Tom Baker Sonic Screwdriver SHOCKING EVIDENCE!

[SurferGeek]

Re: Tom Baker Sonic Screwdriver & McCoy Hypo - FOUND!

This is from 2006:

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=33147&highlight=thunderbirds

 

[d_jedi1]

I knew I had heard this theory before.
If it is a found item, I wonder how hard it would be to find.

 

[manofsteel25]

For what it's worth, I agree 100% that this Chiropractor Activator is what the Classic Sonic Screwdriver was made from. Not only do I think the modern pictures show a resemblance but beyond that, my uncle is a chiropractor and when we used to watch the show together back in the day, he would tell me that's what the Screwdriver really was. So I need no convincing.

 

[Grey]

For what it's worth, I agree 100% that this Chiropractor Activator is what the Classic Sonic Screwdriver was made from. Not only do I think the modern pictures show a resemblance but beyond that, my uncle is a chiropractor and when we used to watch the show together back in the day, he would tell me that's what the Screwdriver really was. So I need no convincing.

Ok, well, I am a casual watcher of Dr. Who, and looking at pictures of the Sonic Screwdriver, and then pictures of the Chiropractic tool, I see a slight resemblance but not much else. I would hardly say its the same thing, or made from it. If you can find a better image of a tool that actaully matches the Screwdriver I will certainly apologize

 

[Gojira61]

We all went down this road a few years back, there is a very similar tool (almost exact) used by Alan Tracy near the end of the “Thunderbirds are Go” movie to repair the Zero -X. It’s being used as a screwdriver and appears to actually be some type of push ratchet screwdriver.

Considering that most of the stuff left over from Century 21 Studios ended up at the BBC it’s not much of a reach that it could have been made from the tool used for live actor close-ups in the Thunderbirds film.

I used to have a ton of screen grabs from the movie that I posted. Anybody grab them from back them?

Phase? Did you grab them when they were up?

 

[greatwazoo42]

Yeah, that was me that made the comparison back in the old thread. Here's the two pictures I had posted sitting one of my replicas, the Roguescout version, between the two activators my chiropractor keeps in his pockets:

 

[mobius303]

I thought the body of the SS was based on a Magnifyn Glass that was used in another show. There wasa picture around here but Now I cannot find it.
It was the same length and the glass was even used in an episode of Doctor Who and was on a table next to the sonic and the body was the same length and look.
Anyone else recall this?
Mobius

 

[greatwazoo42]

Nope. The history goes a littel something like this:

1st Doctor - No sonic screwdriver.

2nd Doctor - The sonic screwdriver made its first appearance in the serial Fury from the Deep, written by Victor Pemberton. It was a simple metal tube body pen light.

3rd Doctor - The BBC bought up a load of props boxes from the production company that had produced, among other things, the Thunderbirds. In one of the boxes was a hand tool, screen used in Thunderbirds Go! that the production team painted one part yellow and added a radar dish looking thing to the top part. Jon Pertwee carried that, you can see it well in The Sea Devils. As time passed the prop was cleaned up, polished and a new head was put on. That version has a couple nice close ups in Frontier in Space.

4th Dcotor - Tom Baker's version was the same one as Pertwee's but got more and more beat up over time. There's some talk that the original vanished by now and had been replaced (possibly more than once) by new ones made by independant prop masters on the BBC's payroll.

5th Doctor - The one he carried is obviously not the same one as before. It has different proportions even though the description is the same. A PVC dummy was made for the scene in The Visitation where it is destroyed.

6th and 7th Doctors - No sonic screwdriver but he did have a sonic lance.

8th Doctor - Iguana Props is asked to bring back the sonic screwdriver after a considerable absence (from the early 1980's to 1996) and makes a new version with a telescoping section, a brass band around the handle and a pen cap shaped head instead of a bullet shaped head. The film used on hero model (which Sylvester McCoy broke) and a few wood stunt models. None of the versions from the 1960's-1980's showed up in the 1996 film, the props had been custom fabricated for the film.

9th and 10th Doctor - Totally new prop.

 

[Gojira61]

Nope. The history goes a littel something like this:

Very nice recap.

 

[greatwazoo42]

Thanks! Of all the props out there I've had a love affair with the sonic screwdriver since 1981 and it still hasn't let up. I've been researching everything I can about it since I started collecting props.I certainly wouldn't call myself an authority but I know a thing or two.

Sadly I have no idea what's become of any of the original props.

 

[PsyBear]

The tool depicted here I think looks much closer to the Doctor's sonic...

http://www.scriphessco.com/itemdetail.asp?cat=307101&MENU=307101&item=771+0014&s=#

And the holster looks amazinglly like Dr. McCoy's!

However, considering the way that the activator is held, I think the Sonic Screwdriver is much too long to have ever started life as an activator. It's plausable, but unless there's an exact match found, I would say the similarity is a coincidence...

 

[greatwazoo42]

There's something you missed, PsyBear: look at the rings at the base of the activator on the palm end (where the T-Bar is). They could be the very same rings found just above the handle of the sonic which means the handle is an added part OR there's a design of activator from the 1950's or '60's that we haven't seen yet.

 

[greatwazoo42]

Wonderful. I killed the thread.

 

[Gojira61]

Wonderful. I killed the thread.

You didn't kill it, everyone just took a break.

Ok, so I went and pulled out my copy of "Thunderbirds are Go" and did the screen grabs of the prop again as it was seen in that film. These have all been lightened a lot for a better look.

Now in the film it is a functioning screwdriver, it actually takes the screws out of the wiring panel with a ratchet action.

 

[greatwazoo42]

Sweet!

 

[SurferGeek]

Wonderful. I killed the thread.

Not really dead, just back on life support as it was before and will likely remain until someone is able to find an exact matching "found item"... or at least for another year or so and someone else brings up another revelation thread.

 

[phez]

Huh, where is the groove with the screw hole in the bottom of the handle? Was that only on the later Tom Baker SS?

 

[greatwazoo42]

It may be. When I was researching the appearances of the prop in Frontier in Space and a nice close up in one of the Peladon stories it looked like it had a end cap without the beveled edge.

 

[phez]

In those Thunderbird clips judging from the machining on the bottom (handle) part it almost looks like that was made and added on to the top part. Look how much rougher that looks than the top part :confused
You can really see it in the fifth photo down. It almost looks like it could be Aluminum tape. Not that it is relevant to when we see it in Who but sort of interesting.

 

[Gojira61]

In those Thunderbird clips judging from the machining on the bottom (handle) part it almost looks like that was made and added on to the top part. Look how much rougher that looks than the top part :confused
You can really see it in the fifth photo down. It almost looks like it could be Aluminum tape. Not that it is relevant to when we see it in Who but sort of interesting.

My thought has been for some time that it's a textured grip tape that was on the original tool and that once you removed it you would see the slot on the side of the lower body which is part of the original push/pull ratchet screwdriver mechanism that was covered by the tape.