The Doctor's sonic screwdriver

The Doctor, throughout many of their lives, possessed a sonic screwdriver. They ostensibly upgraded and improved each subsequent model, improving functionality and adding additional features. Features included projecting soundwaves to lock or unlock doors, frying circuitry, hacking, disabling, and activating technology. It could also be used as a scanning device, with medical applications.

Each model used the same software. Essentially, the sonic screwdriver in use by the War Doctor was the same as that in the Eleventh Doctor's possession, some 400 years later. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

At least one version of the screwdriver used a crystal similar to the Metebelis crystal sought after by the Eight Legs of Metebelis III. (COMIC: The Forgotten) There were also electrical components. (COMIC: The Halls of Sacrifice)

The screwdriver had a multitude of settings and different versions of settings. The Tenth Doctor told Rose to use "setting 15B" to triangulate the source of the ghosts (TV: Army of Ghosts) and used 34-H to sink a ship. (COMIC: Second Wave) It had a setting 85 that undid security codes to unlock doors. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) The Ninth Doctor told Rose to use setting 2428D to re-attach barbed wire. (TV: The Doctor Dances) Sarah Jane used the Theta Omega setting to melt plastic vines. (TV: The Android Invasion) The Twelfth Doctor told Clara to use setting 41 to send out random bursts of helicon energy to distract the Skovox Blitzer. (TV: The Caretaker) The Twelfth Doctor himself used setting 61 to knock out a cybernetically augmented dinosaur with a "sonic brainstorm". (COMIC: Spirits of the Jungle) However, at least one version of the screwdriver was able to use thoughts as well as settings. (TV: The Big Bang, Amy's Choice, Let's Kill Hitler, Death in Heaven)

The different versions of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers exhibited different capabilities and uses, such as the interception of signals ranging from transmat beams to conscious thought; (TV: The End of the World) medical diagnostics (TV: The Empty Child) and repair of organic parts; (TV: The Vampires of Venice) cutting, but also re-attaching materials such as barbed wire; (TV: The Doctor Dances) operating Earth machinery such as computers (TV: School Reunion) and even cash machines (at regular and high eject speeds); (TV: The Runaway Bride) creating a spark to light a candle (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace) or Bunsen burner; (TV: Evolution of the Daleks) opening and holding doors with acoustic locks; (TV: The Rings of Akhaten) and, on the rare occasion, driving screws without touching them. (TV: The War Games, The Ark in Space, The Doctor's Wife)

Although it was primarily a tool, the sonic screwdriver could also be used as a defensive weapon, able to combine with other sonic devices to form a shield around a hostile target to either force them back or slow their advance. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, The Doctor Falls) The Tenth Doctor put it in a soundboard to destroy the Robot Santas by overloading their sensors. (TV: The Runaway Bride) The Eleventh Doctor used it to bounce sound waves off a knife held by Melody Pond, knocking it out of her hand. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) The sonic screwdriver was also capable of holding off sound waves from creatures who relied on sound in order to attack such as the Vigil. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten) The Doctor also used it to try and help River Song defeat a group of Silents although River teased him by saying it would be better if he used it to "build a cabinet". However, the Doctor implied that although it couldn't actually hurt the Silents it could weaken the power of their electricity, therefore allowing him to provide River with a certain degree of protection while she shot down their foes. (TV: Day of the Moon) It could also destroy ice creatures when it received the latest update. (TV: The Snowmen)

Although the Eighth Doctor once claimed the device could destroy a Dalek's brain if held directly against the casing when activated, (PROSE: War of the Daleks) according to the Tenth Doctor, the device could not be used to wound, maim or kill living things. (TV: Doomsday, The Doctor's Daughter) It could destroy non-living objects or mechanisms or place living creatures in circumstances where they might die if the situation required. (TV: The End of the World, The Christmas Invasion) The War Doctor claimed that it was a scientific instrument rather than a water pistol. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

The Twelfth Doctor claimed to have abandoned sonic screwdrivers in favour of wearable technology like his sonic sunglasses. (TV: The Witch's Familiar, Under the Lake) However, after briefly returning to Gallifrey, he resumed using them, as his TARDIS fashioned a new one for him as a gift. Furthermore, after the Doctor had lost sight of who he was, Clara Oswald left him a reminder to "be a Doctor" after leaving his company. As part of his role of being a Doctor to use a sonic screwdriver, the Doctor accepted the TARDIS's gift. (TV: Hell Bent)

The First and Second Doctors' sonic screwdriver
A small, simple metal rod similar to a penlight, sonic screwdriver was used by the First (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby) and Second Doctors. (TV: Fury from the Deep) It was also used by the Eighth Doctor after being destroyed "centuries ago", with the Doctor claiming to his companion Samantha 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) However, according to one account, the First Doctor 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)

The Eighth Doctor carried a similar 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)

Uses

 * Cracking the code for an aerodynamic shuttle. (PROSE: Venusian Lullaby)
 * Opening up hatches, panels and control panels. (TV: Fury from the Deep, The War Games)
 * Opening a cell door. (AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks)
 * Destroying the Dalek crystal at the heart of a mind projector. (AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks)
 * Cutting through a section of a wall. (TV: The Dominators)
 * Dismantling a Hawker. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Mirror)
 * As a conventional screwdriver without physical contact with screws. (TV: The War Games)
 * Overriding the security locks on a lift on Helicon Prime. (AUDIO: Helicon Prime)

The Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors' sonic screwdriver
The Third Doctor's most-used model of the sonic screwdriver was much larger than the one his first and second incarnation used; its elaborately detailed silver collar featured black and yellow stripes and red trim, and could be pulled down to activate the screwdriver. It had a removable burgundy emitter head which the Doctor would change with others, each performing a different function. (TV: The Sea Devils)

On one occasion he removed the head entirely and replaced it with a small, round mirror, which spun rapidly when he tapped its edge with his finger and hypnotized anyone who looked at it. Accompanied by a yellow light on the collar of his sonic screwdriver and the Doctor singing a Venusian lullaby, it hypnotized the aggressive Aggedor into calmness. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)

The Third Doctor later fitted the head of his sonic screwdriver with a cylindrical black magnet which enabled it to open bolted doors, especially when its polarity was reversed. This refit left the metal mostly unpainted, with a dark red emitter ring. The head of this model could be extended. (TV: Frontier in Space)

Before this model met its demise, its head was repainted twice after the original coat wore off. (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Castrovalva) It was ultimately destroyed when a Terileptil leader forced the Fifth Doctor to drop the screwdriver inside a holding cell, then incinerated it with a laser gun — causing the Doctor to remark "I feel as though you've just killed an old friend." (TV: The Visitation) The Doctor went without a sonic screwdriver for some time after this model, with Nyssa lamenting his decision not to replace it. (TV: Snakedance) The Tenth Doctor also lightly mocked his past incarnation for going "hands-free" following this incident when their TARDISes accidentally collided. (TV: Time Crash)

This sonic operated at a frequency of 80 kilohertz. (PROSE: Light Fantastic)

The Doctor, leaving UNIT, left behind a prototype. UNIT scientists then tried to use reverse-engineering to understand its workings; this went on into the 21st century. Despite them trying to keep it quiet from the Doctor, he was well aware of the project by his seventh incarnation. (AUDIO: Persuasion)

A version of this screwdriver was kept in the Twelfth Doctor's office at St Luke's University. His companion Nardole made use of it in a war zone where the Daleks and Movellans skirmished. (TV: The Pilot)

