DuneMuadDib
Sr Member
Who says it has to be a visual readout, or one that humans can perceive? I see no reason why it can't be a psychic interface and he just has to look at it to "read" it.
New Doctor Who Series Discussion *Spoilers*
- Thread starter silverskyes402
- Start date
cboath
Master Member
Too true. It could be beyond our imagination at the moment - provided it was a real technology.
They didn't have huge, flat, touch screen monitors, or even computers in the 20's-50's. Our everyday tech was nearly beyond comprehension back then. Need the weather or sports score? Just pop open your cell phone today (which happens to be a mini computer).
Something not even imagined 5 years ago - 3.5" phone screens with resolutions much larger than monitor's 99% of the world uses on their home or work computers...
Gallifrean tech should be millenia beyond ours. There's no telling what the screwdriver should be capable of doing or how the doctor could be able to get info from it. Maybe it's a simple as him seeing more visible spectrum than we do and it gives coded responses in a spectrum humans just can't see?
They didn't have huge, flat, touch screen monitors, or even computers in the 20's-50's. Our everyday tech was nearly beyond comprehension back then. Need the weather or sports score? Just pop open your cell phone today (which happens to be a mini computer).
Something not even imagined 5 years ago - 3.5" phone screens with resolutions much larger than monitor's 99% of the world uses on their home or work computers...
Gallifrean tech should be millenia beyond ours. There's no telling what the screwdriver should be capable of doing or how the doctor could be able to get info from it. Maybe it's a simple as him seeing more visible spectrum than we do and it gives coded responses in a spectrum humans just can't see?
Possible but it doesn't fit with any of the other tech and the sonic has never had that ability before (it's a screwdriver, not a tricorder).
As I said though, no biggie.
As I said though, no biggie.
Angelus Lupus
Sr Member
It's a Plot Device.
In the old series (say in Tom Baker's time) getting an important piece of info might have taken a lot of running around and half of one of the six parts of the story. Nowadays the length of one episode is shorter so it's a lot easier to just wave the sonic and get the info and move the story along.
In the old series (say in Tom Baker's time) getting an important piece of info might have taken a lot of running around and half of one of the six parts of the story. Nowadays the length of one episode is shorter so it's a lot easier to just wave the sonic and get the info and move the story along.
Absolutely. It's like when people say "the door was big enough for Jack & Rose to fit on it" in Titanic... The script says Jack dies so he dies!
I do wish they would have the Doctor be a little bit more investigative though. I like when we get to watch him figure it out as opposed to an epiphany followed by some fantastic techno babble. It's the nature of the new format though and it seems to be working.
Primrodo
Sr Member
10 Scanned Donna in Runaway Bride....
By "new sonic" I meant new series. Indeed 10 did do some scanning but it's much more prevalent now.
As AL said though it's just something to move the plot faster.
cboath
Master Member
Call me crazy, but it'd be nice to see it unscrew a screw every once in a while. Troughton did it. I'm sure someone else in the classic run did as well. 9 did it in the first episode, although you only see the screws pop out inside rose's door.
It's maturing over the years
For Troughton it was literally a screwdriver. For Pertwee it was basically a fancy screwdriver. Baker used it for more. It didn't really get additional uses after that until 2005.
It's maturing over the years
For Troughton it was literally a screwdriver. For Pertwee it was basically a fancy screwdriver. Baker used it for more. It didn't really get additional uses after that until 2005.
It's maturing over the years
Davison broke it and 6 & 7 didn't have one (although 6 made frequent use of a sonic lance). However in '96 McGann did get his crack at one.
cboath
Master Member
McCoy used it first in the 96 episode.
After watching that a couple weeks ago, i find it funny that it's referred to as the McGann screwdriver seeing as it was only handed to him at the end. McCoy used it in the beginning of the flick - hence, shouldn't it be the McCoy sonic?
After watching that a couple weeks ago, i find it funny that it's referred to as the McGann screwdriver seeing as it was only handed to him at the end. McCoy used it in the beginning of the flick - hence, shouldn't it be the McCoy sonic?
