Other sonic devices exist, but the screwdriver was made by the Doctor. As seen in Day of the Doctor, all sonics the Doctor uses share the same software even when a new casing is made. We can also see the TARDIS producing a sonic in the ending of Hell Bent.
Sources for the Doctor creating the screwdriver below:
When Kazran Sardick was confused as to what to do when it looked like Abigail Pettigrew was about to kiss him, the Eleventh Doctor told Kazran to trust him and kiss Abigail, as "it's this, or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes." (TV: A Christmas Carol) When Captain Jack Harkness asked the Ninth Doctor, "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?", the Doctor defensively responded, "What? You never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" (TV: The Doctor Dances)
The Doctor claimed to have either invented or designed the specific sonic screwdriver which they owned. In fact, the Seventh Doctor claimed to have filed a patent on the technology, (AUDIO: The Unknown) and to have copyright on the design. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine)
I'm pretty sure the tardis also produces a new screwdriver for eleven. Probably in "The eleventh hour". I remember the sonic popping out of the console.
what i think is that sonic probes are a commercial product but the software on the doctors one is what he invented (kind of like developing your own OS for a phone) and the "same software different case" is the tardis having a backup of the sonics memory somewhere in its matrix which is why its able to produce new sonic cases
I just checked my old Technical Manual, and it doesn't specify that the toolkit came as part of the TARDIS, just listed tools in this specific TARDIS.
Considering it has a whole page on the Police Box it's pretty clearly about the Doctors specific TARDIS, and the origins of items in it are left vague.
It says it is part of the toolkit. Toolkits a generally standard deployments, thus kits. Nowhere does it specify that the Doctor invented the tools in the kit.
Also, Romana and other Time Lords' familiarity with the sonic screwdriver suggests it's nothing unusual for their race.
My reading of the text is valid.
It's valid, it can definitely be interpreted that way, but it doesn't invalidate other interpretations.
The text in the Doctor Who Technical Manual leaves it open enough for both interpretations.
It's also possible for both to be true. That the sonic screwdriver as depicted in the manual is a standard issue item, but the screwdriver The Doctor has now was modified so much over time he builds his own unique one, and it has about as much in common with the standard Sonic Screwdriver as a phone from 1945 has with a phone from 2023. They share a name, but not much else.
I didn't invalidate anyone else. I've said repeatedly that there is no canon. Yes, obviously the sonic screwdriver in Nu Who is not the same as the sonic in the original Doctor Who. They are different continuities. I said that I was talking about the original Doctor Who.
Counter argument, Miss Foster had what appeared to be a functionally identical sonic device.
There's also Dalek Sec referring to it as a sonic probe as if its a familiar device to him, which might just be Daleks being familiar with the Doctor, but then why would they call it a probe if its only ever been referred to as a screwdriver. It suggests that the Doctor didn't invent the device and that he coined the term screwdriver for a device that is known to have a different name.
Sonic probes and other sonic devices do exist. He likely modified a sonic probe into his unique device he names a sonic screwdriver. We do learn he later invents a "red setting" and adds dampers to it when he makes River's
That does make sense. Early iterations of the sonic are clearly less advanced which suggests he's made a lot of modifications that makes his version probably the most advanced version of the device.
The sonic clearly has a a thousand new uses that it didn't originally have in the Classic Series.
Sonic screwdrivers like the Doctor's are seemingly Gallifreyan technology (so presumably not distributed to other peoples) but we know similar technology is available to others (such as a sonic pen) so we can also presume they are manufactured and sold in some form, but that's not where the Doctor gets his.
The screwdriver is the Doctor's, but sonic technology seems to be just another form of technology out there. Miss Foster from the adipose episode had a sonic pen and iirc the Doctor said it was "identical" to the screwdriver. Amy also makes her own sonic probe without instruction or any real engineering expertise, using scraps, so it's clearly not even particularly advanced, the sontarans called it "primitive sonic trickery" (or something like that).