Uses

 * Scanning for alarm systems in the Master's TARDIS. (TV: Colony in Space)
 * Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (TV: The Sea Devils)
 * Unlocking a holding cell within a Sea Devil base. (TV: The Sea Devils)
 * To open an electronic door. (TV: The Mutants)
 * Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
 * Open electronic locks. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
 * Curing Henry VIII of his cataracts. (PROSE: Hiccup in Time)
 * Overloading the brains of Space Greyhounds. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
 * Unbolting a door. (TV: Frontier in Space)
 * Fusing shut a sliding door. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
 * Opening a lift door. (TV: The Green Death)
 * Distracting giant maggots. (TV: The Green Death)
 * Detecting booby-trapped floor tiles. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
 * Breaking a hypnotic trance. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
 * As conventional screwdriver, on large, flathead screw. (TV: The Monster of Peladon)
 * Opening a refinery door. (TV: The Monster of Peladon)
 * Remotely detonating mines. (TV: Robot)
 * Cutting locks. (TV: Robot)
 * Undoing screws. (TV: The Ark in Space)
 * Repairing wires chewed by the Wirrn. (TV: The Ark in Space)
 * Fixing a circle of transmat refractors. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Breaching a force field. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Shutting down Styre's robot. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Sabotaging a two-way radio. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * Deactivating an energy loop opening up Sutekh's deflection barrier. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
 * Melting plastic vines. (TV: The Android Invasion)
 * Working on the TARDIS' thermal couplings. (TV: The Hand of Fear)
 * Shattering the Clynex. (COMIC: The Naked Flame)
 * Safe-cracking. (TV: The Sun Makers)
 * Creating a temporary hole in Gallifrey's force field above the Citadel. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
 * Using the correct sonic frequency to return the Fourth Doctor, Ernestina Stott and later, his scarf, to normal size. (AUDIO: The Dead Shoes)
 * Opening doors on Ribos. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
 * Unlocking multi-levered interlocks to the Ribos crown jewels casket (TV: The Ribos Operation)
 * Opening the door to the real Queen Xanxia's chamber. (TV: The Pirate Planet)
 * Freeing Romana I from her bonds on a prison ship in hyperspace. (TV: The Stones of Blood)
 * Blowing up a Dalek bomb. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
 * Unscrewing the Zero Room's hinges and assisting in constructing the Zero Cabinet. (TV: Castrovalva)
 * Disarming fusion bombs by reversing the polarity of the neutron-flow. (PROSE: Cold Fusion)
 * Creating a piercing loud noise to prevent security cameras from picking on the conversation between the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan. (TV: Four to Doomsday)
 * Opening a door to escape confinement. (TV: Four to Doomsday)
 * Reversing the magnetic field on Monopticons. (TV: Four to Doomsday)
 * Short-circuiting androids in conjunction with a pencil, the graphite acting as a conductive material for the screwdriver's power. (TV: Four to Doomsday)
 * As a component in a delta wave augmenter, to induce sleep. (TV: Kinda)
 * Activating various panels in a Dalek-Movellan war zone, and sealing off entrances to trap the Daleks. (TV: The Pilot)

Used by the Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor once carried an unspecified replacement model for the sonic screwdriver, but had to leave it tied to the side of a video camera in a dungeon cell in order for it to keep the visual feed disabled. (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair) He later carried another sonic model during his adventures with Crystal, Jason, and Zog. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

Uses

 * Disabling a video camera indefinitely. (PROSE: The Nightmare Fair)
 * Closing and sealing Dalek doors. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)
 * Repairing the TARDIS control console. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)
 * The Doctor attempted to use it to free the American Envoy from the Dalek laser wall, but this failed. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

The Seventh and Eighth Doctors' sonic screwdriver
The Seventh Doctor acquired a sonic screwdriver at an unspecified point of his life. Many contradictory accounts existed, including one which claimed he had acquired it at some point before meeting Bernice Summerfield, (AUDIO:  Love and War et al.) and another, which claimed he acquired it from himself on a parallel Earth where the species Homo Reptilicus had conquered the Earth and killed his third incarnation. (PROSE: Blood Heat, First Frontier) The Doctor himself claimed that he had only recently built one shortly before re-encountering the Monk, (PROSE: No Future) and that he received it as compensation after suing the Terileptils for criminal damage. (PROSE: GodEngine)

This model looked similar to the screwdriver used up until his fifth incarnation: it was silver with a brass trim ring in the lower grip and a handle that resembled that of the previous sonic screwdrivers', now with a flat base. Its upper section was able to undergo telescopic collapse for ease of carrying, and, at its top, it held an emitter with a silver ring and a red bullet-shaped crystal at its centre. (TV: Doctor Who) Once, while suffering from amnesia, the Doctor was able to operate this sonic screwdriver on instinct. (PROSE: EarthWorld) This version remained in the Eighth Doctor's use throughout his life, up until its destruction at the hands of a Cyber-Leader on Earth. (COMIC: The Flood)

The Eighth Doctor had resumed using this model by the end of his life during the Last Great Time War. It was the second and final model the Doctor used thus far that bore an emitter-ring head. (TV: The Night of the Doctor) The Eighth Doctor's other choice of a diode-tipped model would become the standard for his later incarnations. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, Rose, The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour, Deep Breath)

The Eighth Doctor once commented that he felt undressed without his sonic screwdriver. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal)

Uses

 * Opening the security gate to the Crook Marsham radio telescope. (AUDIO: Nightshade)
 * Scanning Crook Marsham's Palaeolithic quarry. (AUDIO: Nightshade)
 * Scanning energy from the Sentience. (AUDIO: Nightshade)
 * Hacking into System. (AUDIO: The Harvest)
 * Melting ice. (AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap)
 * Attempting to break out of a cell on board the Daedalus. (AUDIO: Dead to the World)
 * Breaking into Major Brant's library. (AUDIO: Excelis Decays)
 * Opening a service duct for Artaris' old Imperial Museum. (AUDIO: Excelis Decays)
 * Locking the casket containing the Master's remains. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Performing maintenance on new parts in the TARDIS console. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Opening the organic locks used by the Zygons. (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers)
 * Destroying a Red Dalek's brain (when placed directly against the Dalek's casing around its head). (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
 * Causing Dalek weapons to detonate. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
 * Repelling ghosts. (PROSE: Vanderdeken's Children)
 * Opening a door in a force field large enough for the Doctor and his companions to travel through. (PROSE: EarthWorld)
 * Opening the chest of the mobile nuclear weapon Fatboy. (PROSE: Eater of Wasps)
 * Decapitating the King of Beasts, leader of the Babewyn, through the symbolic power of the screwdriver over the King. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
 * Locking a bank vault from the inside. (PROSE: Trading Futures)
 * Temporarily disabling an electron bomb. (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows)
 * Subduing hostile dogs. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial)
 * Disrupting the control signal for floating magnetic discs. (PROSE: To the Slaughter)
 * Turning Cybermen against each other. (COMIC: The Flood)
 * Opening a bulk head door on a crashing spaceship. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)
 * Scanning for life signs. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)

Replacement on Ha'olam
During his imprisonment by INC on Ha'olam, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was confiscated. After his escape, he briefly used a replacement screwdriver resembling a slender metal rod with a crystal at its tip. (PROSE: Seeing I)

Uses

 * Making milkshakes. (PROSE: Seeing I)
 * Hacking into the Ubernet. (PROSE: Seeing I)

The Eighth Doctor's second screwdriver
Later in his eighth incarnation, the Doctor carried a sonic screwdriver with a wooden handle. It had a metallic tip with six prongs that nested a clear diode at the end, which glowed blue when activated. (AUDIO: The Great War) Its handle doubled as a torch. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) The Doctor claimed that he made this version of the sonic screwdriver to do more than open doors and blow up land mines. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks) He later made further modifications to the screwdriver. (AUDIO: Beachhead)

