The 2nd Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver(s)

Welcome! It's my 1st ever blog, so it could be a bumpy ride... 

As a fan of Doctor Who, especially the years from 1963 - The TV Movie, I’m a sucker for fascinating facts & trivia that has been long forgotten and unearthed by others. Still to this day. Doctor Who is a huge treasure chest that lets loose its secrets everyone once in a while, and sometimes, if we are very, very lucky, an odd missing episode pops up for us to enjoy again all anew. If you like obscure facts about Doctor who props, scripts, costumes, restoration etc. then there are plenty of nuggets of fascinating facts out there compiled by better folk than me. Visits sites like TARDIS Builders, or follow individuals like Clayton Hickman, Andrew Pixley, Richard Bignell, Gavin Rymill (Mind Robber) & Stuart Humphryes (Bablecolour) on social media. Look at their research, restorations or enhancements. It’s all fascinating stuff and quite addictive!

On this blog I shall add, from time to time, my own little bits of nonsense, mainly from the Troughton era, as he is 'My Doctor'. That said, it will be nowhere in the same league as the gentlemen above, but hey... as an advert once declared, ‘every little helps’.

So, I’m gonna kick off with my bit of research that’s taken up far too much of my time over the years. I going to look at the of 2^nd Doctors Sonic Screwdriver… or should I say, Sonic Screwdrivers. Yes, for those of you that don’t know (are there any out there?), this incarnation of the Doctor had not one, but THREE version of the iconic prop. So, why concentrate on these first? Surely everyone knows everything there is to know about this prop? ah, well not quite, as this blog will show. 

Since 2012 I’ve being conducting some research of my own and decided that this is the best platform to share the information I have discovered so far. I’ll also credit or reference those who have helped me get to a certain point with my findings to date. To be honest, the purpose of this site is also to de-bunk the myths, untangle the hearsay that has been twisted into fact as well as letting people know how I came to find out the info. If it spurs others on to look and delve deeper into things too, then all the better. I have to confess, there is also another reason I‘m writing this… I was a little miffed that a recent DWM special covering various props in Doctor Who had not acknowledged my flag-up on one of the props. Truth be told, without my observations, along with other fans identifying and sharing  info, the first of the Sonic Screwdrivers would still be an unknown prop. The thread is also a good read, especially when you hit the eureka moment. Its a shame there wasn't a link in the mag, but if you read on, you'll find it here. 

There is also another sonic surprise in this blog, one that I've finally now had the time to share. While conducting my research, I have seen the wrong information grow and become solid fact because not enough research was done or followed up. That's fine, it happens and its corrected here…  but more of that later.

THE FURY FROM THE DEEP SONIC SCREWDRIVER

As we know, this was the first time The Sonic Screwdriver was seen and mentioned.  I know some fans try to recon it being used by the 1^st Doctor, but no. The Sonic Screwdriver appears 3:20 into episode 1 of The Fury From The Deep. The Doctor says "A Sonic Screwdriver. It never fails…" It was invented by & introduced to the series by the writer of the story, Victor Pemberton.

Now, that's all well and good, but what did it look like? Its hard to know as the episode (at the time of writing) is still missing... but clues have been there for years. The publicity photo taken at the time (above) shows Troughton holding a real screwdriver but in another photo, taken during the filming of the scene, it shows The Doctor holding something else… 

For many years I had a 10x8 copy of this 2^nd photo and was fascinated as to what Troughton was holding. I was convinced it was The Sonic Screwdriver and tried to draw and work out what I thought it could be. It's clearly not a real screwdriver as in the 1^st photo or a torch as often thought. Of course it’s identity was further obscured by Troughton’s hand and annoyingly, the fact that the episode was missing. In 2013, while looking at the photo again, I decided to start a thread and posted my query on the RPF site, where I used to be a member, to see what others thought. (see the link)  http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=179221 and after some debate it was identified by Michael Bergeron as a life jacket safety whistle!

