Ncuti Gatwa’s Sonic Screwdriver Has A Very Cool Feature Doctor Who Hasn’t Used Before

• Fifteen’s Sonic Screwdriver in Doctor Who season 14 changes color to red and silver, matching his outfit.
• The new Sonic Screwdriver has a visual scanner, allowing the Doctor to do more than point and click.
• Gatwa’s Doctor values fashion, rarely repeating outfits, and adjusting his Sonic to match is on-brand.

In Doctor Who season 14, episode 6, “Rogue,” Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor showcases a new facet of his Sonic Screwdriver that his predecessors either didn’t utilize or never had access to. There’s also another feature of the Doctor’s iconic tool that he uses in “Rogue” that is certainly unique to this version of the Sonic. One is far more useful than the other, but they both have their advantages.

The Sonic Screwdriver has appeared in many of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time. However, not every actor to play the Doctor has favored the use of the device. Fortunately, the Fifteenth Doctor is a version of the Time Lord who always has it by his side. It may look very different from the Sonic Screwdrivers of Doctors past, but it’s just as useful – if not more so.

Fifteen ditches the blue and goes with red

Fifteen’s Sonic looks far more like a remote control than it does a screwdriver, but its new aesthetic doesn’t stop at being far less streamlined. In “Rogue,” the device is red and silver, whereas in every other appearance, it’s been blue and silver instead. The Doctor isn’t actively shown changing the hue of his Screwdriver, but he presumably made the adjustment so it would match the color theme of his Bridgerton-inspired outfit that he sports for the entirety of the episode.

Fifteen has already established himself to be very fashionable, as he very rarely repeats an outfit. Gatwa’s Doctor doesn’t have a “look” like all of his predecessors did, but changing the color of his Sonic Screwdriver so it doesn’t clash with his garments is very on-brand for this version of the show’s main character. It’s unclear whether his Sonic has the ability to change color on command, or whether the casing needs to be physically replaced. Alternatively, the Doctor could have several Screwdrivers in an array of different colors to prevent a fashion faux pas.

Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 6 Introduces Another Great Sonic Screwdriver Feature

Gatwa’s Screwdriver also has a visual scanner

Fifteen’s Screwdriver has another skill that goes beyond physical appearances. On Rogue’s ship, the Doctor flips out what looks like a small magnifying glass from the body of his Sonic and looks through it to scan the room. This is a great addition to the Doctor’s arsenal, and it allows him to do much more than just point and click at things. If this version of the Sonic can also generate shields like the Screwdriver used by David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor in “The Star Beast,” then it could be the most versatile and indispensable design in Doctor Who history.