It was referred to as a pennywhistle by numerous World War I medics. (AUDIO: The Great War) The Doctor possessed it as early on as his travels with Charley Pollard, (AUDIO: The Light at the End) and was still using it in the early part of the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Natural Regression) He had returned to using his original model by the end of his life. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)

Uses

 * To locate the TARDIS, but instead opening a Vess forcefield. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
 * To hack into the reality orientation controls in a Vess weapons factory. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
 * Breaking the security lockdown in a Vess facility with the help of the Fourth Doctor's sonic screwdriver. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
 * Touching with the Fourth Doctor's sonic screwdriver to release enough temporal energy to force the door to the TARDIS to open. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
 * Disorienting a Rescue Operational Security Module. (AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness)
 * Raising the bulkheads between Romana II and the Matrix chamber. (AUDIO: Neverland)
 * Jamming motion-sensitive sensors long enough for the Doctor and his companions to get to safety. (AUDIO: Scaredy Cat)
 * Locking the TARDIS console room away from the rest of the ship until it could repair itself during a Hellion attack. (AUDIO: Absolution)
 * Tracking residual energy traces. (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was)
 * Reactivating a long-dormant telegraph machine. (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was)
 * Oscillating the atoms of wickerwork to weaken the structure. (AUDIO: Dead London)
 * Vibrating Molluscari from their shells by duplicating the precise frequency necessary. (AUDIO: Orbis)
 * Weakening a stone wall by weakening the molecular bonds between atoms. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells)
 * Fixing a train track. (AUDIO: The Great War)
 * To locate the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Fugitives)
 * Trying to shatter the walls of a prison. (AUDIO: Tangled Web)
 * Detecting a temporal intrusion. (AUDIO: X and the Daleks)
 * Being activated by Herbert Goring, allowing the Doctor to track the screwdriver with the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The White Room)
 * Breaking into the Ides Scientific Institute. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master)
 * Unlocking a freezer door slowly from the inside. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master)
 * Settings twelve and twenty could override security on a Ramossan spaceport. (AUDIO: The Reviled)
 * Cancelling an alarm. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
 * Tampering with a spaceship computer. (AUDIO: Masterplan)
 * Unlocking handcuffs. (AUDIO: The Monster of Montmartre)
 * Attempting to unscrew Gallifreyan bolts. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
 * Access information from a terminal. (AUDIO: The Satanic Mill)
 * To send the TARDIS to the Doctor's location. (AUDIO: The Satanic Mill)
 * To detect energy emissions. (AUDIO: Beachhead)
 * To detect tremors caused by the Gift. (AUDIO: The Sonomancer)
 * To hack into a lock with three million possible combinations. (AUDIO: The Sonomancer)
 * To access a Gallifreyan computer. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls)
 * To open a door. (AUDIO: How to Make a Killing in Time Travel)
 * To scan for animae particles. (COMIC: The Pictures of Josephine Day)
 * To use a satellite dish to communicate with the Spherions. (COMIC: Music of the Spherions)
 * Opening the back door to a theatre in Edinburgh. (COMIC: The Silvering)
 * Unlocking a cell door. (COMIC: The Silvering)
 * Destroying the Silversmith's mirrors. (COMIC: The Silvering)
 * As a torch. (COMIC: Briarwood)
 * To escape a cell on board a Bakri resurrection barge. (COMIC: A Matter of Life and Death)
 * As a torch when the Doctor visited Rontan 9. (PROSE: Natural Regression)
 * Fusing the lock of a metal door. (PROSE: Natural Regression)

The War Doctor's sonic screwdriver
By the end of his life, the War Doctor used a sonic screwdriver with a simple metallic handle and a red-light-emitting diode at the end. It appeared to be a further upgraded version of the Eighth Doctor's first sonic screwdriver, which he kept strapped in a bandoleer on his chest. It shared the same casing type as the screwdriver used by the Fourth Doctor, but had an extending diode head instead of an emitter head, and an additional piece added to the end of the handle that looked like a small red cap. In this way, much like the Doctor who used it and his TARDIS control room (which, also like the sonic, was primarily of a silver colour scheme, with red highlights), this sonic combined visual elements of both the classic and revived eras of the show, as its casing was more or less shared by all of the classic sonics, and having a light-emitting diode emitter and a kind of pommel at the end of the handle are characteristic of the revived sonics. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

After regenerating at the end of the Last Great Time War, the Doctor kept this model with him during the early adventures of his ninth incarnation. This version was destroyed when the Doctor rigged it to explode in order to seal a rift in interstital space. (AUDIO: The Bleeding Heart)

Uses

 * Summoning the TARDIS to materialise around him. (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds)
 * Summoning the TARDIS to materialise nearby. (AUDIO: The Heart of the Battle, A Thing of Guile)
 * Dismantling an Interstitial's possibility engine by removing its bolts. (PROSE: Engines of War)
 * Receiving homing signals from the TARDIS in the TARDIS Undercroft below the Citadel. (PROSE: Engines of War)
 * Implanting a permanent subroutine within the architecture of the sonic screwdriver's software that would begin the centuries-long calculation to disintegrate a door. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Activating the memory-erasing device in the Black Archive. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Creating a force field with two other screwdrivers to force back and destroy an attacking Time War Dalek. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Continuing a calculation to move Gallifrey into a pocket universe. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Scanning a corpse. (AUDIO: The Bleeding Heart)
 * Wiping security footage. (AUDIO: The Bleeding Heart)

The Ninth and Tenth Doctors' sonic screwdriver
After the destruction of his last model, the Ninth Doctor built himself a new sonic screwdriver. This one had a creamy light grey handle with a "cracked-porcelain" texture matching elements on his TARDIS console and rings around the roundels on the control room walls, silver metal at both the bottom of the handle and the top, and was capped off with a black pommel. Its emitter was blue and sat atop a silver metal section attached to a transparent tube containing black and red wires twisted around each other in the centre that was hidden inside the handle until extended by the slider on the side. The Doctor used this model far more frequently than his previous incarnations had done before. (TV: Rose, et al.) The Tenth Doctor also used this model, as he liked tinkering with technology to make devices he needed.

This version was burnt out by accident after the Tenth Doctor used it to modify an X-ray output to over 5000%, however, and he replaced it with a similar one with a flatter slider, two yellow wires in the tube instead of the black and red ones, and a greyer handle, (TV: Smith and Jones) though it reverted to its cream handle during his time with Queen Elizabeth (TV: The Day of the Doctor) and appeared to have a blue handle following his regeneration. (TV: The Eleventh Hour) The model underwent several changes in shape and colouration, some inadvertent. (COMIC: Laundro-Room of Doom) This version of the sonic screwdriver was also the first to be shown to have a direct connection to the Doctor's TARDIS (TV: Aliens of London) and could be used to override its functions. (TV: Utopia) The Tenth Doctor had this screwdriver on his person during his regeneration, but it was damaged repeatedly afterwards, leading to many malfunctions. Despite the damage, the Eleventh Doctor used it to overload technology in an attempt to alert the Atraxi to Prisoner Zero's location. This fried it into useless, charred metal, much to his growing annoyance and anger. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

