Doctor Who: 10 Secrets Of The Sonic Screwdriver You Need To Know

The sonic screwdriver is basically magic – it can do pretty much anything you want it to with the press of a single button. How does one little device do so many different things?

While the answer to this has never been expressly stated outright, it was sort of revealed in a throwaway line in the Series 6 episode Let's Kill Hitler.

With the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory in Nazi Germany pursuing a recently-regenerated River Song, the sonic ends up in the hands of Mrs. Pond, who is sucked inside the Teselecta (along with Rory) soon after.

While attempting to use the sonic against the Teselecta's antibodies, Rory tells her that it has a "psychic interface" and that she should simply "point and think" to ward off their attackers.

In other words, the sonic reads the mind of its user, and does exactly what they're thinking. Fry some bacon? Tune a guitar? Turn regular glasses into sunglasses? (Groan). The possibilities are ridiculous!

This is clearly a massive cop-out to get around the sonic's endless uses, but at least it's a cop-out that makes a certain amount of sense in-universe.