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 had it in his possession 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) The Eighth Doctor later 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 force field. (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)
- Summoning 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)
- Scanning an Omsonii. (COMIC: The Time Ball)
- As a torch when the Doctor visited Rontan 9. (PROSE: Natural Regression)
- Fusing the lock of a metal door. (PROSE: Natural Regression)