Security

 * Opening a door. (TV: Aliens of London)
 * Freeing the Ninth Doctor from his manacles. (TV: The Long Game)
 * Unlocking handcuffs. (TV: The Doctor Dances, Planet of the Dead, The Eleventh Hour)
 * Locking and unlocking a hatch in Cybus Industries (TV: The Age of Steel)
 * Unlocking a taxi door and window. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Hacking into the H.C. Clements website. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Bypassing the key needed to access the secret basement in H.C. Clements. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Opening air-tight seals. (TV: Gridlock)
 * Unsuccessfully activating emergency by-pass switches. (TV: Gridlock)
 * Bypassing and turning off security systems. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Disabling security orbs. (COMIC: Wrath of the Warrior)
 * Trying unsuccessfully to hack into New New York's police communications to call for help. (TV: Gridlock)
 * Destroying a security camera. (TV: Bad Wolf, The Sound of Drums)
 * Opening and closing the Titanic's doors. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * Disabling emergency exit alarms and locks, but causing sparks as a result. (TV: Partners in Crime)
 * Controlling a cable cart; also locking it in a "sonic cage" to prevent anything but another sonic device from controlling it. (TV: Partners in Crime)
 * Breaking into a silo on the Ood-Sphere. (TV: Planet of the Ood)
 * Fusing a lock shut, forcing it to be broken down. (TV: Planet of the Ood)
 * Temporarily turning off lethal security beams. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Opening the casing of a cleaning robot. (COMIC: Carnage Zoo)
 * Opening bus doors. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * Accessing Bowie Base One's records on the Flood infection. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
 * Unlocking the door to Adelaide Brooke's house. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
 * Switching the Hesperus' power off. (TV: The End of Time)
 * Locking Prisoner Zero in the room it was hiding in. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

Medical

 * Acting as a medical scanner and diagnostic tool. (TV: The Empty Child)
 * Dislodging and reinserting teeth. (COMIC: The Lodger)
 * Partially reversing the Abzorbaloff's absorption of Ursula Blake. (TV: Love & Monsters)
 * Confusing the antibodies of a living planet. (COMIC: Lonely Planet)
 * Building a DNA scanning device. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan)
 * Scanning for fluctuating DNA, specifically that of Professor Lazarus. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)

Diagnostic

 * Detecting and stopping telepathic signals. (TV: Rose)
 * Scanning a life form for information, specifically Donna Noble. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Scanning the Eleventh Doctor to confirm his identity as a future incarnation (COMIC: Four Doctors)
 * Detecting heated water. (COMIC: The Halls of Sacrifice)
 * Scanning shadows for the presence of Vashta Nerada. (TV: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)
 * Checking Crusader 50's control console for faults. (TV: Midnight)
 * Scanning for Infostamps. (TV: The Next Doctor)
 * Scanning the Eleventh Doctor to identify if he was an imposter. (COMIC: Four Doctors)
 * Tracing distress signals. (COMIC: The Ghost Factory)
 * Scanning slime. (COMIC: Doomsilk)
 * Scanning the President of Earth for alien influence. (COMIC: Return of the Klytode)
 * Detecting and illuminating ultraviolet characters. (PROSE: The Game of Death)
 * Detecting the arrival of spacecraft. (PROSE: The Pictures of Emptiness)
 * Picking up traces of psychic spoor. (COMIC: Mortal Beloved)
 * Detecting time traces. (TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
 * Detecting the progress of the War Doctor's calculation in his iteration of the sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Scanning a crack in Amelia Pond's wall. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

Technology

 * Destroying the controls of a lift. (TV: Rose)
 * Establishing an interface with a computer. (TV: The End of the World)
 * Controlling a lift. (TV: World War Three)
 * Causing rain via atmospheric excitation. (COMIC: Death to the Doctor!)
 * Obtaining money from a cash machine. (TV: The Long Game)
 * Opening a panel to Satellite Five's mainframe. (TV: The Long Game)
 * Obtaining access to Satellite Five's core computer. (TV: The Long Game)
 * Charging from a battery. (TV: Father's Day)
 * Reversing teleport devices. (TV: Boom Town)
 * Destroying a television camera. (TV: Bad Wolf)
 * Dematerialising the TARDIS and initialising TARDIS processes from outside the craft. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
 * Blowing up a remote control Christmas tree. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * Re-establishing the time window's connection to a space ship in the future. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
 * De-activating a living graphite scribble. (TV: Fear Her)
 * Reversing an anti-gravity umbrella. (COMIC: Smart Bombs)
 * Detonating an explosive device. (TV: Doomsday)
 * Calling immediately a number in a phone box without the need of pressing number buttons. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Getting money from a cash machine, at both regular and extra-high rates of ejection. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Detonating the head of a roboform. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Searching a phone for an app or a feature. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Scanning through hospital records, specifically to find any patient suffering from strange symptoms (an alien in disguise). (TV: Smith and Jones)
 * Partially activating ventilation air ducts. (TV: Gridlock)
 * Sending out a signal to tell the Daleks where he was. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
 * Reversing the polarity of Lazarus' machine, sending an energy pulse out to knock Lazarus unconscious and revert him to human form. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Disabling robotic flies. (COMIC: Exhausting Evil)
 * Modifying hearing aids. (COMIC: The Screaming Prison)
 * Reversing teleport feeds. (COMIC: Warriors' Revenge)
 * Giving mobile phones the ability to call across time and space. (TV: 42, Planet of the Dead, The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Completing the propulsion system for the ship destined for Utopia (TV: Utopia)
 * Fusing the TARDIS' navigational coordinates, allowing only travel between its current position and the previous one. The fusion was imperfect; at least 18 months before or after take-off were allowed as destinations. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
 * Fixing and upgrading a decades-broken vortex manipulator. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
 * Rewiring a television/portrait to show ship's systems. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * Looping temporal energy of a fraxis pod back into a zygma drive. (COMIC: Blooms of Doom!)
 * Shattering robot assassins. (COMIC: A Suitable Showdown)
 * Disabling a Sontaran teleport. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)
 * Unsuccessfully trying to bypass the Sontarans' control of the ATMOS, forcing the Doctor to use reverse-psychology with the machine to avoid drowning. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)
 * Changing the destination of a Sontaran teleport. (TV: The Poison Sky)
 * Opening a broadcast channel on a Sontaran ship in order to communicate (TV: The Poison Sky)
 * Changing the "channel" on a broadcast when the Sontarans began chanting. (TV: The Poison Sky)
 * Building a terraforming device to ignite the poisonous clouds. (TV: The Poison Sky)
 * Accessing hidden areas on a holographic map. (TV: The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Unintentionally showing a hologram of Donna Noble. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
 * Tinting a helmet visor and increasing the mesh density of a spacesuit. (TV: Forest of the Dead)
 * Disabling the Crusader 50's entertainment system. (TV: Midnight)
 * Modifying a gravity converter. (COMIC: Skydive!)
 * Disabling a Cyrronak robot. (COMIC: Highway Robbery)
 * Cancelling out a phonic blast. (COMIC: We Will Rock You)
 * Repairing an overloading distribution box. (PROSE: The Graves of Mordane)
 * Downloading a journal. (PROSE: The Colour of Darkness)
 * Remotely controlling environmental controls. (PROSE: The Game of Death)
 * Overriding Gadget's controller and increasing the robot's speed to the point where it left trails of flames behind. (TV: The Waters of Mars)
 * Activating the memory-erasing device in the Black Archive. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Disabling a shimmer. (TV: The End of Time)
 * Helping repair the Hesperus. (TV: The End of Time)
 * Remotely controlling the TARDIS to change its course, saving the Doctor and his vessel the fate of colliding into Big Ben. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Opening a "crack in space-time". (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Switching a radio between several international channels to determine that the Atraxi were broadcasting their warning for Prisoner Zero to surrender or be destroyed along with the "human residence" to the entire Earth. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Trying to set off multiple technological resources on Earth to draw the attention of the Atraxi; however, due to the damage it had sustained from Prisoner Zero and continued abuse, this action overtaxed the screwdriver and caused its components to fail, which ultimately led to it burning up and exploding with a large burst of sparks. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)