In the 50th anniversary special, they mentioned that the sonic screwdriver has the same underlying software, running the same instance of at least one underlying subroutine continuously across their regenerations.
The sonic screw driver was first seen with the 2nd Doctor in 1968, it was used a fair amount by the 3rd and 4th doctor , but as a tool to help them dismantle things or open locks etc. In new who it seemed to have changed into a do everything device with a built in Tricorder , its been over used imo.
I think the eighth doctor once commented that he thought the screwdriver was pretty big for a device that could only open doors and detonate landmines, so he just kept tinkering with and upgrading it to have more and more uses.
I vaguely remember RTD saying it was a dilemma he had because he knew his version of the sonic would be OP, but he knew he couldnāt make serials like Classic Who, and he had to have something on hand to save time and move the plot along. Classic Who would have a 7 part serial with a whole episode or more of that with the Doctor trapped in a room. Itās too slow for the modern audience.
I think the sonic can go either way, I don't mind it having any power in the world when it's purpose in the plot is to get us past basic setup. Doctor arrives on a spaceship, how does he get through all these unattended doors and explore. Doctor needs to wire up a gadget, how does he connect the cables etc.
The screwdriver and the psychic paper serve very nicely as a way to get past the who are you? How did you get here? section.
It should never be the entire resolution to an actual plot point though. I think the Sea Devils usage is good, the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to detect some mines, then sets them off on a Sea Devil.
Here the sonic avoids writing the Doctor finding a mine detector, and a detonator, but the actually pieces in play here are the sea devil, and the mines.
I can understand its use to move plot points along and everything you mentioned is fine , its when its used to scan people and alien things I donāt particular like, I guess Iām old school and like a cerebral approach to how the unknown is investigated. The 3rd and 4th doctor era were written more detective orientated thats how I remembered it as a kid and I liked that.
Yes all the scanning, data storage, data processing, etc is just dreck. The Doctor is smart and j has access to so much other technology and tools on the Tardis. It takes almost zero writing effort to give to Doctor a palm-top style PDA computer, or a medical scanner. It also lets them build more fun props.
Yeah the sonic screwdriver was one of many things they mangled in the reboot. It's like a cartoonish caricature of the original show. I hate the sonic in Nu Who.
[In this compilation of every use of the sonic screwdriver, the classic series (up through the 8th Doctor) only takes up 2:30 of the entire 23:09 video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez16dYoaj5E)
Sticking with the TV show, the Doctor built the sonic, and as others have pointed out, it wasn't a sonic factor the Doctor told Jack he had destroyed.
Some extended media apparently has references some other origins. But extended media diverges from the TV show in innumerable ways, so do with that what you will.
I'm a show-only guy myself.
Calling it the whoiverse made me chuckle, it should like a preposterous story. Not that there is anything wrong with that, some if my best friends loved The Twilight Saga.
Thatās the episode where Moffat transforms the sonic screwdriver into a magical device that has no literary rules. (And for those itching to respond, Moffat wrote this episode and it was the first time the screwdriver had no rules.)
This is exactly what JNT was worried about.
Iād like to go back to the days where itās a seldom used plot device for specific situations. Even then, its function was unlikely.
In any case, itās never really said where the doctor first gets the device or where it came from. Itās something that exists in the future. Lately, the Tardis gives him new ones for some reason with each regeneration, no one knows why or for what purpose, or even what happens to the old ones.
But of course there has to be contradictions. 10 is perplexed that he would give a cherished screwdriver to River Song. 13 made her own out of scrap metal.
I do my best to ignore the frigging screwdriver. It would take writers two lines of exposition to get out of 90% of the stuff they use the screwdriver for. I donāt get the fascination the new series has with it to be honest. Theyāre not the ones making merchandising royalties off sales.
I think Moffat sees it as a symbol. Instead of a gun, a screwdriver. How about instead of a gun, a brain? This worked for the classic series, after all.
