Doctor Who: 10 Similarities Between The Classic And Revived Series
4. Sonic Screwdrivers
THE NEW: The Sonic Screwdriver - the most used tool other than the TARDIS itself. The Doctor has been running around with it for centuries fending off foes and assembling cabinets. Viewers of the modern series will instantly recognise the Ninth and Tenth Doctors versions with the silver, green or gold casing and a blue tip, being so thin and small you could easily lose it in a handbag, and the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors version with extendable claws, the green glowing tip, and a girth large enough to replace the caber for all your fabulous tossing needs. The sonic screwdriver has been whipped out on many an occasion (no innuendo meant) to do anything from reprogramming an answering machine to blowing up a lightbulb to messing up a Cyberman to tracing temporal energy. You name it, its done it.
THE OLD: And it probably had been done in the Classic era as well. Beginning its life with the First and Second Doctors as a small, simple, metal rod (beat that for minimalism, Apple), it evolved into a large one with stripes and switchable heads for different functions and was eventually destroyed in the Fifth Doctors era due to Peter Davidson considering that it had been overused as a plot device. Hmm. It was finally replaced at the end of the Seventh, and throughout the Eighth Doctors, run of stories - its design gradually changing from a metal casing with an emitter-ring head to one with a diode and even temporarily having a sonic screwdriver with a wooden base during his fight against the Eminence. No matter what the design, no matter what the incarnation, the sonic screwdriver is just like the Doctor that uses it. Same software, different case.