Editing Sonic screwdriver (section)

{{Short description|Fictional tool used by the Doctor in Doctor Who}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox fictional artifact
| name            = Sonic screwdriver
| image           = The Twelfth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver.jpg
| image_size      = 200px
| caption         = The [[Twelfth Doctor]]'s second sonic screwdriver, first seen in 2015, as a toy made by Character Options.
| source          = [[Doctor Who]]
| source_type     = TV
| company         = [[BBC]]
| first           = [[Fury from the Deep]]
| date            = 16 March 1968
| creator         = {{unbulleted list|[[Sydney Newman]]|[[C. E. Webber]]|[[Donald Wilson (writer and producer)|Donald Wilson]]}}
| episode_creator = [[Victor Pemberton]]
| genre           = [[Science fiction]]
| type            = Hand tool
| uses            = Various, see [[#Functions|Functions]]
| traits          = 
| affiliation     = [[The Doctor]]
}}

The '''sonic screwdriver''' is a fictional [[multi-tool|multifunctional tool]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tellmenothing.com/2017/03/28/sonic-screwdriver-uses-device-doctor/|title=Sonic Screwdriver: 50 Uses of This Device From Doctor Who|last=Malankar|first=Nikhil|date=2017-03-28|website=Tell Me Nothing|access-date=2017-08-09|archive-date=9 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809171553/http://tellmenothing.com/2017/03/28/sonic-screwdriver-uses-device-doctor/|url-status=dead}}</ref> in the [[British television science fiction|British]] [[science fiction television]] programme ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and its spin-offs, used by [[the Doctor]]. Like the [[TARDIS]], it has become one of the icons of the programme, and [[Spin-off (media)|spin-off media]] such as ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' and ''[[Torchwood]]'' have replicated its functions in devices such as the sonic lipstick, sonic blaster, sonic probe, sonic modulator and sonic cane.

The sonic screwdriver was introduced in 1968 in the story ''[[Fury from the Deep]]'', and used twice more (''[[The Dominators]]'' and ''[[The War Games]]'') during the [[Second Doctor]]'s tenure. It became a popular tool for the [[Third Doctor]] and [[Fourth Doctor]]. It was written out of the series in 1982 due to the limitations it caused when writing for the show. It then featured briefly in the 1996 [[Doctor Who (film)|''Doctor Who'' television movie]], before making a full return in the 2005 continuation of the series.

Throughout the programme, there have been many different versions of the sonic screwdriver, as with subsequent Doctors the design of it was changed. It has also been destroyed on a number of occasions, thus leading to the introduction of the next model. Not all iterations of the Doctor have used the sonic screwdriver on screen; the [[Fifth Doctor]] in fact opted not to replace his after it was destroyed in "[[The Visitation (Doctor Who)|The Visitation]]".

The [[Twelfth Doctor]] loses his sonic screwdriver to the creator of the [[Dalek]]s, [[Davros]], after lending it to him when he was a child. In the last episode of Series 9, the Doctor received a new sonic screwdriver from the [[TARDIS]] in place of the sonic sunglasses he had been using temporarily in the meantime.

Despite the Doctor's claim not to entrust his screwdriver to anyone, he lends one to his own doppelgänger in "[[The Rebel Flesh]]," and again supplies [[Rory Williams]] for its third job in his care in "[[The Girl Who Waited]]," after having given or loaning Rory one in "[[A Good Man Goes to War]]" and slipping him one in "[[The Big Bang (Doctor Who)|The Big Bang]]". Before Rory, he lends the screwdriver to [[Sarah Jane Smith]] and [[Rose Tyler]] to investigate the computer room class in "[[School Reunion]]", Afterwards The Doctor made a Sonic Lipstick for Sarah Jane before departing for more adventures. He also gifts one to [[River Song (Doctor Who)|River Song]] in "[[The Husbands of River Song]]," which is then used by the [[Tenth Doctor]] to "save" her life in a previous TV story, "[[Forest of the Dead]]."

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