Sonic screwdriver

The sonic screwdriver is a versatile tool and defensive weapon first used by the Doctor in his second incarnation.

Technology and Functions
The sonic screwdriver is apparently the product of Gallifreyan technology since other Time Lords (i.e. Romana) used the device and understood it enough to construct their own versions of it. The name of the device itself suggests that it functions using soundwaves, although the actual workings of the device have never been explained.

A crystal similar to Metebelis Crystal sought after by the Eight Legs of Metebelis III was used in the Mark VI sonic screwdriver. (IDW: The Forgotten)

The screwdriver also seems to have a multitude of settings, along with different versions of settings, as he tells Rose to use "setting 15B" to help him triangulate the source of the ghosts (DW: Army of Ghosts) and it is said to have a setting 85. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment). The Doctor tells Rose to use setting 2428D to re-attach barbed wire, suggesting that the screwdriver (at least the Mark V screwdriver) has at least this many functions. (DW: The Doctor Dances)

The different versions of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers have exhibited different capabilities and uses, such as the interception of signals ranging from transmat beams to conscious thought; medical diagnostics and repair of organic parts; cutting, but also re-attaching together materials such as barbed wire; operating Earth machinery such as computers and even cash machines (at regular and high eject speeds); creating a spark to light a candle; and, on the rare occasion, driving screws without touching them. Although it is primarily a tool, it can also be used as a defensive weapon, such as when the Tenth Doctor put it in a sound board to destroy the Robot Santas. (DW: The Runaway Bride) However, according to the Tenth Doctor, the device cannot be used to wound, maim or kill living things. (DW: Doomsday) It can still be used to destroy non-living objects or mechanisms or place living creatures in circumstances where they might die, if the situation requires.

The sonic screwdriver needed to be recharged, (NSA: The Monsters Inside) which was likely done by the TARDIS (DW: Aliens of London, The Eleventh Hour)

Sonic screwdrivers and similar technology cannot unlock a deadlock seal (DW: School Reunion); one of few exceptions is Miss Foster's sonic pen, which was able to open the deadlock seals on and within the Adipose Industries building when the Doctor's sonic screwdriver could not. (DW: Partners in Crime) Some or all versions may be ineffective against wood, or in the presence of some models of hairdryers. (DW: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead,The Hungry Earth, PDA: Catastrophea)

Mark I
A small, simple device similar to a penlight, first used by the Doctor in his first (MA: Venusian Lullaby) and second incarnations (DW: Fury from the Deep).

Known uses

 * Cracking the code for an aerodynamic shuttle. (MA: ''Venusian Lullaby).
 * Opening up hatches, panels and control panels. (DW: Fury from the Deep, The War Games)
 * For cutting through a section of a wall. (DW: The Dominators)
 * As a conventional screwdriver (without touching the screws). (DW: The War Games)

Mark II
A larger and more elaborately detailed version, the Doctor began using this model in his third incarnation. In addition to a redesign on the tip which remained the norm for the next two versions, it had a silver handle, and black and yellow stripes. It had a removable head which the Doctor would change with other heads, each doing a different function. (DW: The Sea Devils)

Known uses

 * To remotely open his workshop. (DW : Inferno)
 * Booby trap detector in the Master's TARDIS. (DW: Colony in Space)
 * Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (DW: The Sea Devils)
 * To open an electronic door. (DW: The Mutants)
 * Undoing wrist clamps. (DW: The Mutants)
 * Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
 * Open electronic locks. (DW: Carnival of Monsters)
 * As conventional screwdriver, on large, flathead screw. (DW: The Monster of Peladon)
 * To distract giant maggots. (DW The Green Death)

Mark III
The Fourth Doctor remade his sonic screwdriver into a silver version that lacked the interchangeable heads. It was capable of extending its tip.

