, with a specific but limited set of tools, it could be a useful device and not a hand-wavey solution to everything that it has become.
Gods, yes. Or at least give it some limitations beyond something jokey like “wood.” It’s become sort of his catch-all magic-wand solution to everything from holding up giant stone doors to reversing heart attacks. If the season arcs tend to end with RTD or Moffat slamming his fist down on the big red reset button, the sonic screwdriver is used so often for so many things that it’s sort of a mini-button, solving the problems of the episode, not the arc. The thing the writer hits so they don’t have to come up with a solution that uses the Doctor’s brain because they don’t have an hour and a half to tell the story. (I wish they did — two-parters are some of the best stories since the revival, and they’ve been missing for the past couple of seasons.)
My roommate and I were watching “The Curse of Fenric” the other night. After it was done, we both noticed something at the same time and went hey, know what the Doctor didn’t do in that episode? Use the sonic screwdriver. Know what was still fantastic? That episode.
@39: Well, since the Doctor himself is the one who upgraded the screwdriver with all those other functions, you could still say he’s using his brain to solve his problems; in fact, he was smart enough to anticipate problems and give himself a solution ahead of time. Although I agree, it’s more fun to actually watch him reasoning out a strategy or building a gadget.
@39: I’ve come to appreciate the Seventh Doctor’s adventures with Ace. And she’s one companion, from the old days, along with Jamie McCrimmon, Nyssa, and Susan Foreman that I wouldn’t mind briefly revisiting. Though, beyond that, I would like to see The Doctor abandoning Earth for a spell. Kinda like Ace eventually did, right?
The Doctor is fine with his screwdriver, it doesn’t get in the way of the plot at all. Under Moffat, the Doctor frequently “knows” what each episode dramatically reveals to the companions (and we the viewers). Typically, it’s the companions in danger, while the Doctor remains aloof in the face of just about any direct threat.
The sonic screwdriver adds to the magic of the Doctor, rather than take it away. He no longer holds it like a hand tool, soldering a loose wire; now it’s part of the visual drama, as the Doctor plants his feet, and reaches out like a swordsman (the Capaldi picture above is a perfect example).
Writers have been diciplined enough not to abuse the screwdriver. Danger in the new series comes not from the Doctor being trapped as much as the companions put at risk or in danger – and usually without the Doctor and his screwdriver.
In theory, the bigger “solve any problem” item in Who is the TARDIS. It materializes when it’s called, it knows everything that’s ever happened in the universe(s), and it can take you anywhere, anywhen. Tom Baker’s TARDIS had an olympic-sized pool (sure, I can save the population of the planet; hop in!). Matt Smith’s TARDIS has a tree that grows anything you can think of (Hmmm… world peace…). Of course, Pertwee’s TARDIS couldn’t move at first; Peter Davidson managed to blow his TARDIS to pieces scattered across the surface of Frontios (no big deal, just have the Gravis reassemble it) – writers have repeatedly found ways to remove the magic TARDIS; dealing with a screwdriver should be a piece of cake.
Now … anyone want to talk K-9? Didn’t think so.
I now find this article hilarious. If you’d waited just one more week! Ah-hah-hah-hah-hah.
No spoilers!
@43: “Robot of Sherwood” was a welcome reprieve from The Sonic. And that alone made for some sharp banter between Robin and The Doctor. I was hoping that the tool would have been left behind in the castle but no such luck.
@45. That did make me laugh. Clara: “Doctor, have you got a plan — ” *Doctor looks hopeful* ” — that doesn’t involve the words ‘sonic screwdriver’?” *Doctor’s face falls*
At least it seems like they’re aware of their over-reliance on it. Whether they actually do anything about that is anyone’s guess.
I saw a flash of the sonic in the previews for next week, but thought that the 11th Doctor sonic had gone up with the alien ship. Will they introduce a new 12th Doctor version next week?
I can’t see them missing the opportunity to create one more version of the sonic screwdriver, if only to sell more toy replicas to fans!
@47: Yet how refreshing was it to see him fighting the robots by deflecting their blasts. Hopefully, a few more villains will swipe his Sonic in the near future.
No I don’t think the sonic screwdriver should go it’s as iconic to the new Who as the Blue Police Box is to Doctor Who its self. Besides I think that says something about the Doctor that he has a tool for fixing not killing as his go to device when so many shows don’t do the same. Also it pushes the writers to get the Doctor that the sonic screwdriver can’t easily get them out of.
@49: Sure, the idea of the sonic screwdriver as being “a tool for fixing, not killing” is great in principle… but it’s undermined somewhat when he points the thing at an archery target and the target explodes in an orange fireball. That part kinda bugged me.
@50 That was the screwdriver turned to the “Michael Bay” setting… ;-)
I loved the ‘Ruth’ Doctor lregarding it with disgust and saying that she was ‘clever enough not to need one’. I say lose it.
Looking back on this thread now, it feels weird to see us all talking about the Doctor as an unambiguous “him.”
Well he was, then.