Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)
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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)
Chief Inspector Smith from Scotland Yard (The Unicorn and the Wasp)
Engine expert (Midnight)
UNIT credentials (Planet of the Dead)
Church credentials (The Vampires of Venice)
References from the King of Sweden (The Vampires of Venice)
The Doctor’s National Insurance Number, NHS number and references (The Lodger)
Meteorological Department credentials (The Rebel Flesh)
Social Services credentials (Night Terrors)
Special commissioner from the Chinese Emperor (The Angels Take Manhattan)
The psychic paper also receives messages from time to time:
‘Ward 26, Please Come’ – from the Face of Boe (New Earth)
‘The Library, come as soon as you can x’ – from River Song (Silence in the Library)
‘Prisoner Zero has escaped’ – from the Atraxi (The Eleventh Hour)
‘Please save me from the monsters’ – from George (Night Terrors)
Summons to the Tower of London – from Kate Stewart (The Power of Three)
PSYCHIC PAPER EPIC FAIL
Beware, not all are susceptible to the Paper’s powers. To date, it hasn’t been able to fool:
Rose Tyler
Captain Jack Harkness
Trained Torchwood employees
William Shakespeare
Madame Rosanna Calvierri
Plus, it shorted out when the Doctor tried to claim he was universally recognised as a mature and responsible adult.
THE DOCTOR’S TOOLKIT
It’s not all about screwdrivers, you know. The Doctor has used many a tool in his travels. Some are part of the TARDIS toolkit. Some he’s created. Some are just common-or-garden objects. But all of them work. Well, some of them work. Mostly. Here’s a selection of his most useful gadgets.
Argon discharge globes – used with portable mu-field activators (Frontios)
Astro-rectifier – helpful when repairing TARDIS thermo-couplings (The Hand of Fear)
Bio-damper – a ring-like device that masks the wearer’s bio-signature. Useless against Huon particles (The Runaway Bride)
Cricket ball – useless if you need to activate an auto-guard cut-out (The Ark in Space) but handy if you find yourself floating aimlessly in space (Four to Doomsday)
Dog whistle – for summoning your robot dog (The Ribos Operation and others)
Drawing pins – the Second Doctor carried drawing pins with him, just because he liked them (The Space Pirates)
Etheric beam locator – for those moments when you need to locate etheric beams (Genesis of the Daleks)
Fireworks – a firecracker and some blue touch paper can help unblock sacred flames (The Brain of Morbius), while Galactic Glitters are good for maddening Yeti (The Five Doctors)
Fob watch – Peri smashed the Sixth Doctor’s, but the Sevent
h Doctor replaced it with one that contained an alarm, calculator and scanner (Silver Nemesis, Survival)
Football rattle – useful when you need to spook horses (The Masque of Mandragora)
Ganymede driver – used to repair the TARDIS’s thermo-couplings (The Hand of Fear)
Infrared sunglasses – good for seeing in the dark (The Hungry Earth)
Jammie Dodger – doubles as TARDIS self-destruct button, as long as it’s not scanned by Daleks, that is (Victory of the Daleks)
Laser spanner – stolen by Emily Pankhurst (Smith and Jones)
Magnetic clamp – dangerous if in the hands of a Master-controlled companion (Doctor Who)
Mergin nut (The Hand of Fear)
Memory worm – one touch on your bare skin and you lose the last hour of your memory. A bite will wipe out decades (The Snowmen)
Mobile phone – because it’s good to talk (Boom Town)
Multi-quantiscope (The Hand of Fear)
Nanorecorders – voice recorders implanted in your hand (Day of the Moon)
Neutron ram (Doctor Who)
Notebook – containing all the key codes of the machines in the TARDIS along with notes on places he’s travelled to. The Doctor would never leave it behind, unless he was attacked by cavemen (An Unearthly Child)
Parthenogenesis detector – for detecting independent creation of life forms (Partners in Crime)
Recorder – can destabilise antimatter universes as long as it’s fallen into the TARDIS’s force-field generator (The Three Doctors)
Rhondium sensor – detects delta or, unsurprisingly, Rhondium particles (The Time Warrior, Planet of the Dead)