Known uses

 * Remotely detonating mines. (DW: Robot)
 * Cutting locks. (DW: Robot)
 * Fixing a circle of transmat refractors. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Breaching a force field. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Shutting down Styre's Robot. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
 * Sabotaging a two-way radio. (DW: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * Creating a temporary hole in Gallifrey's force feild above the Citidel. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
 * Using the correct sonic frequency to return The Doctor and Ernestina Stott to normal size. (BBCR: Hornets' Nest - The Dead Shoes)
 * Opening doors on Ribos. (DW: The Ribos Operation)
 * Unlocking multi-levered interlocks to the Ribos crown jewels casket (DW: The Ribos Operation)
 * Opening the door to the real Queen Xanxia's camber. (DW: The Pirate Planet)
 * Blowing up a Dalek bomb. (DW: Destiny of the Daleks)

Mark IV
Towards the end of his Seventh Incarnation The Doctor used a model quite simillar to his Mark III exept that instead of the ring around the tip being red, the tip it self was red. This is used throughout the Eighth Doctor's life and has a torch built in the handle.

Known Uses

 * To lock the casket containing the Master's remains. (DW: Doctor Who)

Mark V
In his ninth incarnation the Doctor had a new model with a glowing blue diode at one end. The tenth incarnation of the Doctor also carried this model, until it was burnt out after modifying an x-ray scanner to increase the radiation output. (DW:Smith and Jones)

Known uses

 * To destroy the controls of an elevator. (DW: Rose)
 * Detecting and stopping telepathic signals. (DW: Rose)
 * Interfacing with a computer. (DW: The End of the World)
 * To control an elevator. (DW: Aliens of London)
 * As a medical scanner and diagnostic tool. (DW: The Empty Child)
 * Obtaining money from a cash machine. (DW: The Long Game)
 * Battery charging. (DW: Father's Day)
 * Completely corroding thin metal (e.g. barbed wire) so that it crumbles into rust. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
 * Re-connecting barbed wire. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
 * Unlocking handcuffs. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
 * Setting up a resonation pattern in concrete. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
 * Reversing teleport devices. (DW: Boom Town)
 * To destroy a television camera. (DW: Bad Wolf)
 * Dematerialising the TARDIS and initialising TARDIS processes from outside the craft. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
 * Blowing up a remote control Christmas tree. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
 * To transfer its powers to a remote control. (DW: Attack of the Graske)
 * To create small flames. (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace)
 * To make the Cybermen turn away from the Doctor's direction. (DW: The Age of Steel)
 * To cut rope. (DW: The Age of Steel)
 * Locking / unlocking a hatch in Cybus Industries (DW: The Age of Steel)
 * To threaten the Wire. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern)
 * To partially reverse the Abzorbaloff's absorption of Ursula Blake. (DW: Love & Monsters)
 * Partially cracking glass so it can be smashed with the push of a finger. (DW: Army of Ghosts)
 * Detonation of an explosive device. (DW: Doomsday)
 * Get money from cash machine, at both regular and extra-high rates of ejection. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * To unlock a taxi door and window. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * Scan a lifeform for information, specifically Donna Noble. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * To detonate the head of a roboform (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * Search a phone for an app or a feature. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * Hacking into the HC Clements website. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * Bypass the key needed to access the secret basement in HC Clements. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * Able to summon the Tardis using Huon particles. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * To cut a spider web. (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * To destroy the Robot Santas with sound (used in conjunction with a professional sound system). (DW: The Runaway Bride)
 * To increase the radiation output of a device such as an x-ray scanner; this action burned out the screwdriver. (DW: Smith and Jones)

Mark VI
The tenth incarnation used another screwdriver after the X-ray incident. This model was damaged during the Doctor's tenth regeneration and the TARDIS' subsequent crash, as well as by Prisoner Zero and was ultimately destroyed when the Doctor used it to overload technology to alert the Atraxi. (DW:The Eleventh Hour)

