The sonic screwdriver is a fictional tool in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spinoffs.

The sonic screwdriver was first introduced in 1968, and was used regularly throughout the Second Doctor's tenure.

Throughout the series, there have been many different versions of the sonic screwdriver, as with subsequent Doctors the design of it was changed.

The first sonic screwdriver from Season 6 Episode 3 of The War Games

Ownership of the concept was retained by the BBC ; Pemberton later told an interviewer for Doctor Who Magazine, " I'm very cross that the sonic screwdriver — which I invented — has been marketed with no credit to myself.

In The Three Doctors the sonic screwdriver is almost unrecognisable as a black grip and plastic spherical head have been applied to the device.

In the DVD commentary, Letts himself cannot recognise the prop but remarks that this serial was produced out of transmission order ; this explains why the sonic screwdriver reverts to its previous appearance for one story before receiving a more permanent refit thereafter.

During the first three years of the Fourth Doctor's tenure, producer Philip Hinchcliffe further reduced the use of the sonic screwdriver.

In the final story of season 15, The Invasion of Time, the Fourth Doctor conceded, " Not even the sonic screwdriver can get me out of this one.

The Doctor's Time Lady companion Romana constructed a sonic screwdriver of her own similar to the Doctor's, first seen during the City of Death.

The sonic screwdriver was written out of the series late in season 19, in the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation.

Saward had written out the sonic screwdriver, believing that the Doctor had " a cupboard full of them " in the TARDIS.

The Tenth Doctor joked about the Fifth Doctor's lack of sonic screwdriver in the mini-episode Time Crash, commenting that he " went hands-free " and could " save the universe using a kettle and some string.

In the Doctor Who TV Movie, the Doctor was seen to have a new sonic screwdriver with a telescopic design.

A redesigned sonic screwdriver appears in the new series, with a blue light in addition to the sound effect.

A common misconception is that the Doctor Who production team at BBC Wales were so impressed by how much more resilient the toy sonic screwdriver was than the real prop, that they obtained moulds of the original prototype of the toy to use in the 2006 series, in fact, this was not the case.

In contrast with Nathan-Turner's attitude that the sonic screwdriver should not be used as a cure-all, the new production team gave it even more functionality than previous versions which has given the series some criticism as it seems to be a deus ex machina, a literary device that is generally avoided.

In " Doomsday ", the Doctor states that the sonic screwdriver does not kill, wound or maim ; however, it is sometimes brandished in a threatening manner, such as in " The Christmas Invasion ", " The Impossible Planet ", " The Runaway Bride ", " The Lazarus Experiment " and The Infinite Quest.

In " World War Three ", when confronted by a group of Slitheen, the Doctor threatens to " triplicate the flammability " of a bottle of port wine with the sonic screwdriver, though one of the Slitheen realises he is bluffing.

At one point in " Doomsday ", a Dalek calls the screwdriver " a sonic probe " when the Doctor reveals it.

The sonic screwdriver has been the subject of jokes: in " The Doctor Dances ", Jack Harkness mocked the concept by asking, " Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ' Ooh, this could be a little more sonic '?

In live versions of the track, which lasted over ten minutes, he made use of diverse FX technologies of the time to narrate a sonic story using his keyboards.

In " Silence in the Library ", while trying to open a wooden door, the Doctor tells Donna that the sonic screwdriver won't work because the door is made of wood, a fact later restated in " The Hungry Earth "; when Rory complains about this, the Doctor counters to not " diss the sonic.

The design of the prop was meant to imply that the Master constructed it on Earth, and it was deliberately made larger than the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

There is also an alcoholic drink called a sonic screwdriver, made by combining

* Klaw leapt into his massive sonic converter device which was made with vibranium he bought on the open market, hoping to gain superhuman powers to combat his foes.

All of the early electrical recordings for Victor were made with a single microphone, usually placed near or above the conductor, a process Victor called " Orthophonic "; the Brunswick electricals used the company's proprietary non-microphone " Light-Ray " selenium-cell system, which was much more prone to sonic distortion than Victor's.

After completing three vocal tracks with the label, based upon rough sonic themes created by the production team, Thornton had a falling out with the label, and gave the label recordings he had made two years previously, consisting of Thornton rapping and goofing off, in order to complete his contract.

This particular label specialises in sonic refurbishments of recordings originally made between the 1920s and 1970s, often leasing original master recordings originally made by Decca and EMI.

The auditory dynamics of two roaring rocket exhausts, combined with the pounding physical effects of such intense sound waves over the short distance to the observers, made it questionable whether close observers could have differentiated the vehicle's sonic boom from the general cacophony of background noise.

As a result of his transformation, Klaw has the inability to exist outside a medium that allows the propagation of sound waves ( i. e. in a vacuum ) without the technological improvements made to his sonic converter by AIM.