Amplification

 * Setting up a resonation pattern in concrete. (TV: The Doctor Dances)
 * Destroying the Robot Santas with sound (used in conjunction with a professional sound system). (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Increasing the radiation output of a device such as an x-ray scanner; this action burned out the screwdriver. (TV: Smith and Jones)
 * Producing hypersonic sound waves which led to the death of the mutated Richard Lazarus, in conjunction with a pipe organ. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Used with Miss Foster's sonic pen to create an ultra-high frequency. (TV: Partners in Crime)

Utility

 * Corroding thin metal (e.g. barbed wire) so that it crumbled into rust. (TV: The Doctor Dances)
 * Re-connecting barbed wire. (TV: The Doctor Dances)
 * Igniting swamp gas. (COMIC: The Hunt of Doom)
 * Stopping the emergence of Mirrorlings from mirrors. (COMIC: Mirror Image)
 * Lighting a candle. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace)
 * Cutting rope. (TV: The Age of Steel)
 * Illuminating Rose Tyler. (COMIC: Warfreekz!)
 * Partially cracking glass so it could be smashed with the tiniest press of a finger. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
 * Cutting a spider web. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Overloading Cybermen. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen)
 * Crashing an aircar. (COMIC: Time of the Cybermen)
 * Trying to strip off pieces of Dalekanium. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
 * Lighting a Bunsen burner from a distance. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
 * Melting hardened asphalt into heated tarmac, and reversing the process, so as to catch animals in a road. (PROSE: The Last Dodo)
 * Sinking a ship. (COMIC: Second Wave)
 * Resonating a floor to destroy it, via crystal gems. (COMIC: Operation Lock-up)
 * Melting chocolate by increasing the resonance frequency of a torch. (COMIC: Crimes and Punishment)
 * As a soldering iron to make perception filters using TARDIS keys. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
 * Uncorking a champagne bottle. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * Knocking over stone tablets. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)
 * Cutting rope holding Donna to a sacrificial altar. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii)
 * Putting horseshoes onto horses. (AUDIO: Death and the Queen)
 * Creating a stasis beam. (COMIC: School of the Dead)
 * Teleporting a Graske to the other side of the universe. (TV: Music of the Spheres)
 * Teleporting onto a Nim spacecraft. (COMIC: The Day the Earth Was Sold, The King of Earth)
 * As a sonic toothbrush. (COMIC: The Continuity Cap)
 * Shattering ice. (COMIC: Arctic Eclipse)
 * Blowing up a fire hydrant. (COMIC: Creature Feature)
 * Atmospheric excitation to cause rain. (COMIC: Mudshock)
 * Tickling a lion with sonic waves. (PROSE: The Slitheen Excursion)
 * Tinting the Doctor's glasses, effectively making them sunglasses. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * Stopping and winding up a winch. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * Incapacitating a Gizou. (COMIC: Fugitive)
 * Making toast and butter. (AUDIO: Dead Air)
 * As an actual screwdriver, without touching the screws. (TV: Dreamland, The Doctor's Daughter)
 * Combining power with the Eleventh and War Doctors' sonic screwdrivers to create a sonic force to blast back and destroy an attacking Dalek in the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

The Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors' sonic screwdriver
After the loss of the previous sonic screwdriver, the TARDIS gifted the Doctor with a new model. Differing radically from the last, with its extendible "claws" and green crystalline emitter resembling the inner structure of the TARDIS's new time rotor, it also had copper plating similar to the new control room. (TV: The Eleventh Hour) A psychic interface allowed its user to point it at a target and think of the function they wanted. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler, Death in Heaven) Having been mentioned to be more than sonic, (TV: Night Terrors) this screwdriver also shot beams of green energy in the shape of sonic waves. (TV: Day of the Moon, Closing Time) By at least the time of the Doctor's thirteenth regeneration, it had a voice-activation feature, which the Doctor forgot about when he needed it. (TV: Deep Breath) It had a charge that could last centuries; it once lasted 300 years before the Doctor could charge it in the TARDIS. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

Retaining ineffectiveness against wood, it also didn't work against Peg Dolls (TV: Night Terrors) or the Wooden King and Queen. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe) The Doctor considered it embarrassing and said that "I need to invent a setting for wood." (TV: Night Terrors) In similar situations, he yelled at it in panic; "Aliens made of wood, you know this was always going to happen!", "Yes, I know it's wood. Get over it!" (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe) Though aware of this flaw, he was still able to successfully bluff a Wooden Cyberman into destroying itself. (TV: The Time of the Doctor) He also once defended this weakness, saying "Oi! Don't diss the sonic!" (TV: The Hungry Earth) At some point it had an anti-freeze setting. (TV: The Snowmen) This screwdriver was also shown to have a "red setting", (TV: Cold War) similar to River's sonic screwdriver.

This model was lost and replaced by the Doctor repeatedly, having been bitten in half by a sky shark and left behind, (TV: A Christmas Carol) left with the Ganger Doctor, (TV: The Rebel Flesh) destroyed by Danny Fisher (COMIC: The Blood of Azrael) and, in one instance, simply burnt out due to overuse. In the latter instance, a replacement was given to him by Santa Claus. (COMIC: Silent Knight) One of the Twelfth Doctor's sonic screwdrivers was incinerated by the Governor when he was admitted into the Prison. Clara Oswald attempted to give him a new one disguised as a large candle in a birthday cake, but the Governor refused to give the cake to the Doctor. To circumvent this, the Doctor created a sonic spoon in the interim for the time being. (PROSE: The Blood Cell) Ultimately, he left one of his screwdrivers with Davros after abandoning him as a child. Davros had it in his possession for many years after, until Colony Sarff returned it to the Doctor. By this point, it was no longer of any real use to him, as it had become heavily damaged and inoperable, visibly weather-beaten from exposure to war and conflict, and with one of the clawed prongs broken off. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar)

The Doctor eventually declared that he was "over" sonic screwdrivers, saying that they "spoil the line of your jacket". He replaced the screwdriver with a pair of sonic sunglasses. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)

However, he did not keep this promise, as he used this sonic screwdriver several times afterwards. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death, The Fourth Wall)

When the Eleventh Doctor met the Tenth Doctor in England, 1562, upon the latter realising that the former was a future incarnation of himself, they both got out their sonic screwdrivers. The Eleventh Doctor immediately showed off how much bigger his was, to which the Tenth Doctor claimed that his future incarnation was compensating, remarking that "regeneration, it's a lottery." (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Security