Known uses

 * Opening air tight seals. (DW: Gridlock)
 * Trying to strip off pieces of Dalekanium. (DW: Evolution of the Daleks)
 * Bypassing and turning off security systems. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * In conjunction with a pipe organ, it produced hypersonic sound waves which lead to the death of the Lazarus creature. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Scanning for the transformed Lazarus creature after it escaped to Southwark Cathedral. (DW: The Lazarus Experiment)
 * Locking the TARDIS navigational systems to only allow travel between its current position and its previous position. (DW: Utopia)
 * Fixing a decades-broken Vortex Manipulator. (DW: Utopia)
 * To destroy a security camera. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
 * As a soldering iron to make perception filters using TARDIS keys. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
 * Uncorking a wine bottle. (DW: Voyage of the Damned)
 * Controlling a cable cart. (DW: Partners in Crime)
 * Breaking into a silo on the Ood-Sphere. (DW: Planet of the Ood)
 * Disabling a Sontaran teleport. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem)
 * Scanning shadows for the presence of Vashta Nerada. (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)
 * Showing a hologram of Donna Noble. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * Tinting a Helmet Visor (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * Disabling the Crusader 50's entertainment system. (DW: Midnight)
 * Checking Crusader 50's control console for faults. (DW: Midnight)
 * Teleporting a Graske to the other side of the universe. (DW: Music of the Spheres)
 * As a Sonic Toothbrush. (DWAM: The Continuity Cap)
 * Tickling a lion with sonic waves. (NSA: The Slitheen Excursion)
 * Tinting the Doctor's glasses. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
 * Opening bus doors. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
 * Unlocking handcuffs. (DW: Planet of the Dead)
 * Cracking ice. (DWAM: Arctic Eclipse)
 * Detecting time traces. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
 * As an actual Screwdriver, without touching the screws. (DW: Dreamland)
 * Disabling a Shimmer. (DW: The End of Time)
 * Switching the Hesperus' power off. (DW: The End of Time)
 * Changing the course of the TARDIS. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Opening a "crack" in space-time. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
 * Overloading all technology in an area (To the point where the screwdriver itself explodes). (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Mark VII
Following the Mark VI's destruction, the Doctor received a new Sonic Screwdriver from the TARDIS. It was radically different to the previous model, having “claws” and a green diode, rather than blue. It also has copper plating in various places, both of which are similar to the new TARDIS interior. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)

Known Uses

 * Scanning Starship UK's engine room. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * As a torch. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * To force a Star Whale to regurgitate by overloading its chemo-receptors. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * Making a Star Whale's voice audible to the human ear. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * Amplifying an electrical beam. (DW: The Beast Below)
 * Opening the chest plate of an Android's controls, (unsuccessfully) attempted to defuse the bomb inside it. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
 * To increase a signal strength. (DW: The Time of Angels)
 * To scan Father Octavian's computer. (DW: The Time of Angels)
 * To open a mechanical door (unsuccessful when combating the Weeping Angels). (DW: The Time of Angels)
 * Opening the entrance hatch of a space ship. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Isolating the lighting so that the Weeping Angels could not drain the power. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Redirecting all the power to the doors in order to open them. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Determining the nature of the cracks throughout time and space. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * To send a signal through to Amy's communicator to help guide her to the right spot in the forest in order to teleport her. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Uploading software. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
 * Simultaneously healing and analysing wounds. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Sealing doors. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * To open gates. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Block out the effects of perception filters. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Detecting where lights are. (DW: Amy's Choice)
 * Exploding lightbulbs. (DW: Amy's Choice)
 * Scanning lifeforms. (DW: Amy's Choice)
 * Scanning piles of dust for traces of children. (DW: Amy's Choice)
 * Unlocking padlocks. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
 * Hacking into computer records. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
 * Displaying energy barricades which are usually invisible to the naked eye. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
 * Activating Bio-programmed soil. (DW: The Hungry Earth)
 * Scanning for heat signatures. (DW: Cold Blood)
 * Disabling Silurian weapons. (DW: Cold Blood)
 * Scanning an infection. (DW: Cold Blood)
 * Locking the TARDIS doors. (DW: Cold Blood)
 * Opening the gate to the London Underground. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Opening up a discarded Dalek dome. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Bypassing Dalek security seals. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Opening up control panels in Kaalann. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Accessing the Visuliser eye. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Tampering with The Dalek Emperor's casing. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Activating a Dalek console trap. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Restoring the Visuliser eye's power. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Constructing a Dalek Vision Disruptor. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Opening Kaalann doors. (VG: City of the Daleks)
 * Unsuccessfully attempting to stun the Krafayis (possibly due to being unable to find the right prozactic setting), appearing to please it instead. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
 * Opening the door to the Attempted TARDIS. (DW: The Lodger)
 * Scanning Stonehenge. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
 * Lighting flaming torches. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)