McGann is the star of that show so seeing as it's only ever seen in that TV movie it's his. Don't take it away from him man, he only got 1.5 hours on screen! :lol
Primrodo
Sr Member
Call me crazy, but it'd be nice to see it unscrew a screw every once in a while. Troughton did it. I'm sure someone else in the classic run did as well. 9 did it in the first episode, although you only see the screws pop out inside rose's door.
It's maturing over the years
Erm...Pertwee used the sonic to detonate mines once
Not just a fancy Screwdriver in that regard.
Primrodo
Sr Member
Here we go, how Perwee used it:
- Scanning for alarm systems in the Master's TARDIS. (TV: Colony in Space)
- Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (TV: The Sea Devils)
- To open an electronic door. (TV: The Mutants)
- Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
- Open electronic locks. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
- A medium for hypnotising Aggedor (and, unintentionally, Jo Grant) (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
- As conventional screwdriver, on large, flathead screw. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
Sonic screwdriver - TARDIS Index File, the Doctor Who Wiki
I actually remember the gas one when I saw it as a kid!
- Scanning for alarm systems in the Master's TARDIS. (TV: Colony in Space)
- Remote detection and detonation of land mines. (TV: The Sea Devils)
- To open an electronic door. (TV: The Mutants)
- Creation of a spark of fire and igniting swamp gas. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
- Open electronic locks. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
- A medium for hypnotising Aggedor (and, unintentionally, Jo Grant) (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
- As conventional screwdriver, on large, flathead screw. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
Sonic screwdriver - TARDIS Index File, the Doctor Who Wiki
I actually remember the gas one when I saw it as a kid!
Erm...Pertwee used the sonic to detonate mines once
Not to mention as an automatic garage door opener. :lol
timelordjedi777
Sr Member
It has been to long. And wouldn't it be funny if at first he didn't think to use his sonic screwdriver.
One of the really daft Doctor/sonic moments was when he scanned the skeletal and obviously dead corpses in Asylum of the Daleks, and after reading the screwdriver results readout declared that they were indeed dead.
It is overused far too much now, so much so the 11th Doctor no longer needs to think anymore, and very often doesn't.
It is overused far too much now, so much so the 11th Doctor no longer needs to think anymore, and very often doesn't.
Showtunes
Member
I do love technobabble. Wish I was better at it. I just need to read more, take some engineering classes and take five times my prescribed dose of aderall. It'll work, maybe.
cboath
Master Member
In fairness, that's 5-6 types of use in, what? a 3-5 year run? These days it's not unheard of to get that many uses in an episode.
It's getting to the point where it's 'don't mess with me, i've got a sonic screwdriver' and not, 'don't mess with me, i'm the doctor'. I remember watching an episode of this past 1/2 season and thinking 'who gets the screwdriver if he dies' and not wondering how screwed the universe would be without him.
In short, the sonic is becoming too important.
MacGuyver could do anything with a swiss army knife. He could also do anything with whatever he could find in the room (i.e. it was all him). What can the current doctor do without the sonic? Don't think we've had to find out yet.
Primrodo
Sr Member
To be fair, I was merely pointing out what the Third Doctor did with his as opposed to being posted that it was just a fancy Screwdriver. What Tom Baker did with his was more extensive. Really the sonic has just had more and more uses as the show goes on.
These were the same complaints that had the sonic removed from Davison in the first place.
And sure if you compound its uses in 11's entire tenure and compared it it will look over used. But take the mid-season finale for example. Used twice. Once for scanning and once for blowing a lightbulb. I think you will find a big chunk of 11's uses are scanning. "But a sonic can't scan! Its not a tricorder" Apparently, this one is. Its not the same sonic, prop or otherwise. Its new, it scans now. Scanning is cool.
These were the same complaints that had the sonic removed from Davison in the first place.
And sure if you compound its uses in 11's entire tenure and compared it it will look over used. But take the mid-season finale for example. Used twice. Once for scanning and once for blowing a lightbulb. I think you will find a big chunk of 11's uses are scanning. "But a sonic can't scan! Its not a tricorder" Apparently, this one is. Its not the same sonic, prop or otherwise. Its new, it scans now. Scanning is cool.
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