In the 1979 serial City of Death, Count Scarlioni's henchmen use a "sonic knife" to cut the glass in front of the Mona Lisa. In the episodes " Day One" and " End of Days", Captain Jack Harkness uses a green device somewhat similar to a sonic screwdriver. Nardole uses the Fifth Doctor's version when sealing bulkhead doors to keep out Daleks later in the episode. The Doctor went without a sonic screwdriver for some time after this model, with Nyssa lamenting his decision not to replace it.

It had a removable burgundy emitter head which the Doctor would change with others, each performing a different function. There is technology the sonic is unable to interface with, such as wood, or the isomorphic controls seen in "A Christmas Carol". The Eighth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver is a re-released 8th Doctor Sonic which sold out the first time around (January 2014).

Matt Smith used the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver to turn on the Christmas Lights in Cardiff in November 2010.

The Third Doctor later fitted the head of his sonic screwdriver with a cylindrical black magnet which enabled it to open bolted doors, especially when its polarity was reversed.

The Doctor Who Site also participates in various other affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commission on products purchased through our links. In Sword of Orion, the Eighth Doctor reveals that his sonic screwdriver has a torch built into the handle. Sophisticated and elegant this Doctor was more of a pure scientist than his predecessors, surrounded by gadgets and vehicles. Davros is shown to have kept the screwdriver in his possession ever since, and the Doctor tells Clara that he no longer has a screwdriver.

The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, Father Time, features an amnesiac Doctor attempting to recreate the sonic screwdriver with 1980s technology, eventually producing a bulky device nicknamed the "sonic suitcase". 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. And she quickly put it to work, using it to defuse the DNA bombs that had been implanted into her and her new mates, scan the alien gathering coils, and trigger a teleport device rescued from the abandoned Stenza pod. The sonic pen took the form of a sleek, black and silver fountain pen with a blue light at the top and was made into a toy version which was paired with the sonic screwdriver.This iteration of the sonic screwdriver glows throughout its body with an orange light when activated. It functions much like the sonic screwdriver, used primarily for opening and closing locked doors, and for disabling and re-enabling machines; like the sonic screwdriver, it remains ineffective against deadlock seals and wooden objects.