Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver: The Doctor Matt Smith/David Tennant

The Sonic Screwdriver from the TV series Doctor Who has helped The Doctor save his own life and that of his companions.

The sonic screwdriver was made by The Doctor years ago to help him open locked doors and escape his enemies.

Recently in the new series of Doctor Who which began in 2005 the Sonic Screwdriver can also be used as a medical assesment tool, a science tool and a weapon.

Doctor Who TV Series

Doctor Who is a science fiction television series that was first broadcast in 1963 by the BBC in Britain. The first actor to play The Doctor was William Hartnell.

He decided to leave the very popular show in 1966 and the BBC came up with a very clever storyline in order to continue the series.

The Doctor could regenerate into another human body as he was an alien from the planet Galifrey.

The character of the Doctor would keep all his memories of his previous regenerations but would have his own unique characteristics with each new incarnation.

This way the show could continue. It did for another twenty six years until 1989.

Seven different actors played The Doctor during this time.

The Doctors Sonic Screwdriver first appeared in the six part episode called Fury from the Deep in April 1968. Since then the sonic screwdriver has helped The Doctor in many ways, saving his life and many others.

The theory behind the Sonic Screwdriver



It used sonic waves to dismantle equipment and to open locks. The sonic screwdriver was destroyed by a Terileptil in the episode The Visitation in 1982.

The Doctor had been captured by the alien and was locked in a cell. When the Sonic Screwdriver was destroyed he said, "It feels like you just killed an old friend."

The Sonic Screwdriver reappeared in the Doctor Who movie in 1996 which starred Paul McCann.



The new series of Doctor Who came back on television in April 2005. Christopher Eccleston played the role of the ninth Doctor for one series. For the 2006 series David Tennant became the tenth Doctor. He left the series of Doctor Who in January 2010.

When the new series came back on television in 2005 a new and better sonic screwdriver also appeared. It could now scan things and analyse them. It could mend computers and other electronic equipment and could also destroy them.

The Sonic screwdriver could be used by The Doctor to turn the mobile phones of his companions into universal communicators. He could also use it to remotely control the TARDIS functions when he was unable to get inside it.

It could not open dead locks or anything made of wood.

When the Tenth Doctor regenerated the TARDIS was destroyed along with his Sonic Screwdriver.



The current eleventh Doctor is played by Matt Smith and he crashed to earth and climbed out of the TARDIS.

He had his sonic screwdriver with him but left the TARDIS to continue to repair itself. But this Sonic Screwdriver is destroyed in the first episode of the 2010 series, ‘The Eleventh Hour’.

When he returns to the new TARDIS the Doctor also finds a new Sonic Screwdriver. It is bigger and has a green light and metal claws which opens when the Doctor flicks his wrist.

It has four sounds to it as apposed to only two sounds on the old one. It still can not open dead locks or anything made of wood.