After the heated and interesting debate regarding the overuse of certain characters/aliens/enemies (Daleks spring to mind), I got to thinking...

Is the Doctor's Sonic being over used?

I watched The Hand of Fear over the last 2 nights, and the Sonic was only used in the last scene, to fix the TARDIS.

Yet in the latest series it seems to do every thing from unlocking doors and jamming signals (which is fine and fits nicely in the remit of what it is) to being used as a scanner for all sorts of thing ALA tricorder (with no real readout) and even possibly as a weapon.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Sonic, it is one of the reasons I got into Who in the first place, and I would like to see it in use - just not every bloody 5 minutes.

Nowhere near as much as 10 used it in his first season. Maybe someone can put a sonic usage collage on You Tube

I can't remember who said it, but it was pointed out that the Doctor needs to get quite a lot of information in a smaller time frame - the older format saw multiple episodes to a single story, so there was time to expand with exposition for a gadget that could do this, or whilst the Doctor concocted another thing to help get out of a situation. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you might see it), the new format doesn't allow for any unnecessary exposition, so to pare it down, things can be kept much simpler if the sonic screwdriver can be used for more than it used to be.

I'm quite happy for it to carry on in its current usage, as long as it never becomes the focus of the story - or the means for vanquishing the big bad!

It's overused to a grotesque extent.

It's nothing but lazy writing. (Even if you do take the point made by sebbie300 above and use it to excuse a little overuse).

Even the ancient Greeks used to complain about the overuse of the 'deus ex machina' plot device.

always

The sonic screwdriver, or rather a new unseen ability of the sonic screwdriver is never used as the climatic resolution. The writers have always been very firm on that. It's solely a plot device, to keep things flowing and create/defuse tension.

For that matter, I have noticed that it has been used considerably less in the latest series. It barely registered in the opening episodes, and I only noticed it a few times in the pirates episode. Compared to Series 5, where the Doctor used is as much as something to fidget with as much as anything else.

Just wait until Rory gets the Sonic Vibrator out for Amy.

frist, yuck
secound-rory is mine not amy's

That is true, but I was using 'deus ex machina' in a broader sense. It may not have been the ultimate resolution but it has certainly been a necessary part along the path to resolution.


Yes, it's not as bad so far this series as it has been.

It's the expansion of the functionality of the device that's the real problem. It now seems to be able to analyse just about anything (including people's minds), has been used as a weapon, and even, very rarely, to unscrew things!

Now that's what I call a climactic resolution!

Yes there is far too much Sonic. i played that game for years as a kid and now have severe RSI in my wrists and thumbs...stupid hedgehog

I can't think of any instances where the screwdriver has been able to let the heroes escape from a previously inescapable situation, at least not where it involves a screwdriver function that hasn't been seen before. Which is kind of the requirement for it be a deus ex machina.

The dialogue would go along the lines of:

Amy: Whats that?
Rory: It's a Sonic Vibrator
Amy: What does it do, exactly?
Rory: It's errr...vibrates
Amy: And where were you planning on putting that?
Rory: Ummmm
Amy: Hang on Rory, incoming call

*at this point Amy regenerates into.....*

Captain Jack Harkness: So Rory.....where were you going to put that? *grins*

Very Freudian.

lol

yey

Wasn't this complained about in Old Who too? Think it was during Tom Baker's stint as the Doc. I seem to remember them destroying it.

Can you not?

Well, never mind.

I agree with johnny... I can't think of anything remotely like that, either. If you can, feel free to explain it!

are you talking about the pandorica???

There's really no point since he's taking it at one and the same time too literally and not literally enough.

It is true that in the Greek plays where such a device was used it was used at the end of the play to sort everything out but that does not mean that the idea of a machine that delivers god like powers has to be restricted to use in a finale.

The question was: "Too much sonic?"

My answer was: "Yes" because it is used in such a way that it seems to have an incredibly broad sweep of powers that are never explained (so new ones pop up from time to time at convenient moments) and that are frequently required in order to get from one part of the plot to another.

Way too much IMO. I'd rather the Doctor went back to inventing what he needs A Team-style. He could of course use the sonic to build his device. That would be OK.

Nope. You'll notice in my last statement about where the screwdriver gets used, I didn't mention finales or god-like powers, I was going with your broader meaning, and it doesn't apply.

The term is used when a cliffhanger, or inescapable event, is undercut by outside entity or force not previously hinted at. The screwdriver isn't used for that, it just greases the wheels of existing ideas.

For those referring to the Pandorica, then it's use was not only what it's usually used for - opening doors - it was already established that the screwdriver could do it, and easily.

Is the sonic used too often? Probably.

However its been used less in recent stories and as long as they stick to doing dull/uninteresting tasks like locking/unlocking things then I won't mind.

Fortunately the Doctor has yet used it to apply lipstick!


Now I am thinking of Sarah Jane

The Doc: Amy, have you seen my sonic screwdriver?
Amy: Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The Doc: Funny, it just keeps disappearing up some black hole and then it comes back all sticky. Must be some ectoplasm.
Amy: Vrrrrr. Vrrrr. Yeeeeessssssss! that must be it. Oh, look here it is in my hand, ectoplasm and all.