 * Trying (unsuccessfully) to open the exit back into Starship UK. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * Opening the chest plate of an android's controls. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
 * Opening the entrance hatch of a spaceship. (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Breaking open padlocks. (TV: The Hungry Earth)
 * Locking the TARDIS doors. (TV: Cold Blood, The Doctor's Wife)
 * Opening the gate to the London Underground. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Opening up a discarded Dalek dome. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Bypassing Dalek security seals. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Opening up control panels in Kaalann. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Closing and locking a door to a Cyber-conversion room. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Unlocking Cyber-conversion unit manacles. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Opening an electronic door. (GAME: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
 * Opening the door to a time ship. (TV: The Lodger)
 * To open, close and lock the Pandorica. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * Unlocking the door to Melody's room. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Unlocking Amy's restraints. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Locking and failing to unlock the TARDIS. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
 * Unlocking a grating. (TV: The Almost People)
 * Locking a grating into place. (TV: The Almost People)
 * Closing doors inside a Cyber Ship. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Opening doors on Demons Run. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Opening a fake door. (TV: The God Complex)
 * Sealing the trapdoor that Gantok fell down, out of fear of the carnivorous skulls. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Unlocking Dalek prisoner restraints. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
 * Turning off the defence system of Kahler-Jex' ship. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
 * Locking a door in the Great Intelligence Institute office. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Stripping away the disguise around the Great Intelligence's voice. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Unlocking the door of the Maitland home. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * Unlocking the door of an aeroplane's cockpit. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * Opening the secret entrance to the Doctor's tomb. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * Disabling a Sontaran invisibility field to leave two Sontarans invading the town of Christmas defenceless against the Papal Mainframe. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Unlocking restraints around Clara and the Doctor. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * Opening a Dalek drainage hole. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Unlocking the seal to a space capsule door. (TV: Listen)
 * Opening air vents. (TV: Time Heist)
 * Shutting an automatic door on the Pollyanna. (COMIC: The Eye of Torment)
 * Opening a door on the Pollyanna. (COMIC: The Eye of Torment)
 * Fusing a lock. (COMIC: The Eye of Torment)
 * Opening a panel which released cooling gases, causing harm to Rann-Korr. (COMIC: Terrorformer)
 * Unlocking the door of 3W. (TV: Dark Water)
 * Opening and closing the inner and outer airlock of a spaceship. (COMIC: Spirits of the Jungle)

Medical

 * Forcing a star whale to regurgitate by overloading its chaemo-receptors. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * Simultaneously healing and analysing wounds. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Scanning lifeforms to determine how integrated into a host body they are. (TV: Amy's Choice)
 * Scanning piles of dust for traces of people. (TV: Amy's Choice)
 * Scanning an infection. (TV: Cold Blood)
 * Unwittingly pleasing a Krafayis. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * Stunning the Silence. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Confirming how long Idris's body has before the TARDIS Matrix causes it to die. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
 * Scanning the Flesh. (TV: The Rebel Flesh)
 * Detecting differences between Gangers and humans. (TV: The Almost People)
 * Dissolving Gangers. (TV: The Almost People)
 * Detecting if a person was fatally wounded. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Stunning the Rutan Lady Winters. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
 * Scanning the deceased to determine what caused death with no success. (TV: The God Complex)
 * Scanning for life signs. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Scanning pieces of what used to be the Ice Governess. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Stripping away the disguise of the Great Intelligence. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Melting the Ice Governess using the new anti-freeze setting. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Trying but failing to melt the Ice Governess again once she came back. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Stripping away the disguise of a Spoonhead. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * Scanning the people in an aeroplane to find out that they were unconscious. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
 * Removing a dream crab from Clara Oswald's face by electrifying its nerve centres. (TV: Last Christmas)

Diagnostic

 * Scanning Starship UK's engine room to determine that there was no actual engine powering the spaceship. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * Scanning voting booth for memory erasing function. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * Scanning Father Octavian's computer. (TV: The Time of Angels)
 * Determining the nature of the cracks throughout time and space, which was "extremely very not good." (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Scanning for heat signatures. (TV: Cold Blood)
 * Scanning Stonehenge. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Helping trace who received the Pandorica's summons. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Scanning the Pandorica. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Scanning with a parabolic satellite dish for an exploding TARDIS. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * Scanning a vortex manipulator to see if it was wired into something. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * Confirming the isomorphic nature of a control panel. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
 * Scanning boxes of stolen NASA equipment to confirm that they are just what they look like. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * Scanning a spacesuit. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Confirming if a nano-recorder was on telepathic transmission or a replay. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Confirming the nature of an alien life-support system. (TV: The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * Scanning for Hypercube transmissions to locate their source. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
 * Scanning for monsters and how powerful they were. (TV: Night Terrors)
 * Scanning dimensional lesions. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
 * Detecting electrical interference. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Confirming increased sulphur emissions. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Scanning a Dalek's database for information, specifically anything that his oldest enemies knew about the Silence. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Scanning a Headless Monk head box to confirm its contents. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Scanning Albert Einstein's liquid to determine if it was the ingredient he thought he needed to make a time machine. (TV: Death Is the Only Answer)
 * Scanning the life-force transference crown. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
 * Detecting a magnetic field. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
 * Scanning a load of rocks and wood, determining that they were just that. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
 * Scanning the electric lights in Mercy to determine how far advanced the technology was. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
 * Scanning a Weeping Angel. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * Scanning a frozen pond. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Scanning the melted Ice Governess to make sure she was gone and draining through the carpet. (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Scanning a Cybermite. (TV: Nightmare in Silver)
 * Scanning the Doctor's time stream. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * Detecting the progress of the War Doctor's calculation in his iteration of the sonic screwdriver. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * A heat sensor to discover the hiding place of the Mara. (PROSE: The Dreaming)
 * Scanning Dalek memory technology. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Scanning a lock of hair. (TV: Robot of Sherwood)
 * Scanning an apple. (TV: Robot of Sherwood)
 * Scanning Bank of Karabraxos technology. (TV: Time Heist)
 * Tracing the Skovox Blitzer. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * Calculating how long before the Skovox Blitzer would return. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * Scanning a cocoon. (TV: Kill the Moon)
 * Scanning a spider germ. (TV: Kill the Moon)
 * Scanning the Excelsior Life Extender. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express)
 * Scanning for traces of the Boneless. (TV: Flatline)
 * Scanning trees. (TV: In the Forest of the Night)
 * Scanning Clara Oswald. (TV: Dark Water)