Blackburn, however, maintains that a record on the Muroc radar theodolite, of the two flights Welch made on November 13, 1947 indicated supersonic flights, as well, noting 20 minutes before the X-1 broke the record, a sonic boom was heard over the desert, centered on the Happy Bottom Riding Club, dude ranch restaurant and hotel operated by Pancho Barnes.

In April 2006 it made # 83 in Classic Rock's " The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums ", noting that " drummer Terry Ollis and bassist Dave Anderson could hit an awesome groove, allowing the rest of the band to cut loose on their acid-fuelled sonic adventures without fear of losing themselves or their listeners.

Los Natas propose a journey made of basic elements: valvular equipment and vintage instruments, they incorporate the use of the senses and perception of the listener as a part of a sonic trip.

Luckily, Sarah too has made it back to the village, and uses the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to cut his bonds.

Chris Squire of Yes described Offord's influence on their album Fragile with the following words: " Eddy Offord's maturity as a producer and engineer gives Fragile the sonic depth and sophistication it deserves and this made the album in fact ' fragile '".

He stated that " most of the album was not particularly well written " but that " the band's overwhelmingly loud sonic attack occasionally made up for the weakness in the material.

Q magazine ( 9 / 94, p. 106 )-4 Stars-Excellent-" Fact is, the lay off has just made Public Enemy sound fresh again ... because they've regained the wicked combination of sonic disturbance and loose, rabblerousing funk that drove classic jams like 911 is A Joke.

The larger idea here is that advancements in technology and communications and the thrust of music through an electronic medium have made transcending cultural and sonic musical structures possible.

Its common elements are pitch ( which governs melody and harmony ), rhythm ( and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation ), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.

" Musically, they moved hip hop and rap music away from the funk and disco-oriented sound of its beginnings, into an altogether new and unique sonic imprint.

Like the TARDIS, it has become one of the icons of the programme ; spinoff media such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood have replicated its functions in devices such as the sonic lipstick, sonic blaster, sonic pen and sonic modulator.

During the Second Doctor's tenure, it functioned much as its name implied — using sonic waves to dismantle equipment or to bypass locks.

The Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver is larger than its predecessor ; it has a green light and metal claws that extend with a flick of the wrist.

* The Seventh Doctor regained his sonic screwdriver in the Virgin New Adventures novels, with its first reappearance in The Pit.

Unlike the sonic screwdriver, it is used as a weapon that can kill as well as artificially age its target, using technology developed by Lazarus Laboratories originally seen in " The Lazarus Experiment ".

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which was quickly embraced by the hippie movement with its colorful psychedelic sonic imagery.

This carried over into Adam and Eve in 1997, wherein the band scaled back the sonic force of their sound from its Happy Days levels, with clean playing on some songs that featured extensive use of keyboards and acoustic guitars.

" In the 1960s and 1970s, the company developed its " Phase 4 " process which produced even greater sonic impact through even more interventionist engineering techniques.

As the vortex has a much smaller vector of energy compared to the overall energy of the reactant sonic shock wave, its vector is likely fractional to the overall reaction.

The SST was seen as particularly offensive due to its sonic boom and the potential for its engine exhaust to damage the ozone layer.

The coilgun would be relatively silent with no smoke giving away its position, though a coilgun projectile would still create a sonic boom if supersonic.

* The parallel-processor nature of the X-MP and its ability to solve multi-variate simultaneous equations rapidly is used in Tom Clancy's novel, The Hunt for Red October, when ' Skip ' Tyler uses the USAF's X-MP machine to work out the performance and sonic characteristics of the October for Jack Ryan on behalf of the CIA in return for both profit and the chance to evaluate the vessel should it successfully defect.

The band's sound was labeled " full-on emo-in-the-garage " by Alternative Press, " the sort of howlingly tuneful Midwestern punk that disappeared with Hüsker Dü " by Entertainment Weekly, " anthemic thrash " by Rolling Stone, and as such is noted for its sonic differences from Oberst's primary band.

In a review on Amazon. com, Richard Gehr wrote, " By now the sextet transcends the dancehall, possessing the ability to transform nearly any traditional Cajun, Creole, or French tune into high art while preserving a clear sonic bloodline back to its roots.

VST instruments include software simulation emulations of well-known hardware synthesizer devices and samplers, emulating the look of the original equipment and its sonic characteristics.

Amacher's early work is best represented in the three series of multimedia installations produced in the United States, Europe, and Japan: the sonic telepresence series, " CITY LINKS " 1-22 ( 1967-); the architecturally staged " MUSIC FOR SOUND JOINED ROOMS " ( 1980-) and the " MINI-SOUND SERIES " ( 1985-) a new multimedia form which she created, that is unique in its use of architecture and serialized narrative.