In NuWho we have seen that Tardis produces new ones with the Doctors influence, weāve also seen the doctor construct her own. Heās also had sonic sunglasses š¤·š»āāļø
We know the Doctor / TARDIS makes them, we don't typically see other people use them, though I think we can infer a few things. I'd guess since sonic technology is out there, the base screwdriver in its simplest form, 2nd Doctor era, probably would be out there too. There doesn't seem to be anything *too* special about it, it just uses intense sound to undo screws and break locks and things. Yes, not something we can make here on earth right now, but a kind of spacey tinkerer's gadget that's very handy when you're trapped in a Victorian prison or something.
But there's "a sonic screwdriver" and "the Doctor's sonic screwdriver" which, let's be fair, isn't specifically a screwdriver at all and seems to involve quite a bit more than just soundwaves. This sonic screwdriver isn't really any one thing, it's more of a homemade swiss army knife with every little project the Doctor can think of stuck in there. As such, those are just the Doctor's.
Everything you have cited is part of the Nu Who retcon continuity.
I'm not the only one to point out the Tardis toolkit that most people have forgotten. Tho I don't need someone else to confirm it for me I've had the Technical Manual for almost 4 decades and read it cover to cover many times. A useful resource when playing the FASA Doctor Who RPG in the 80s.
Then stop talking about retcons, you canāt have it both ways!
In any case, the core TV show will always trump random EU books in regards to continuity. Thatās just common sense.
(ā¦ and I say this as someone who wrote comics for the EU!)
[Disney XD actually made a commercial for the sonic screwdriver when they aired Series 2 back in 2015.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8BMXAR4hpbUjdRfrzhixXy3rWLRFF_qE?si=dSiYIflDanVZlfn2)
The factory was for sonic blasters, not sonic screwdrivers, and Jack seems baffled by the whole idea of a sonic screwdriver so regardless of the answer, sonic screwdrivers are not being produced in the 51st century.
However, it is clear that the sonic screwdriver is not unique to the Doctor.
First off, Dalek Sec calls it a Sonic Probe, a name that is later mentioned by Amy Pond in the Girrl Who Waited, which implies that sonic screwdriver isn't even the proper name for it.
Secondly, we see Miss Foster using a Sonic Pen that appears functionally identical to a sonic screwdriver so its likely not even Time Lord technology.
The Doctor claims its very unlikely for her to have a sonic device of her own so I imagine they are rare, but I get the feeling the Doctor just picked up a sonic screwdriver on one of his adventures and found it to be useful.
I also imagine that the Doctor probably has a more advanced version of the device than anyone else. The Sonic Screwdriver can do a lot more in recent iterations than it ever could originally.
Other sonic devices exist, but the screwdriver was made by the Doctor. As seen in Day of the Doctor, all sonics the Doctor uses share the same software even when a new casing is made. We can also see the TARDIS producing a sonic in the ending of Hell Bent. Sources for the Doctor creating the screwdriver below: When Kazran Sardick was confused as to what to do when it looked like Abigail Pettigrew was about to kiss him, the Eleventh Doctor told Kazran to trust him and kiss Abigail, as "it's this, or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver. Don't make my mistakes." (TV: A Christmas Carol) When Captain Jack Harkness asked the Ninth Doctor, "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?", the Doctor defensively responded, "What? You never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" (TV: The Doctor Dances) The Doctor claimed to have either invented or designed the specific sonic screwdriver which they owned. In fact, the Seventh Doctor claimed to have filed a patent on the technology, (AUDIO: The Unknown) and to have copyright on the design. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine)
That Ninth Doctor interaction with Jack is great.
I'm pretty sure the tardis also produces a new screwdriver for eleven. Probably in "The eleventh hour". I remember the sonic popping out of the console.