Technology

 * Isolating the lighting so that the Weeping Angels could not drain the power. (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Redirecting all the power to the doors in order to open them. (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Uploading proximity-alerting software to Amy's communicator. (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Detecting the location of lights. (TV: Amy's Choice)
 * Exploding lightbulbs. (TV: Amy's Choice)
 * Hacking into computer records. (TV: The Hungry Earth)
 * Activating bio-programmed soil. (TV: The Hungry Earth)
 * Disabling Silurian weapons. (TV: Cold Blood)
 * Accessing the Visualiser eye and repowering it. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Tampering with the Dalek Emperor's casing. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Activating a Dalek console trap. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Constructing a Dalek Vision Disruptor. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
 * Fixing platform lift control panels. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Disassembling a Chronon Blocker. (GAME: TARDIS)
 * Activating emergency light switches. (GAME: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
 * Turning on the lights inside a generator. (GAME: Shadows of the Vashta Nerada)
 * Setting the TARDIS on its "adventure setting". (TV: Good as Gold)
 * Unsuccessfully attempting to free Sophie's hand from the time ship console. (TV: The Lodger)
 * Changing a hologram between its different forms. (TV: The Lodger)
 * To send a signal through to Amy's communicator to help guide her through a forest. (TV: Flesh and Stone)
 * Scrambling a Cyberarm's circuits. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Giving orders to androids. (PROSE: The War of Art)
 * To reconfigure the binaries in the TARDIS. (GAME: Evacuation Earth)
 * Disabling a force field. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Hailing the Eleventh Doctor's sonic cane. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * Disabling privileges from the Teselecta's crew. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * Activating George's toys. (TV: Night Terrors)
 * Detaching the view glass from the visitation facility. (TV: The Girl Who Waited)
 * Augmenting the view glass to work disconnected. (TV: The Girl Who Waited)
 * Locking on to Amy's timestream. (TV: The Girl Who Waited)
 * Switching off CCTV monitors. (TV: The God Complex)
 * Repairing and activating a lift. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Fusing the controls of a Cyberman teleporter. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Overloading/imploding a Cybermat; unfortunately wiping its memory in the process. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Repairing the controls of a Cyberman teleporter and using it. (TV: Closing Time)
 * Taking apart a Supreme Dalek. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Freezing the Teselecta in place; this caused sparks to fly inside of it. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
 * Reprogramming Proto-Daleks to recognise Daleks as enemies. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
 * Used to help with rewiring the TARDIS; he told Lilly it was because the light in his "wardrobe" wasn't working, claiming it was the reason he dressed as he did. (TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
 * Deleting an answering machine message from the phone the message was made from. (WC: Pond Life)
 * Activating the reverse in a badly damaged, insane Dalek's casing to send it into other insane Daleks (as it was going to self-destruct). (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
 * Taking apart the device emitting the Silurian Ark's signal, and activating it upon placing it in Solomon's ship. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
 * Disabling the android the Shakri put on Earth to control the Shakri cubes. (TV: The Power of Three)
 * Reversing the Shakri's programming of the cubes to jump-start the hearts of the humans they previously stopped. (TV: The Power of Three)
 * Reversing a friction amper. (COMIC: The Cornucopia Caper)
 * Overloading a light bulb, creating a blinding light, to act as a distraction to escape the Angels. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * Getting rid of the shield that was blocking the Ice Governess and putting a new one behind the Doctor and Clara (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Seemingly adding an extra layer of super-dense water vapour to keep the Ice Governess "trapped for the moment" (TV: The Snowmen)
 * Shattering a glass window (TV: The Bells of Saint John, Flatline)
 * Turning off the TARDIS anti-grav. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * Activating the memory-erasing device in the Black Archive. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Ringing the bell in Christmas' Clock Tower. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Bluffing a wooden Cyberman into thinking that he sent a signal to its flamethrower so it would reverse its direction as soon as it tried to fire. Though a Truth Field was active, the Cyberman was not told the screwdriver couldn't affect wood. It pointed its weapon backwards, thinking it would reset, and killed itself by accident. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Sealing a damage crack within a Dalek. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Activating a holographic scanner. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * Leading the Skovox Blitzer to Coal Hill School. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * Attracting the attention of the Skovox Blitzer with pulses of helicon energy. (TV: The Caretaker)
 * Transferring a video phone message to a screen monitor. (TV: Kill the Moon)
 * Activating and altering a 3D projection. (TV: Kill the Moon)
 * Altering a phone so it would work wireless. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express)
 * Changing a train signal from green to red. (TV: Flatline)
 * Detecting the location of a mobile phone. (TV: In the Forest of the Night)
 * Activating an emotional inhibitor. (TV: Death in Heaven)
 * Using energy waves from android weapons to recharge a teleport bracelet. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)

Amplification

 * Amplifying an electrical beam. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * To increase a signal's strength. (TV: The Time of Angels)
 * Making the voice of a star whale audible to the human ear. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * Displaying energy barricades which are usually invisible to the naked eye. (TV: The Hungry Earth)
 * Transmitting Abigail's singing from one broken segment to the other to open the cloud belt. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
 * Amplifying Amy's sonic probe. (TV: The Girl Who Waited)
 * Creating a high pitched noise to get attention. (TV: The God Complex)
 * As a microphone. (TV: The God Complex)
 * Creating a sound loud enough to distract Kahler-Tek to allow the Doctor's escape. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
 * Amplifying the sound of the Time Lords calling out "Doctor who?" to the Daleks to remind them how easy it would be to answer their call and the difficulty it would take to kill him if he could live for ages. Also bouncing sonic waves of the bell in the clock tower on Trenzalore to mark the coming of war. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Amplifying the sound wave produced by an Ice Warrior made sonic cannon. (PROSE: Let it Snow)
 * Creating localised gravity to hold the entities which surrounded Maebh Arden. (TV: In the Forest of the Night)
 * Creating an acoustic corridor to allow communication from 50 feet away. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)

Other

 * As a torch with blue light. (TV: The Beast Below, Closing Time, The Angels Take Manhattan)
 * Blocking out the effects of perception filters. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Giving a Cybermat a "Cyber-Migraine". (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Distracting Cybermats. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Heating water and ice. (GAME: Blood of the Cybermen)
 * Destroying a Weeping Angel. (TV: Good as Gold)
 * Lighting flaming torches. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Heating up a teapot. (PROSE: Snowfall)
 * As a lure to attract a sky fish. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
 * Attempting self-reconstruction via signalling its other half; it failed at this and was left behind by the Doctor to be replaced by a similar sonic screwdriver. (TV: A Christmas Carol)
 * Protecting two versions of Rory Williams from falling victim to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (PROSE: Touched by an Angel)
 * Damaging a Cyber Ship. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Disarming Melody Pond. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * Igniting a cannon. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
 * Destroying the Star of Solitude. (COMIC: The Cornucopia Caper)
 * Opens and closing Dalek Transmat portals. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
 * Holding a heavy door with an acoustic lock open in the pyramid of the rings of Akhaten. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
 * Holding back the Vigil. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
 * Tracking the location of Grand Marshall Skaldak as he sneaked around out of his armour. (TV: Cold War)
 * Receiving a signal from the TARDIS indicating that it had returned and indicating its location. (TV: Cold War)
 * Enhancing the power of an arsenal of bombs. (TV: Cold War)
 * Relaxing the grip from someone's hand. (PROSE: Shroud of Sorrow)
 * Combining power with the Tenth Doctor and War Doctor's sonic screwdrivers to create a sonic force to blast back and destroy an attacking Dalek in the Time War. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * Used for centuries as a weapon against his greatest enemies during the Siege of Trenzalore. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Disconnecting a horse's reins. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * Tracking a radiation signal. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Blowing up an archery target. (TV: Robot of Sherwood)
 * Driving off "skunkeys" which were attacking Clara. (COMIC: Terrorformer)
 * Sending the Boneless back to their dimension. (TV: Flatline)
 * Granting a football referee's glasses the ability to watch every football game in the galaxy. (COMIC: Bow-ties for Goal Posts)
 * Connecting to the Doctor's Bookface account and projecting its posts. (COMIC: Timeliney Wimey)
 * Creating a noise deafening to Sea Devils. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death)

The Twelfth Doctor's second screwdriver
After spending a period of time using a combination of sonic sunglasses and his green-emitter sonic screwdriver, (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death) the Twelfth Doctor was gifted a new model by the TARDIS.

While one account showed him gaining it after he had found Gallifrey at the end of the universe, (TV: Hell Bent) another account depicted him using it whilst travelling with Clara Oswald. (COMIC: The Day at the Doctors)

This new model had a very mechanical and complicated-looking, TARDIS blue, metal handle with multiple emitters, once again resembling the inner structure of the time rotor itself. The emitter was once again blue in colour, and the ring of emitters could all light up in a circling motion when activated. (TV: Hell Bent) He continued to use his sonic sunglasses as well, thus giving him two choices of sonic instruments. (TV: The Husbands of River Song, Extremis)

While it usually emitted a blue light, this screwdriver could also glow red (COMIC: Robo Rampage) or green. (COMIC: Gallery, TV: For Tonight We Might Die) It was still ineffectual against wood. (TV: Empress of Mars)

The Doctor sometimes attached this screwdriver to his guitar so that he could use both at the same time. (COMIC: The Pestilent Heart)

When the Doctor was stuck in 1972, the screwdriver "ran out of juice" and the Doctor was unable to charge it because he was without his TARDIS. (COMIC: Moving In)

