'Doctor Who' Reveals Fourteenth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver And 60th Anniversary Special Novelizations

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An influx of Doctor Who news has been coming out over the last few days, and a bunch of it is finally some 60th anniversary promo for the first time since Eurovision. On Wednesday, the Fourteenth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver has been unveiled by BBC Studios.

The Sonic Screwdriver is the Doctor’s trusty tool, that has a multitude of functionalities, so much so that its time in the revival has outlasted its place in the original series, only lasting from 1968 to 1982 because it purportedly hampered the writing. Every Doctor has their own sonic screwdriver design. Fourteen, played by the returning David Tennant, has his much more golden and probe-pronged than the previous iteration, the Tenth Doctor. The cracks are back though. Compared to Thirteen it’s back to a more linear design with far less engravings. The reveal video features returning composer Murray Gold’s music

For the foreseeable future, this sonic screwdriver will only be appearing in the three 60th anniversary specials, “The Star Beast”, “The Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Giggle” with Tennant and returning companion Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, as at the last special’s end, Fourteen will regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. Jacqueline King, Bernard Cribbins, and Karl Collins return as Donna’s mother Sylvia Noble, grandfather Wilfred Mott and husband Shaun Temple, with Yasmin Finney debuting as their daughter Rose. Also joining are Neil Patrick Harris as the presumed Celestial Toymaker and Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham. They will all likely be carried over into the novelizations, which were announced Friday.

The novelizations are from from BBC Books and Target Books and will be released in January 2024, with unique cover artwork by Anthony Dry. The Target Books line has novelized every classic story from the original run, having done so since its start in 1973, marking 50 years themselves. BBC Books began reissuing the classic paperbacks in 2012, and in 2018 began allowing novelizations of revival era episodes. As 60th anniversary specials, the “The Giggle” episode, as the last one, is the only one with a hard November 23 airdate, the anniversary itself. It’s unknown how spaced the three specials will be from each other, but it will air on the BBC in its home countries and Disney+ everywhere else.

Source: Doctor Who