So, a safety whistle. Slightly disappointing I’d admit, but the mystery and mysterious shape had been solved. Yes, its common knowledge now, but up to the point of my post, no one had even noticed. It was a revelation to the small group of us following that thread at the time. However, this would not be the only time something to do with the 2^nd Doctors Sonic were hidden in plain sight (more of that later). So, why a safety whistle from a life jacket and not a constructed prop? That question was cleared up when a member of the RPF posted that while talking to Frazer Hines he remembered that something happened to the actual Sonic Screwdriver prop, so a piece of ‘bric-a-brac’ from Debbie Watling was used instead (see the link below & look at post No 109) . https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/2-sonics-for-the-2nd-doctor.179221/page-3 

To double check this info and not just take it as ‘fact’, as is often the case with these things to do with the Sonic Screwdriver, I looked at the existing photos taken during filming of Fury From The Deep. They do indeed show that Deborah Watling has a whistle on her jacket and that it matches the one Pat held in his hand.

Purchasing a vintage whistle myself, I replicated the shot of the ‘Sonic’ in Pat’s hand. Below shows my hand in the same position as Troughton holding a life jacket whistle. Match! 

Here is another photo taken during rehearsal or filming of the scene, showing the whistle in Troughton’s hand. This is a colourised photo but the shape of the whistle is unmistakable, as seen in the close-up below.

 Admittedly, this colourised photo is not as originally published and therefore skeptics could say that the object in Troughton’s hand could have been made to look like a whistle, so I leave my best proof til last… and it’s a good one! During the 1960’s Jon Cura recorded TV programmes (some now sadly lost forever) by taking a series of stills of the actual televised shows. These were known as telesnaps and Doctor Who benefited by Jon’s work. These are now all that we have of the missing classic stories. Some of these photos are so well know that fakes can now easily be spotted. Luckily, we have a record of the Sonic Screwdriver appearance in Fury From The Deep that had always been overlooked until 2013 and is the final proof that the 1^st Sonic props was a safety whistle. Below is one of Jon Cura’s Telesnaps (flagged up by RPF member Organic Mechanic), taken from the actual episode. The tip of the Sonic Screwdriver is being held over the gas pipe screw. Note that the flat tapered tip is the same as the life jacket whistle. Once again the proof was hidden in plain sight!

So, with that mystery solved, lets turn our attention to the actual 'missing prop' that was intended to be used. As previously mentioned, Frazer Hines vaguely recalled something happened to the original prop. This confirms that there was a specific one assigned for this story. So what happened to it? Was it lost, stolen, or did it just not turn up in-time for the shoot? In 2017, via twitter, Richard Bignall told me that in an interview many years ago Peter Day (visual effects), revealed that the Sonic Screwdriver prop was dropped down the gas pipe constructed for the scene and therefore a quick substitute had to be found. Story confirmed, but now that opens up a new set of questions. What happened to the prop after the pipe was dismantled? What was originally going to be used? Was it a different penlight, or perhaps another ordinary household object jazzed up?  Or, was there an actual prop designed and built from scratch? If it was the latter, it begs one final question... Are there sketches for that prop lying around in a drawer somewhere, just waiting to be discovered? Another mystery to uncover!

FOOTNOTE

Did the original prop finally turn up in episode 6? In this episode The Doctor has cobbled together a lash-up to defeat the seaweed creature and he shows it off to Harris. There is the following dialogue;

HARRIS: What... what does that do?

DOCTOR: Well it's a little toy of my own. Together with the amplifiers, yes... it should produce a sonic laser sound wave."

Does The Doctor mean his 'little toy' is the Sonic Screwdriver and its now attached to help this box of tricks to amplify the sound waves? Who Knows? Take a look at the following clip from the Loose Cannon reconstructions to see what I'm talking about.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12eiHwyrdx4

If you go 3 mins 26 seconds in, you'll see The Doctor slaps down on an object to activate the machine. It looks all metal and had curved sides to it. Was this the intended Sonic Screwdriver prop now inserted into the lash-up? It looks rather like a hammer that a GP would use to test knee reflexes!  This is of course is just fun speculation, but worthy of a mention. 

