Doctor Who - Third Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver with Sound FX

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In the series 4 episode " Partners in Crime", the antagonist Miss Foster is shown using a sonic device identified as a sonic pen, which the Doctor describes as having identical functionality to his screwdriver. She hammered, soldered, glued, chiselled, welded, poured and, finally, froze it all into place, creating a sonic screwdriver like no other. In The Three Doctors (1972–73), the sonic screwdriver is almost unrecognisable, being a unique, one-use prop with a plastic red spherical head.

It also includes an ultraviolet light and changeable invisible ink nib for viewing messages written in the ultraviolet ink.

The upper half is a rectangular light grid that, when switched on, has four different functions: green light with low-pitched sound, blue light with high-pitched sound, green lights that pulse with a pulsing sound, and a blue light chasing pattern with a pulsing sound. The playable characters form this premium pack represented almost every model of sonic screwdriver encountered in the DWU.

The sonic screwdriver was retired during the Fifth Doctor serial The Visitation, as it was felt that it had been overused. Sonics are also capable of calculations, such as The Day of the Doctor (2013), when the War Doctor used calculations to allow the sonic to work on wood, the calculations of which appeared partly done on the Tenth Doctor's sonic and completed in the Eleventh's. This version had even more functions including detecting security traps, remote detonation of mines, opening doors and restraints, creating ignition sparks and again removing screws and fixings.In " Closing Time" (2011), ringed energy beams are seen emitted from the device, giving it a more weapon-like appearance, particularly when used to disable a weakened Cyberman at a distance. It was established as a plot point in that episode that the sonic screwdrivers employed by various Doctor incarnations all use the same software, something the War Doctor exploited by running a calculation over a course of several centuries with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors seeing the calculation completed through their models.

It is shown to hack, disable, activate, and otherwise control technology from almost everything, allowing it to remotely control almost any machinery, mechanisms, and computers it is applied to, allowing it to open locks, detonate explosives, remotely activate electronics, override most systems, activate computers, and cause some energy weapons to burst into flames or sparks. The Doctor's Time Lady companion Romana constructed a sonic screwdriver of her own similar to the Doctor's. A model of sonic screwdriver, going through multiple modifications, was used by the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors. The Magician's Apprentice" (2015) shows that the sonic screwdriver can create "an acoustic corridor" so that the Twelfth Doctor can communicate with a boy trapped in an extraterrestrial mine field.

Like the TARDIS, it has become one of the icons of the programme, and spin-off media such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood have replicated its functions in devices such as the sonic lipstick, sonic blaster, sonic probe, sonic modulator and sonic cane. As there was no TARDIS around to fire out a replacement, she had to take matters into her own hands. In " Silence in the Library" (2008), while trying to open a wooden door, the Doctor tells Donna that the sonic screwdriver will not work because the door is made of wood, a fact later restated in " The Hungry Earth" (2010); when Rory complains about this, the Doctor counters to not "diss the sonic. The Sonic Screwdriver is a versatile tool and defensive device first used by the Doctor in his second incarnation for opening up hatches, panels and controls. The laser screwdriver reappears in The Doctor Falls when the Master encounters his later female incarnation, Missy.