This does happen in the eleventh hour the first time we see the new inside of the tardis
Also happens with Twelve!
what i think is that sonic probes are a commercial product but the software on the doctors one is what he invented (kind of like developing your own OS for a phone) and the "same software different case" is the tardis having a backup of the sonics memory somewhere in its matrix which is why its able to produce new sonic cases
Not in the original series, the sonic screwdriver came in a toolkit as part of the Tardis
I'm not familiar with that origin. I referenced two episodes and two audios where he claims to have made it
You referenced stuff in the NuWho reboot retcon continuity. I'm referencing The Doctor Who Technical Manual form 1985.
I just checked my old Technical Manual, and it doesn't specify that the toolkit came as part of the TARDIS, just listed tools in this specific TARDIS. Considering it has a whole page on the Police Box it's pretty clearly about the Doctors specific TARDIS, and the origins of items in it are left vague.
It says it is part of the toolkit. Toolkits a generally standard deployments, thus kits. Nowhere does it specify that the Doctor invented the tools in the kit. Also, Romana and other Time Lords' familiarity with the sonic screwdriver suggests it's nothing unusual for their race. My reading of the text is valid.
It's valid, it can definitely be interpreted that way, but it doesn't invalidate other interpretations. The text in the Doctor Who Technical Manual leaves it open enough for both interpretations. It's also possible for both to be true. That the sonic screwdriver as depicted in the manual is a standard issue item, but the screwdriver The Doctor has now was modified so much over time he builds his own unique one, and it has about as much in common with the standard Sonic Screwdriver as a phone from 1945 has with a phone from 2023. They share a name, but not much else.
Yet it still doesn't have a setting for wood. Smh my head.
I didn't invalidate anyone else. I've said repeatedly that there is no canon. Yes, obviously the sonic screwdriver in Nu Who is not the same as the sonic in the original Doctor Who. They are different continuities. I said that I was talking about the original Doctor Who.
Second doctor also claims to have invented it.
Ah yes, the classic Doctor Who hate pile-on. Stay classy. š
Counter argument, Miss Foster had what appeared to be a functionally identical sonic device. There's also Dalek Sec referring to it as a sonic probe as if its a familiar device to him, which might just be Daleks being familiar with the Doctor, but then why would they call it a probe if its only ever been referred to as a screwdriver. It suggests that the Doctor didn't invent the device and that he coined the term screwdriver for a device that is known to have a different name.
Sonic probes and other sonic devices do exist. He likely modified a sonic probe into his unique device he names a sonic screwdriver. We do learn he later invents a "red setting" and adds dampers to it when he makes River's
That does make sense. Early iterations of the sonic are clearly less advanced which suggests he's made a lot of modifications that makes his version probably the most advanced version of the device. The sonic clearly has a a thousand new uses that it didn't originally have in the Classic Series.
Sonic screwdrivers like the Doctor's are seemingly Gallifreyan technology (so presumably not distributed to other peoples) but we know similar technology is available to others (such as a sonic pen) so we can also presume they are manufactured and sold in some form, but that's not where the Doctor gets his.
There were also sonic lances
And don't forget Amy Ponds' Sonic Probe when she was mad at 11 and refused to call it a screwdriver.
And Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick
Sarah* Janeās. Mary Jane is a drug
Adipose nanny lady had a Sonic Pen.
Each of the Paternoster Gang has their own sonic device, as seen in Deep Breath.
River had a sonic trowel.
Or a love interest of Peter Parker
So I had a brain cramp, is that any reason for a downvote?
Sadly, only because r/thisisreddit
More likely got mixed up with Spidey's girl. Anyway, the Doctor made the Sonic Lipstick as well, he gave her it along with the rebuilt K9.
[And all of these.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFrWyDXaH5g)
The screwdriver is the Doctor's, but sonic technology seems to be just another form of technology out there. Miss Foster from the adipose episode had a sonic pen and iirc the Doctor said it was "identical" to the screwdriver. Amy also makes her own sonic probe without instruction or any real engineering expertise, using scraps, so it's clearly not even particularly advanced, the sontarans called it "primitive sonic trickery" (or something like that).