  

THE DOMINATORS SONIC SCREWDRIVER 

Sadly, this one's still as mystery & research is still in progress, but here is the info so far...

In episode 5 of The Dominators, the Sonic Screwdriver makes its 2nd appearance. However, this time it is in a totally different guise and not only that, it changes three times throughout the scene!

At first it looks like a tube or torch. Troughton can be seen taking off something at one end then attaching a trigger. In the next shot the trigger is missing and in another shot the tube, now minus the trigger, looks thicker. Click on the link to see the Sonic in action during the episode. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6d86RI9s7_Y.

  

THE WAR GAMES SONIC SCREWDRIVER. 

Probably the best known of all The Sonic Screwdriver props the 2nd Doctor used. This is mainly due to the fact that it easily recognised as a pen torch and that it appears on screen in several episodes. In 2012 this ‎penlight was identified by Adam Sterczala  as an Eveready slim penlight, Catalogue number 1980. 

Two things pointed to the possibility of this model being used as the prop.

(1) An unusual tapered end 
and

(2) The protruding  bulb‎. So it seemed a match had been found. However, I wanted to double check a few details including the colour of the end cap. Blue was a colour unique to Eveready, being seen in a variety of their different makes of torches. So, back in 2012, I tweeted Frazer Hines, who unprompted, confirmed the colour (see below)

...as did Wendy Padbury when I contacted her two years later via her webpage.

Hi Lee

I don’t mind you contacting me at all.

I have been wracking my brain to try and recall the exact colour of the pen. I, like Frazer, remember it was blue, but as to the actual shade I cannot help you. As you say, it was many years ago and if then I had thought that all these years later I would be asked the colour of the pen , I would have paid more attention!!

Hope you are not too disappointed in my response, but the answer may yet be out there somewhere!

Thank you again for contacting me and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Regards

Wendy

So armed with all this info, I decided to look for one myself.  In March 2013 I was lucky enough to find one on ebay. There were no other bidders, but I was aware that as word on the internet spread, more people would join in the hunt for these penlights and as time passed these chaps would be harder to buy at reasonable prices.

Purely by chance in the same year, I also managed to track down an Eveready Product Catalogue, dated 1976 that confirmed the make & model number. (below)

Yes, the penlight I'd acquired matched the one Adam had identified online, which in turn matched the one advertised in the '76 catalogue but this was a catalogue produced seven years after the transmitted story. What I wanted to do was authenticate the product details pre 1969, to be 100% certain that this was the model used. Truth was, I had a niggling doubt that it was not the correct penlight and here's why...

Observing it's use on screen, I saw that to activate the light, Troughton pressed down on the switch. In one scene during episode 3 he even had his thumb on the switch, poised to demonstrate The Sonic Screwdriver once again to the German Officer. This was at complete odds with the version I had, as to switch the torch on and off you had to twist the cap. The same description to activate it is also mentioned in the 1976 Eveready Catalogue

There was also something else that caught my eye. The switch looked a lighter colour to me than the rest of the capped end, but that could just be the way the scene was lit. However, in episode 6 when The Doctor removes a wall panel, the end of the prop is seen several times. It indeed clearly shows a lighter colour for the switch in comparison to the rest of the end cap. 

Sadly, my suspicions were that the 'previously identified' penlight was incorrect. It was that switch, it just looked too thin to me. The question was, could the prop have been modified, or was there an earlier or different design by Eveready that was used? 

My research couldn't really move on for sometime. I needed to find out if Eveready had indeed made another version of the penlight and if they had, would its production match the years covering the filming of  The War Games? 

I continued my hunt and then, finally, in 2014, Bingo! There it was! I couldn't believe it... I had found another variation of the Eveready slim penlight  on ebay. I had to look twice to be honest, as it looked so different to the one I was used to with the blue cap. The one that I and many others had taken to be the 'correct' version. 

