Give phones free calls (The Runaway Bride)
Give mobile phones Universal Roaming – no matter what the price plan (42, The Doctor’s Daughter, Planet of the Dead)
Hack into websites (The Runaway Bride)
Heal wounds (The Vampires of Venice)
Ignite gas (Carnival of Monsters)
Increase mesh-density of atmospheric suits (Silence in the Library)
Increase X-Ray radiation (Smith and Jones)
Interrupt forcefields (Invasion of Time)
Knock over stone slabs (The Fires of Pompeii)
Landmine and bomb detonation (The Sea Devils, Robot, Doomsday)
Light candles (The Girl in the Fireplace)
Lower blinds (The End of the World)
Make toys work by themselves (Night Terrors)
Manipulate super-dense water vapour (The Snowmen)
Medical scans (The Empty Child and more)
Melt gangers (The Almost People)
Melt plastic (The Android Invasion)
Open cracks in time (The Eleventh Hour)
Open doors and picking locks (Too many to mention)
Open manholes (Daleks in Manhattan)
Open sonic barriers (The Visitation)
Overload technology (The Eleventh Hour, The Angels Take Manhattan)
Prime explosives (Destiny of the Daleks)
Psychic Interface – just point and think (Let’s Kill Hitler)
Radio interference (Daleks in Manhattan)
Raise sun filters (The End of the World)
Reattach barbed wire – setting 2,428 D apparently (The Doctor Dances)
Recharge batteries (Father’s Day)
Remote control – for TARDIS systems (The Parting of the Ways, The Eleventh Hour) and even the odd hut door (Inferno)
Remotely delete answerphone messages (Pond Life)
Remove manacles / handcuffs (Lots of times)
Repel mutant maggots (The Green Death)
Resonate concrete (The Doctor Dances)
Reveal force fields (The Hungry Earth)
Reverse teleporters (Boom Town)
Rewire systems (The Ark in Space, Gridlock and others)
Safe cracker (The Sun Makers)
Scan computers / technology (Various)
Scramble scribble monsters (Fear Her)
Screwdriver (Fury from the Deep, The War Games, The Ark in Space)
Scupper door controls / computer systems (Many, many times)
Search mobile phones for apps and information (The Runaway Bride)
Separate humans from an Abzorbaloff – before fusing them into paving slabs (Love & Monsters)
Set off alarms (Terror of the Zygons)
Shut off CCTV (The God Complex)
Heat up metal (Let’s Kill Hitler)
Slice through alien spider web (The Runaway Bride)
Soldering iron (The Sound of Drums)
Sonic lance – capable of cutting through metal (Robot)
Steal money from cashpoints (The Long Game, The Runaway Bride)
Summon the TARDIS – as long as Huon particles are present (The Runaway Bride)
Test for clairvoyance (Planet of the Spiders)
Transmit messages (Partners in Crime)
Triangulate energy sources – setting 15B (Army of Ghosts)
Triplicate the flammability of alcohol – although the Doctor may have been bluffing (World War Three)
Repair TARDIS systems (Aliens of London)
Turn up the volume of church organs (The Lazarus Experiment)
Deactivate robots (The Sontaran Experiment, Four to Doomsday)
Uncork champagne (Voyage of the Damned)
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
‘Even the sonic screwdriver won’t get me out of this one.’
The Doctor, The Invasion of Time
Only works on electronic locks (Carnival of Monsters) – although later versions seem to have overcome this problem
Doesn’t do wood (Silence in the Library)
Can’t open deadlock seals – unless used in conjunction with another sonic device (School Reunion, Partners in Crime)
OTHER SONIC DEVICES
Romana’s sonic screwdriver – Coveted by the Doctor (The Horns of Nimon)
Sonic blaster – 51st-century gun from Villengard. First used by Captain Jack Harkness and later River Song (The Empty Child, Silence in the Library)
Sonic cane – Ideal for when the Doctor wants to don top hat and tails. Can also contact the sonic screwdriver (Let’s Kill Hitler)
Sonic cone – A sonic mine used by the Bannermen. Step within its range and you’re atomised (Delta and the Bannermen)
Sonic door handle – One of the Third Doctor’s ‘funny gadgets’, used to open his garage doors. Liz Shaw had one too. Could possibly be another variation of the sonic screwdriver but this is never made clear (Inferno)
Sonic guns – Weapons employed by the Ice Warriors, can do nasty things to your insides (various stories, including The Ice Warriors)
Sonic knife – Handy if you want to cut through glass and steal priceless works of art (City of Death)
Sonic lance – A large industrial device used in mining operations on Peladon (The Monster of Peladon)
Sonic lance – Used by the Sixth Doctor in his TARDIS repairs (Attack of the Cybermen)
Ultrasonic ray gun – Mounted on a tripod and used to destroy Daleks with good old-fashioned Earth rock ’n’ roll (Revelation of the Daleks)
Sonic lipstick – Given to Sarah Jane Smith by the Doctor (Journey’s End)
Sonic pen – Wielded by Miss Foster aka Matron Cofelia, resembling a black fountain pen (Partners in Crime)
Sonic probe – Constructed by the Amy Pond trapped in an alternative time stream (The Girl Who Waited)
PSYCHIC PAPER
Almost as useful as the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor’s psychic paper opens a lot of doors…
An invitation to the Earth Death celebrations – plus one (The End of the World)
Satellite Five management credentials (The Long Game)
Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids (The Empty Child)
Doctor James Macrimmon from the township of Balamory, trained under Doctor Bell at the University of Edinburgh, appointed by the Lord Provost as Queen Victoria’s protector (Tooth and Claw)
Employment papers (Rise of the Cybermen)
Government official – on royal appointment (The Idiot’s Lantern)
The King of Belgium (The Idiot’s Lantern)
Police officer (Fear Her)
Passes to the Empire State Building – two engineers and an architect (Evolution of the Daleks)
Ticket number Red 67, plus one (Voyage of the Damned)
John Smith, Health and Safety (Partners in Crime)
Marble inspector (The Fires of Pompeii)