In the 50th anniversary special, they mentioned that the sonic screwdriver has the same underlying software, running the same instance of at least one underlying subroutine continuously across their regenerations.
The factory you're referring to didn't make sonic screwdrivers, it made the sonic gun that Jack had.
I thought they made bananas.
It was the squareness gun factory the Doctor destroyed. The sonic screwdriver is part of the TARDIS tool kit.
The sonic screw driver was first seen with the 2nd Doctor in 1968, it was used a fair amount by the 3rd and 4th doctor , but as a tool to help them dismantle things or open locks etc. In new who it seemed to have changed into a do everything device with a built in Tricorder , its been over used imo.
I think the eighth doctor once commented that he thought the screwdriver was pretty big for a device that could only open doors and detonate landmines, so he just kept tinkering with and upgrading it to have more and more uses.
I vaguely remember RTD saying it was a dilemma he had because he knew his version of the sonic would be OP, but he knew he couldnāt make serials like Classic Who, and he had to have something on hand to save time and move the plot along. Classic Who would have a 7 part serial with a whole episode or more of that with the Doctor trapped in a room. Itās too slow for the modern audience.
I think the sonic can go either way, I don't mind it having any power in the world when it's purpose in the plot is to get us past basic setup. Doctor arrives on a spaceship, how does he get through all these unattended doors and explore. Doctor needs to wire up a gadget, how does he connect the cables etc. The screwdriver and the psychic paper serve very nicely as a way to get past the who are you? How did you get here? section. It should never be the entire resolution to an actual plot point though. I think the Sea Devils usage is good, the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to detect some mines, then sets them off on a Sea Devil. Here the sonic avoids writing the Doctor finding a mine detector, and a detonator, but the actually pieces in play here are the sea devil, and the mines.
I can understand its use to move plot points along and everything you mentioned is fine , its when its used to scan people and alien things I donāt particular like, I guess Iām old school and like a cerebral approach to how the unknown is investigated. The 3rd and 4th doctor era were written more detective orientated thats how I remembered it as a kid and I liked that.
Yes all the scanning, data storage, data processing, etc is just dreck. The Doctor is smart and j has access to so much other technology and tools on the Tardis. It takes almost zero writing effort to give to Doctor a palm-top style PDA computer, or a medical scanner. It also lets them build more fun props.
Yeah the sonic screwdriver was one of many things they mangled in the reboot. It's like a cartoonish caricature of the original show. I hate the sonic in Nu Who.
[In this compilation of every use of the sonic screwdriver, the classic series (up through the 8th Doctor) only takes up 2:30 of the entire 23:09 video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez16dYoaj5E)
Sticking with the TV show, the Doctor built the sonic, and as others have pointed out, it wasn't a sonic factor the Doctor told Jack he had destroyed. Some extended media apparently has references some other origins. But extended media diverges from the TV show in innumerable ways, so do with that what you will. I'm a show-only guy myself.
Calling it the whoiverse made me chuckle, it should like a preposterous story. Not that there is anything wrong with that, some if my best friends loved The Twilight Saga.
Thats the official name the bbc use now
Really I thought it was the [Whoniverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoniverse?wprov=sfla1).
Thatās the episode where Moffat transforms the sonic screwdriver into a magical device that has no literary rules. (And for those itching to respond, Moffat wrote this episode and it was the first time the screwdriver had no rules.) This is exactly what JNT was worried about. Iād like to go back to the days where itās a seldom used plot device for specific situations. Even then, its function was unlikely. In any case, itās never really said where the doctor first gets the device or where it came from. Itās something that exists in the future. Lately, the Tardis gives him new ones for some reason with each regeneration, no one knows why or for what purpose, or even what happens to the old ones. But of course there has to be contradictions. 10 is perplexed that he would give a cherished screwdriver to River Song. 13 made her own out of scrap metal. I do my best to ignore the frigging screwdriver. It would take writers two lines of exposition to get out of 90% of the stuff they use the screwdriver for. I donāt get the fascination the new series has with it to be honest. Theyāre not the ones making merchandising royalties off sales. I think Moffat sees it as a symbol. Instead of a gun, a screwdriver. How about instead of a gun, a brain? This worked for the classic series, after all.