Special straw – adds extra fizz to carbonated drinks (The Impossible Astronaut)
Species matcher – identifies an individual’s species and planet of origin based on an image or picture. Given to the Doctor by a dull godmother with two heads and bad breath (Vincent and the Doctor)
Stattenheim remote control – TARDIS remote control (The Two Doctors)
Stethoscope – what Doctor worth his salt would be without a stethoscope? Especially when you can use one to listen to heartbeats in pipes (Fury from the Deep), identify transmitters (The Creature From the Pit), eavesdrop (The Runaway Bride, Partners in Crime) and follow signals (The Stolen Earth), or to check the TARDIS in flight (The Lodger)
TARDIS magnet – homing signal that helps you find the TARDIS while out and about. Just keep an eye on the green light. (The Chase) Other TARDIS homing devices crop up in Full Circle, Mawdryn Undead and The Visitation
Telescope – the Second, Third, and Fourth Doctors all kept a folding telescope handy
The Doctor’s signet ring – could open the TARDIS doors in case of power failure. Also useful for handling Zarbi, resetting TARDIS locks and hypnotising people (The Web Planet, The Daleks’ Master Plan, The War Machines)
Timey-Wimey detector – goes ‘Ding’ when there’s stuff and boils eggs at thirty paces. Best kept away from hens (Blink)
Umbrella – can be used to measure radio antennae when a tape measure isn’t to hand (Remembrance of the Daleks)
Yo-yo – for taking gravity readings (The Ark in Space)
Zeus plug – can also double as castanets (The Hand of Fear, The Girl in the Fireplace)
WHO’S DRIVING THIS THING?
When he was a lad, the Doctor always wanted to be a train driver, but as far as we know has never stepped behind the boilerplate. However, he’s driven and piloted a fair few vehicles in his time. Here’s a list of the notable ones. Vroom vroom!
The TARDIS – From An Unearthly Child to now
Helicopter – Fury from the Deep
Transport capsule – The Dominators
Military land rover – The Invasion, Day of the Daleks, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Robot, Terror of the Zygons
Canoe – The Invasion, The Power of Kroll
Moon rocket – The Seeds of Death
Ambulance – The War Games
Wheelchair – Spearhead from Space
Packard vintage car – Spearhead from Space
Bessie – Various
Transporter lorry – The Ambassadors of Death
Recovery 7 – The Ambassadors of Death
IMC Buggy – Colony in Space
Motorbike – The Daemons, Delta and the Bannermen, Survival, Doctor Who
Motor trike – Day of the Daleks
Boat – The Sea Devils
The Master’s ship – Frontier in Space
Cargo ship – Frontier in Space
Milk float – The Green Death
Mine cart – The Green Death
The ‘Whomobile’ – Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders
Lorry – Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Two Doctors
Campbell Cricket autogyro – Planet of the Spiders
Hovercraft – Planet of the Spiders
Speedboat – Planet of the Spiders
Nerva Beacon – Revenge of the Cybermen
Daimler limousine – The Seeds of Doom
Car – The Hand of Fear
Air car – The Pirate Planet
Punt – Shada / The Five Doctors
Bicycle – Shada
Spaceship – The Caves of Androzani
Operating table – Mark of the Rani
Army detector van – Remembrance of the Daleks
Happiness Patrol jeep – The Happiness Patrol
Scooter – The Idiot’s Lantern
Segway – The Runaway Bride
The starship Titanic – Voyage of the Damned
1920s car – The Unicorn and the Wasp
Bus 200 – Planet of the Dead
Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style hot-air balloon – The Next Doctor
Gadget – The Waters of Mars
TARDIS pulled by reindeer – 2009 BBC Idents
Vinvocci spaceship – The End of Time
Fire Engine – The Eleventh Hour
Vortex manipulator – The Big Bang
Shark-drawn carriage – A Christmas Carol
TARDIS lash-up – The Doctor’s Wife
When it comes to our four-footed friends, the Doctor is also happy in the saddle. He rides horses in Marco Polo, The Masque of Mandragora, Survival, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Pandorica Opens and A Town Call Mercy (the last of which we discover is called Susan). When an old mare isn’t available he’ll also happily jump on top of a triceratops, as Dinosaurs on a Spaceship showed.