Mark ?
In the Doctor's personal future, he would upgrade the screwdriver with, in addition to the Mark VI settings, red settings and damper settings. He gave it to River Song, both for her use and because it served as a way to save River's Data Ghost for uploading into the main computer of the Library. (DW: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)

Known uses

 * Activating and disabling gravity platforms. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * Fixing light bulbs. (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * Storing the consciousness of a human being (specifically River Song's). (DW: Forest of the Dead)
 * Increasing mesh densities to over 800%. (DW: Forest of the Dead)

Related Tools

 * Liz Shaw had her own version of the Doctor's "door handle" device, which she used to open the door to the Doctor's shed. (DW: Inferno)
 * Romana constructed her own sonic screwdriver. Her version so impressed the Doctor that he attempted (unsuccessfully) to swap sonic screwdrivers with her. (DW: The Horns of Nimon) She later gave it to the Doctor. (NA: Lungbarrow)
 * This resembled a smaller, slimmer version of the Doctor's Mark II.


 * The Master had a similar tool called a laser screwdriver. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
 * Captain Jack Harkness and later River Song possessed a sonic blaster. (DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead)
 * Using stolen and incomplete UNIT design plans, Toshiko Sato created a sonic modulator. (TW: Fragments)
 * Miss Foster had a sonic pen, with a similar design, described as sleek, to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. (DW: Partners in Crime)
 * The Doctor gave Sarah Jane Smith a sonic lipstick, a similar tool. (SJA: Invasion of the Bane)
 * The Doctor mentions that he once had a laser spanner as well but Emmeline Pankhurst took it from him. (DW: Smith and Jones)
 * Mrs Wormwood was in possession of a ring called a Phonic disruptor. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
 * The Sixth Doctor defeated Cybermen using a sonic lance, similar in function but designed to work as a weapon as well.
 * Jackson Lake carried what is most likely the most primitive iteration of the sonic screwdriver. His version was a regular 19th century screwdriver which he claimed to be sonic by virtue of it making a sound when it was hit against a surface. (DW: The Next Doctor)

Behind the scenes

 * The tool was retired during the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation as it was felt it had become overused. It was absent for the Sixth Doctor era and all of the Seventh, except in Doctor Who in which the Seventh Doctor was seen to use it to lock the Master's remains away, and the Eighth Doctor recovered it at the end of the film. The tool was reintroduced with the Ninth Doctor and has become the show's most frequently used gadget besides the TARDIS itself. It has since appeared in many Seventh and Eighth Doctor audio adventures from Big Finish Productions.
 * 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 and so the production team secured molds from the toy replica in order to make a more reliable prop for the next season.
 * Early conceptual art of the modern era Sonic Screwdriver feature a different "tube" section, with notes referring 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 feature 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. The "claws" on the Series 5 model of the sonic screwdriver may be a re-imagining of these "feet".
 * There are two main versions of the Sonic Screwdriver - one has a slide feature with button, and one which does not slide and has a fixed button. The two prop types varied each episode.