Doctor Who needs to take risks or it will cease to be relevant. One of the risks this year is the addition of the sonic sunglasses.
To be honest, there is no reason why the Doctor needs to have a sonic screwdriver. We are actually hard-pressed to think of the last time he actually used it as a Phillips-head screwdriver to, you know, put in or take out screws. Does the TARDIS even have screws? Interestingly enough, the sonic screwdriver has been a part of the Doctor’s character in most of his incarnations, but not all of them.
Aside from the fact that the screwdriver easily fits into a pocket instead of, say, a sonic sledgehammer or a sonic hedgehog (Sorry, we couldn’t resist), there is really no reason that the Doctor’s sonic device needs to be a screwdriver. It makes a great visual because it’s pointy and lights up, but it’s not like the Doctor is about to stick anyone with the pointy end.
Notably, it was during the reign of the fifth Doctor that the sonic screwdriver took a hiatus. John Nathan-Turner, the showrunner at the time, thought the writers were getting lazy. Every time the Doctor got in a jam, presto, the sonic screwdriver to the rescue. It had become a sort of a deus ex machina-like cliche. Nathan-Turner thought the writers would get more creative if they didn’t have the sonic screwdriver to fall back on. It worked for awhile, and then, two Doctors later, the scripts deteriorated anyway, and the show was cancelled.
Many years later, fans felt so bad for the screwdriver-less seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, Whovians gave the actor one during a convention. McCoy took delight in playing with it on stage. He twirled it around, and zapped the panel moderator as he got to recite the eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith’s) iconic Pandorica monologue. Aside from having substandard electronic devices, McCoy also had the lion’s share of the less than stellar scripts.
In any case, flash forward to 2005, and Russell T. Davies armed the ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston, with a sonic screwdriver from the very first episode in reboot Doctor Who. Eccleston grabbed Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) by the hand, yelled “run,” jumped into an elevator, and sonic’d the doors.
Each Doctor after Christopher Eccleston — David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi — had a sonic screwdriver up until the second episode of season 9, Peter Capaldi was wielding a sonic screwdriver. Then we had a plot twist, and the sonic screwdriver was gone faster than you could shout, “Don’t blink!”
We kind of liked the sonic eyeglasses at first. They are still small enough to fit into a pocket, and they are rather versatile. Apparently they get wifi, which makes us wonder what else can they do? On the other hand, they looked pretty weird plugged into the control panel of the underwater base last week. If the arm accidentally snaps off, is the Doctor going to attach it back on with nerdy masking tape?