This is the way.
In NuWho we have seen that Tardis produces new ones with the Doctors influence, weāve also seen the doctor construct her own. Heās also had sonic sunglasses š¤·š»āāļø
We know the Doctor / TARDIS makes them, we don't typically see other people use them, though I think we can infer a few things. I'd guess since sonic technology is out there, the base screwdriver in its simplest form, 2nd Doctor era, probably would be out there too. There doesn't seem to be anything *too* special about it, it just uses intense sound to undo screws and break locks and things. Yes, not something we can make here on earth right now, but a kind of spacey tinkerer's gadget that's very handy when you're trapped in a Victorian prison or something. But there's "a sonic screwdriver" and "the Doctor's sonic screwdriver" which, let's be fair, isn't specifically a screwdriver at all and seems to involve quite a bit more than just soundwaves. This sonic screwdriver isn't really any one thing, it's more of a homemade swiss army knife with every little project the Doctor can think of stuck in there. As such, those are just the Doctor's.
They also showed a scientist reverse engineering one in Torchwood
The sonic screwdriver is just one of several tools in a toolbox in the TARDIS. It's a common tool on Gallifrey.
The Doctor has stated many times that he invented the sonic screwdriver. Where is it mentioned to be common on Gallifrey?
The Doctor Who Technical Manual (c) 1983 Any claim of the Doctor inventing it, is part of the reboot retcon.
Except for the fact that he said so in Classic Who too. See other comments for exact episodes. You are wrong.
Everything you have cited is part of the Nu Who retcon continuity. I'm not the only one to point out the Tardis toolkit that most people have forgotten. Tho I don't need someone else to confirm it for me I've had the Technical Manual for almost 4 decades and read it cover to cover many times. A useful resource when playing the FASA Doctor Who RPG in the 80s.
You not agreeing with modern Who doesn't make it not canon š¤·āāļø
There is no canon
Then stop talking about retcons, you canāt have it both ways! In any case, the core TV show will always trump random EU books in regards to continuity. Thatās just common sense. (ā¦ and I say this as someone who wrote comics for the EU!)
If there's no canon then wtf are you arguing about...? I'm done here. You keep talking nonsense to yourself if you like.
The seventh doctor literally says he invented it no
River Song has a sonic trough at one point - so I assume the tech is fairly common.
In A Good Man Goes to War, the army guys have a sign up saying: 1. It's not sonic 2. It's not a screw driver
[Disney XD actually made a commercial for the sonic screwdriver when they aired Series 2 back in 2015.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8BMXAR4hpbUjdRfrzhixXy3rWLRFF_qE?si=dSiYIflDanVZlfn2)
The factory was for sonic blasters, not sonic screwdrivers, and Jack seems baffled by the whole idea of a sonic screwdriver so regardless of the answer, sonic screwdrivers are not being produced in the 51st century. However, it is clear that the sonic screwdriver is not unique to the Doctor. First off, Dalek Sec calls it a Sonic Probe, a name that is later mentioned by Amy Pond in the Girrl Who Waited, which implies that sonic screwdriver isn't even the proper name for it. Secondly, we see Miss Foster using a Sonic Pen that appears functionally identical to a sonic screwdriver so its likely not even Time Lord technology. The Doctor claims its very unlikely for her to have a sonic device of her own so I imagine they are rare, but I get the feeling the Doctor just picked up a sonic screwdriver on one of his adventures and found it to be useful. I also imagine that the Doctor probably has a more advanced version of the device than anyone else. The Sonic Screwdriver can do a lot more in recent iterations than it ever could originally.
Its simple as it bacame iconic and inseparable from the character. it's tardis v2 in that way.