We have been collectively agonizing over the Doctor’s so-called “sonic sunglasses” for a couple of months now. They kind of went with the whole leather jacket, guitar-playing Doctor Disco persona, but frankly they were neither practical for plot purposes nor particularly visually appealing. The wait is finally over, and Peter Capaldi finally has a new Sonic Screwdriver.
It’s very – very – long. It features a lot of little details and goodies that light up, including a turret of blue light conduits that pulse, and it has a lot of blue plastic parts. They have been working on this new design for some months now. The blueprint shown in the video has a date on it of August 20, 2015.
Whereas previous screwdrivers have been made largely of found parts, as the Doctor Who budget has increased, so has the quality and complexity of the props, the sonic screwdriver included. The extra length of the device should appeal to hobbyists and DIY’ers who should find the added internal volume much more conducive to the housing of Arduino circuitry and batteries (in part because this new creation has at very least practical lighting, and fairly bright lighting at that). It may be a fabricator’s nightmare, though, due to what looks like a great many custom parts – and the little bits appear to be mostly metal, meaning that when it becomes a toy (and eventually we all know it will) it will make for either a visually inaccurate or a structurally delicate bit of pocket jewelry, either that or rather more expensive than previous sonics have been so that compensations can be made.
And then there is that somewhat problematic tip. We wonder if anybody realizes exactly how phallic this thing was going to look once they built it. One hopes it does not extend and retract the way previous screwdrivers have done – or at least if it does, one hopes it gets a room first.
We believe the new sonic makes its debut on the season finale of Doctor Who entitled Hell Bent, airing tonight, December 5 on BBC America.
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