GOOD OLD BESSIE
Introduced in Doctor Who and the Silurians, the Doctor’s ‘Edwardian Roadster’ was in fact one of a number of limited-edition kit cars made by Siva / Neville Trinkett (Design) Limited of Blandford, Dorset.
Also available as a two-seater, the kit was designed to fit an E93A chassis, the same as the one used by Ford for its Ford Popular, Anglia and Prefect cars. The basic £160 kit purchased by the production team included the glass-fibre body, seats (four), bonnet, wheel trims, mudguards, foam cushioning, bonnet brackets, radiator, running boards and fuel tank. Numerous optional extras were also ordered including a luggage trunk, coach lamp, bulb horns, Cibie headlamps, hood (with side curtains) battery box, seat covers, carpets, screen and body straps plus the Ford chassis and engine. All of this pushed Bessie’s total cost to £502.
At the time of purchase, Barry Letts’ desired WHO 1 plate had already been purchased, so Bessie was registered as MTR 5. A fake WHO 1 number plate was used in the programme for close-ups and when the car could be driven around private grounds.
When Bessie was reintroduced in 1989’s Battlefield, the number plates had mysteriously changed to WHO 7.
STORIES THAT FEATURED BESSIE
Doctor Who and the Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno
Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
The Daemons
The Time Monster
The Three Doctors
The Green Deat
h
Planet of the Spiders
Robot
The Five Doctors
Battlefield
Bessie also made an appearance in the 1993 Children in Need story Dimensions in Time, driven by Captain Yates, as well as featuring in numerous Doctor Who comic strips and novels.
14 FACTS ABOUT THE WHOMOBILE
In January 1973, Jon Pertwee opened a new Ford dealership in the Midlands. There he was impressed by the Black Widow, a custom-built black and green car. He immediately asked Pete Farries, the chairman of the Nottingham Drag and Custom Club, to make him a custom car.
Pertwee gave Farries two requirements: the car needed to be street legal and it needed to look like it came from outer space.
The result was named ‘Alien’, a 4.3-metre-long by 2.1-metre-wide two-seater car built on a three-wheeled Bond Bug chassis.
A 20-centimetre rubber skirt hid the wheels giving the illusion that Alien was some kind of hovercraft.
Powered by an aluminium 975cc Hillman Imp Sports Unit, especially built by Chrysler UK, Alien could reach speeds of 105mph, although 55mph was its usual cruising speed.
The car also included a telephone, television screen and 44 lights which made up a mock computer.
It was painted using silver and red Bergacryl 1/32-inc metalflake and twenty coats of lacquer.
Alien’s official registration number was WVO 2M.
The Road Licensing department classified Alien as an Invalid Tricycle.
When Pertwee introduced Alien to the production team, a hasty rewrite saw the Doctor drive the vehicle around London in Part 4 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. The sequence had been scripted to show the Doctor riding a motorbike.
Originally, the car had its name emblazoned along its glass fibre skin. Director Paddy Russell insisted this was removed before filming.
Alien wasn’t quite finished when filming began. The car’s canopy wasn’t added until its second and last appearance in Planet of the Spiders.
Alien remained the private property of Jon Pertwee until it was purchased by a private collector at auction in the early 1980s. Bought as a gift for his son, the car went for £1,700.
Although the car was referred to as the Whomobile in the script, the name was never used on screen and the vehicle remains unnamed within the Whoniverse.