The best thing RTD did was to kill the sonic.

They can't do that now because there is too much merchandising in it. If you don't like the sonic as a plot device, then don't buy sonic toys.

They also have to have these bits now:
1. Doctor gets kissed
2. Series arc
3. Cheap gimmicks like having people seemingly killed off


Never had to have any of these in the classic series (with some small exceptions). That's the regrettable price of fame.

i hate the new sonic, it was used far&too much in "The Hungry Earth" 7 "Cold Blood"

Look. In the old days, when you had an 8 parter, you could spend a long long time watching the doctor try to get out of a locked room.

Now, at 40-50 minutes, that's just not an option. Plus, we've seen it over and over again.

Simple short cuts like the Sonic Screwdriver and the Psychic Paper get the nonsense out of the way and allow the writers to bang-on into the story they're trying to tell.

Or, you know, we could have an entire season about the Doctor being arrested for not having ID, then locked up, then trying to get out. Yay.

I don't think the sonic is the issue. Doctor who by its very nature is full of "deus ex machina" to get out of its problems. In a tight squeeze something surprising will always save the day (the TARDIS, the Doctor, etc.).

I haven't seen the old show so I can't compare, but it seems like ridiculous science and more ridiculous solutions are mainstays of doctor who and that's not going to change.

Sure some episodes rely on it too heavily while other don't use it at all ("blink"), but in the end the sonic screwdriver is not a make or break element to the show. If anything it saves us time as the doctor has to give a "wibbly wobbly" explanation to how he bypasses every new technology.

Blimey, if you think that the sonic is used a lot now you need to go and watch the Pertwee era again (or for the first time). There were gadgets galore then.
And as for killing off people only for them to return...I could start with Davros and just keep going on that list!

Yes, yes, gimmicks like the sonic screwdriver and psychic paper do move the plot along, keep the science from being too heavy, get the Doctor out of tight spots. Maybe they are a deus ex machina, but I would argue the Doctor is the greatest deus ex machina of all.

The question really comes down to the kind of show you want Doctor Who to be. By this point I have seen countless episodes of both new and old, I've experiences every Doctor and read many, many novels. In my opinion what differentiates the old from the new, and from the crazy wilderness years of 7/8 novel ranges, is that Doctor Who used to focus on plot, mystery, science, and puzzles, sometimes at the expense of characterization and emotional depth.

Some may argue that in the RTD/Moffat era, the opposite is true. The new show focuses so much more on the people, from interacting with companions' families for the first time, to, yes, having the Doctor exist as a sexual being who can fall in love like anybody else. And if that means you need to get the plot out of the way so the Doctor can have an emotional moment with someone he cares about, then so be it.

Doctor Who is brilliant because it has both, and best when it has both in equal measure, and if that means getting out of jail in five minutes to spend the rest of the time developing the characters and relationships on the show, then so be it. In this era of modern TV, I don't think the vast majority of the audience seems to mind.

Just been reading Kasterborous. 'Tis to laugh! Half the pompous nerdoids commenting on there are actually villainous aliens cunningly disguised as commenters who also have a degree in doctorwhoology. They are sometimes known as 'The Humourless Ones' and sometimes as 'The Fail'.

Their super-villain secret-plan is for Doctor Who to be taken from our screens by it not appealing to the present day audience.

odd feelings about the "locked in a room" problem. yes, it got to a tedium in the classic series, but on one occasion (Frontier In Space) it resulted in some of the best script-writing (re: spoken dialog) in the whole of the classic series. 3 was a prisoner (of one form or another) for most of the 6 parts but the script is such that I never tire of hearing him talk.

Isn't that Kasterborous article a year old? Funny time to bring it up again...

The new sonic is no more or less than a magic wand, designed to appeal to the Harry Potter crowd. Fair do's if you like that sort of thing, but anyone who thinks you need a magic wand to "move the plot along" is cracked. Loads of adult drama moves a plot along without being able to resolve any dramatic problem at will with a flick of the wrist.

Doctor Who's back up, and I thought it was an interesting article. I decided that now was a pretty good time to bring it up.