Security

 * Unlocking the front door of Idra Panatar's house. (COMIC: The Twist)
 * Opening a secret bookcase door in Panatar's house. (COMIC: The Twist)
 * Unlocking an alleyway entrance into the London Underground. (COMIC: The Pestilent Heart)
 * Opening a window. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * Opening and closing a bridge door on a spaceship. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * Keeping the security features on the vault up-to-date. (TV: The Pilot)
 * Closing a door on a space station. (TV: Oxygen)

Diagnostic

 * Detecting temporal distortions. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Showdown)
 * Scanning for life readings. (COMIC: Gallery)
 * Following an alien signal. (COMIC: The Pestilent Heart)
 * Diagnosing an alien disease in Lloyd Collins. (COMIC: The Pestilent Heart)
 * Scanning April MacLean to confirm that her heart was being shared by Corakinus. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Scanning Grant to confirm he had swallowed an alien gemstone. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * Scanning the Vardy microbots to learn of their function. (TV: Smile)
 * Scanning the doors in a space station. (TV: Oxygen, World Enough and Time)
 * Scan and discover the access code to an air tight door, although it was unable to physically input the combination directly. (TV: The Pyramid at the End of the World)
 * Scanning the Glass avatar of Bill Potts, determining the memories as real. However, it was not as accurate when diagnosing the Testimony, the Doctor finding it better to simply use his eyes. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

Technology

 * Using the power cell of the Harmony and Redemption to push its thrusters. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
 * Repairing a damaged time ship. (COMIC: Ghosts of the Seas)
 * Disassembling K2. (COMIC: Robo Rampage)
 * Activating Charles Abbott's Incredulitas 4 pen to teleport him into the writer's block. (COMIC: Shock Horror)
 * Scanning the control panels of a spaceship. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * Activating lights projectors. (TV: Oxygen, World Enough and Time) Likewise, it could also turn them off. (TV: Extremis)
 * Reversing and erasing the command programmes of the Vardy microbots, causing them to forget their original directives. (TV: Smile)
 * Transmitting a signal to redirect the detonator for explosives. (TV: Thin Ice)
 * Frying the circuits of a smartsuit, albeit being broken itself in the process. (TV: Oxygen)

Utility

 * Removing a paint can's lid. (COMIC: Gallery)
 * Closing a tear in space-time. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Combine with Missy's sonic umbrella to successfully create a force field strong enough to delay a fully evolved Cybermen long enough for Bill's cybernetic energy blast and the Master's Laser screwdriver to disable it. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

Other

 * Blowing up a school. (PROSE: Haunted)
 * Temporarily stunning an alien. (COMIC: Gallery)
 * Defending himself against Yeti. (COMIC: The Day at the Doctors)
 * Increasing the voltage of the lights at Coal Hill Academy to break the solid form of Corakinus and the Shadow Kin (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Zapping a gun out of Brock's hand. (TV: The Return of Doctor Mysterio)
 * Dissipating the Smoke's particles. (COMIC: Ghost Stories)
 * It can create a buzzing sound to attract attention and act as a torch, (TV: Knock Knock) even under water. (TV: Thin Ice)
 * The head can be removed to reveal a red highlighter pen which the Doctor can use to write with. (TV: World Enough and Time)
 * Could act as a communicator with Nardole and download the software from Nardole's computer, enabling it to incinerate and blast numerous types of Cybermen and ignite the entirety of Floor 0507. (TV: The Doctor Falls)

The sonic screwdriver prop

 * The sonic screwdriver was retired during the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation, as it was felt that it had been overused. It was absent for the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's eras, except in the TV Movie, in which the Seventh Doctor used it to lock the Master's remains away. The Eighth Doctor recovered it at the end of the film. After appearing in many Seventh and Eighth Doctor audio adventures from Big Finish Productions, the tool was reintroduced with the Ninth Doctor and has become the show's most frequently used gadget besides the TARDIS itself.
 * The screwdriver was given a rest once more in series 9, only appearing in The Magician's Apprentice, and a new version was introduced in the last episode Hell Bent. It was replaced by sonic sunglasses for that entire season.
 * For unexplained reasons, the Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver had a green casing in The Infinite Quest.
 * During early production of series 1 (2005), the production crew decided to switch from their original prop to one based on the toy sonic screwdriver because the first prop was prone to falling apart. The production team secured moulds of the toy replica to make a more reliable prop for the next season.
 * There are two main versions of the Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver — one which has a slide feature with button, and one which does not slide and has a fixed button. The two prop types varied each episode.
 * The War Doctor's sonic screwdriver prop was created by modifying a Fourth Doctor's sonic screwdriver replica toy.
 * When the Doctor handles the screwdriver, the clinking noises produced (when he throws and catches it) are created by repeating the motions with a corkscrew, the handles of which bump against the casing to produce the required noise. These noises are dubbed over the footage.
 * Sometimes the production team use the Character options toy to replace the actual prop. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten)

Concept art

 * Early conceptual art of the modern era sonic screwdriver features a different "tube" section. Notes refer to "glowing organic circuitry" and a movable ball-joint on the emitter to allow use around corners and in tight spaces. Instead of the "glowing circuitry," the actual prop and toy reproductions featured a black "swivel" like a simple helix. When given a personal copy of the concept art, David Tennant himself commented on the lack of the swivelling emitter.
 * Another early piece of concept art, similar to a simple Bitmap drawing, reveals that the black "cap" at the reverse end of the sonic screwdriver was intended to be an opening set of "feet," allowing the sonic screwdriver to plug into a section of the TARDIS console. This feature was also dropped from the eventual prop model.
 * Dan Walker redesigned the sonic screwdriver, devising how it looks when used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. "We hit upon the idea of spark plugs, which in themselves are very iconic," Walker stated. "Initially, we started off quite techy, with retractable elements that would interface with an unlimited number of devices." Despite his work on redesigning the device, Walker wasn't allowed to take one of the sonic screwdriver props home with him. (ImageFX magazine, October 2008, pp. 63 & 64)

Sonic screwdriver toy

 * A toy of the Eleventh Doctor's version was seen in "Light Echoes", an edition of "The Sky at Night" broadcast on BBC4 on Wednesday 5th October 2010. The screwdriver was (jokingly) used to scan a part of the LOFAR radio telescope, then under construction in Chilbolton, Hampshire, UK.
 * The Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver toy has a total of four sound effects, two of which alternate with every other button press. The third is activated by pressing twice and holding on the third button push. The fourth is activated with three presses and a hold on the fourth push. However, in some models of the toy, over-use of the hidden sound effects causes the sound functions to eventually break, leaving only the LED functional.
 * The customiseable toy sonic screwdriver set featuring three screwdrivers with interchangeable parts can produce up to eight sound effects: the first two are the basic screwdriver sound, with slightly different pitches, and alternate each time the button is pressed. The other six effects are achieved in a similar manner to those of the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver toy, and are accompanied by a flashing lights instead of a constant light.
 * Since the War Doctor's sonic screwdriver prop was created by modifying a toy replica, the toy version that was subsequently produced is screen accurate.

Attack of the Graske

 * In NOTVALID: Attack of the Graske, the Tenth Doctor appears to break the fourth wall by noting the player at home's been watching his adventures. Later, he points the sonic screwdriver at the television screen, transferring its powers to the player's digital remote control. This, along with having the player choose multiple endings to this game, disqualifies it as a valid source on this wiki.

Other matters

 * In the original script for The Eleventh Hour, the Doctor referred to his screwdriver as "Level 4000" technology.
 * Scientists at the University of Dundee invented a device which turns objects with ultrasonic waves, an invention which has been described as a real-world version of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
 * 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.