Finally, when I saw the penlight in person, I could see that the activation switch was a push button, like that of a ball point pen, and of course, a different colour. Both changes matched what I could see on screen. Just to make sure, I decided to replicate a few of the shots from a scene in The War Games. So switching my phone on to take photos in glorious black & white I snapped a few photos and tried to match the contrast & brightness. The results can be seen below. They were spot on. 

Was this, at last, the correct version? It certainly looked liked it, I was convinced. But to be completely satisfied I needed documented proof, so I kept looking for more Eveready Product Catalogues and in doing so, I found and bought another of the Penlights with the matching blue switch. Once again, this was a twist only to activate. Contacting the seller for some history on the item, he confirmed that this was a torch his GP father bought in the early 1970's. However, I still wasn't any further re the other model.

At last, in July 2016 all my research came to fruition as the final pieces of this puzzle slotted into place, I manged to obtain copies of Eveready Product Catalogues covering the years 1966-71. Finally, this was the proof of providence that I had been searching for. 

Looking through the documents, I could see that there was no Eveready penlight No. 1980 in the catalogue dated 66/67... but one year later, it was a different story. The other 1960's catalogues not only confirmed a different design and colour for the click on/off activation switch, but also the type of metal finished used on the barrel. As luck would have it one of the catalogues advertised the Eveready penlight Cat No.1980 as 'a new product'. Finally! This confirmed it's introduction date as 1968. The same version appeared once again in the 1969/70 catalogue. However, by 1971 the penlight had been ‘upgraded’ to the blue twist on/off switch version, along with another change... a different finish to the metal. This nailed down the I proof I needed. 

  

In short, the product catalogues confirmed that there were two versions of this penlight, one with the lighter click on/off switch manufactured from 1968-70 and second with the blue twist switch from 1971 - 1976 and beyond. With only two years in production, this really does make this version of the prop a difficult item to find.

I can now confirm, without doubt, that The War Games Sonic Screwdriver prop was the Eveready slim penlight (Model no. 1980), version 1. ie  the version with the white clicker, not the blue twist cap.

FOOTNOTE

Although the blue capped penlight isn't used as The Sonic Screwdriver prop, it does appear in Doctor Who as another gadget and used by another Doctor. Look at episode 3 of The Time Warrior. 

Here Pertwee's Doctor uses the blue twist end capped version of the Eveready penlight as a device to help de-hypnotise the enslaved scientists. He taps a beat out on the side of the barrel and the torch flashes on & off in response. This would have been achieved by bending the clip further away from the barrel. When switched on, the light would still appear to be off, until the tap allowed the clip to make contact to the penlight barrel, thus switching the torch on. The release of the finger meant the clip sprang away from the barrel, effectively switching it off. 

It is worth noting again that the two versions of this torch have to be operated differently to switch them on. The Mark one is switched on via the clicker on the top. Its very like a ballpoint pen, one press for on, another for off. To switch on the mark two, the cap has to be twisted. Once on, the blue capped version can be temporarily switched off by depressing the cap, but once you release the pressure from the cap it will again activate the light. Another twist turns it off completely. 

From Top to bottom -  The Time Warrior gadget,
The Fury From The Deep Sonic, & The War Games Sonic

So there you have it. The blue capped Eveready penlight is used in Doctor Who, but NOT as a Sonic Screwdriver! If you have bought one of these (and some have been sold for hundreds of pounds recently) don't despair, you do have a prop replica, but sadly not one that was used as The War Games Sonic Screwdriver. The one with the lighter clicker switch is the version used and these were only manufactured for two years. The evidence is  there in the Eveready Product Catalogues for all to see. 

I hope you found my investigations of interest. If you did, let people know. One request though, if I may... I would rather you didn’t cut & paste the photos of my Penlights or other watermarked photos elsewhere. Please just reference them here, via a link. Let others come to the blog and read all the info as you have. Any questions, fire away!

Thanks for looking.

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