The majority of good writing doesn't
use it in the new series and I don't think any of Moffat's scripts have really over used it. "BLINK" for me is one of my fav's ever and I don't think it ever shows up there, and the Timey-Wimey detector is just hilarious. I don't recall it other than a talisman to jog the Doctor's memory in "Family of Blood". Welding barb-wire back in series one was a bit of stretch for me, but blowing through locks or even igniting a torch and that sort of thing are funny to me.

Every time this comes up I always long for a bit of comic relief where the Doctor confesses that the thing isn't really all that sonic anymore...

"Well to tell the truth, I've done a lot of tinkering over the centuries. I added a quantum entanglement manipulator, magneto-metric sensors, telepathic interface linkage back to the TARDIS for translation and imaging services. The meson welder was showing off I must admit, but then I got carried away and added all sorts of sub-atomic particle emitters with flux capacitance. But I can still spin screws, nuts and bolts up to fifty paces with the sonic functions."

"So why do you still call it a sonic screwdriver?"

"Well 'quantum entanglement manipulator' just doesn't roll of the tongue does it? Now, be a dear and hand me that large rubber mallet would you? We've got some Sontarans that need a good old bonk in the probic old vent holes."

"Doctor couldn't we just get some phasers and break off the knob once they are set to 'stun' and forget all this mucking about with doodads?"

"Phasers! You watch too much sci-fi nonsense on tv!"

The sonic is appropriate for a modern audience who can't sit through episodes with the cast locked in a room.

Note: there are always plot devices to lose the sonic for a while if necessary "it doesn't work on wood!".

I'm more concerned with the constant resurrection of people and the lack of dodgy morality in the doctor.

Remember the scene in Image of the Fendahl where Tom Baker hands someone a gun so they can shoot themselves?

His morality isn't supposed to be human - and it IS supposed to be wrong occasionally.

which is not to say that the sonic means no "locked room" episodes.

look at midnight. locked in a room. sonic won't help, because outside of the room is worse.

and that's arguably the best episode RTD ever wrote!

Sonic screwdrivers are cool though, right? It is better that the sonic screwdriver saves the day than some other mechanism the Doctor pulls out of the Tardis glove box.

The psychic paper, however got pretty ridiculous during the RTD/Tennant days. At least now it is used as more of a joke.

I would enjoy a little bit more science in my science fiction, but back in the classic series the actual laws of physics, for instance, rarely made sense, so I don't know what the point is.

Not to point fingers Pertwee, but I don't know if #11 should "reverse the polarity" a little more and sonic a little less or drop the psychic paper in the toilet, just keep being creepy & alien.

I never liked the old series as much as the new series. I found that a whole story was just because the Doctor was trapped behind some door. The Classic series also relied heavily upon dialogue to move stories along due to the small budget. The Classic series would go on in great length because of little factors like this. The sonic screwdriver is used to imply to the audience that it is something the Doctor has which reveals that he is Alien, it is never overused, and when the sonic is used, it has a reasonable excuse. Don't go blaming Lazy writers, when the new series can make great stories in one or two part episodes, as opposed to the slow, monotonous pace of the classic series. I don't hate the classics, but I think the new series are a whole lot better and infinitely more intricate in the their storytelling.

Take something like "Curse of Fenric", "Caves of Androzanni", "Pyramids of Mars", "Ghost Light" etc going all the way back to "Tenth Planet" and "Power of the Daleks".

Condense it to 45 minutes.
Add awesome special effects and snappier dialog.

The old series was just as good, if not much better than the new. It's just a product of its time.

"reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" apparently in the scrip every week because Pertwee couldn't pronounce the ACTUAL science that was scripted. LOL.
It was put in the Children in Need 5 (?) Doctors (I used to love that) as a nod to Pertwee's time as the Doc.

I do think the sonic is being overused. I've no problem with using it to open doors or even to unscrew screws, however when its used to blow gun's out of peoples hands and creating barb wire out of thin air it stops being a functional practical tool and becomes a magic wand.

The sonic was destroyed during the years of Doctor #5 because the producer felt it was a crutch, an answer all so the doctor didn't have to think.
While I am glad the sonic is back, I do think it is being overused, and its abilities are quite absurdly bizarre - medical scans with a screwdriver? Really?

What I'd give to have "Curse Of Fenric" modernized. Definitely my favorite Seventh Docor story.