River Song’s Sonic Screwdriver Props History
By James Sutton
Professor River Song, played by actress Alex Kingston, was first introduced to us in the two-part story “Silence in the Library”/”The Forest of the Dead” which was written by future showrunner, Steven Moffat. As hinted at during this first encounter between The 10th Doctor and River Song, this was to be the beginning of a larger relationship between the pair, which went on to span across the next 7 years of the show. River Song was an Archaeologist from the future, who as part of her everyday gear, had a variety of prop accessories. These accessories included (but are not limited to) a Diary with a TARDIS themed cover, a Sonic Blaster, A Scanner, an Alpha Meson Gun and of course her Sonic Screwdriver.
“The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the Library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue.”
The Sonic Screwdriver was a present from The 12th Doctor, using the excuse that he wanted to replace the Sonic Trowel she was carrying at the time, which he felt was “just embarrassing”. He gave it to her at the singing towers of Darillium during the beginning of their last night together which, as we found out, would last for 24 years.
SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY/FOREST OF THE DEAD
This gifted Sonic Screwdriver was a future version of the design carried by the 9th and 10th Doctors, with new and improved features, such as Red settings, Dampers and unbeknownst to River, a Neural Relay, plus more.
The task fell to the concept artist, Peter McKinstry, to design how this future Sonic Screwdriver should look. He used an image of the prop referred to by fans as the Grey Aztec as a basis for the artwork, adding futuristic enhancements and additional features. These features included, according to the concept art, an enhanced emitter lens, wave amplifiers, TARDIS remote return, master function key (which housed the Neural Relay), fluid link, a user recognition ring, setting dials and a cap for a felt tip pen, plus in one drawing the Sonic is depicted as having the ability to extend, revealing a clear acrylic neck section similarly to the 9th/10th Doctor design. Although, besides the Neural Relay, none of these features are ever mentioned or used in the story.
“DOCTOR: Your screwdriver looks exactly like mine.
RIVER: Yeah. You gave it to me.
DOCTOR: I don't give my screwdriver to anyone.
RIVER: I'm not anyone.”
Once this design was approved, prop maker Nicholas Robatto and the Doctor Who Props Department, began work on making the two hero props. The props are named based on the colour of the emitter dome they were paired with during construction and ultimately ended up with after filming had concluded. They were fitted with different features, with the Red Prop notably having the working Neural Relay, whilst the Blue Prop had a purely decorative hatch that was sealed shut.
The exposed sections of metal on the props were made primarily from brass, contrasting from the aluminium that was mainly used on The Doctor’s Sonic at the time. Large grey crackle paint adorned the handle and the whole prop was weathered with a Verdigris effect, which was created by layering and mixing together several different colours of acrylic paint.
The Neural Relay was operated by the red sliding switches on the handle and had two settings, the first setting was one static bar and a second flickering bar and then the second setting had just one flickering bar.
Despite the hatch on the Red Prop being made to open, for a large majority of the story it’s actually glued shut. This was due to it struggling to stay on or coming slightly loose enough to allow the kill switch that was located below the Neural Relay to disengage, causing the batteries to drain faster. When the hatch is initially removed by The Doctor you can see clearly where the glue that held the hatch down has completely stripped the paint. The bare metal was then promptly repainted for the following close up shots of the prop, as The Doctor goes on one last run with River Song. This repaint stands out as the crackle is slightly different to the rest of the handle and lacks the green Verdigris weathering. However, oddly one of the close up shots shows off the original crackle paint finish that had been on the prop prior to the glueing shut, so they must have filmed this scene out of sequence.
And whilst it’s referred to as the Red Prop, the sonic during its big moment saving River at the end has had the Blue emitter dome swapped onto it.
The coloured emitter domes on the props had the ability to be interchangeable by loosening a grub screw on the side of the head section and as the LED underneath was white, it therefore worked with either colour. This allowed for them to be easily swapped out, which occurred multiple times during the filming of the stories. This took place on location and in the studio from January through to March in 2008, where both props were used by Alex Kingston and David Tennant.
THE AFTER LIFE - EXHIBITIONS AND REPLICAS
Following on from filming, the two hero props went on separate journeys, with The Red Prop ending up on display at the Doctor Who Exhibition in the Red Dragon Centre located in Cardiff Bay alongside other props from the story, such as her Diary and Sonic Blaster. It remained there until 2011, which was when the display was closed down to make way for the new Doctor Who Experience, however the Red Prop did not return to the display following this.
Meanwhile the Blue Prop also had its original blue dome returned to it and was lent out to Millennium FX in March 2008 to take references from. This was during the period when they had the official licence to produce Doctor Who Prop Replicas and had begun preparations for their 10th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver run. The River Sonic amongst other props from the show were documented in preparation for a line of future products that were never fully realised. The Blue Prop was then returned to the BBC where shortly afterwards again in March 2008 it was photographed for the Visual Dictionary.
In 2010, Nicholas Robatto was approached by US based company QMX and was commissioned by them to supply a set of prototype Screwdrivers. However these prototypes were not just River Song's Sonic Screwdriver, they also included The 10th Doctor’s and 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdrivers, plus The Master's Laser Screwdriver. He delivered these to the San Diego Comic Con where they were unveiled for the first time.
The following year he produced a small run of the 11th Doctor Sonics for QMX and finally, in 2012, he worked for QMX again to produce the River Song Sonic Screwdriver, a run which would be limited to 15 pieces. Most of the parts were machined by hand -- none were CNC'd; and they were personally assembled by Nicholas himself in the same fashion as the screen-used hero props.
THE HUSBANDS OF RIVER SONG
When the time came for the return of the design in the 2015 Christmas Special, “The Husbands of River Song”, production realised they no longer had a Hero River Song Sonic Screwdriver prop for filming. This was due to the Red Prop going mysteriously missing from storage following its appearance in the Exhibitions and, as mentioned, the Blue Prop had been disassembled during the QMX run. So they turned to Nicholas Robatto once again to provide a new prop for the episode.
To explain this new prop we have to go backwards in time 7 years to January 2008. Because alongside the original two hero props for the Library episodes, Nicholas had also made a third set of parts for himself to keep. Nicholas had previously done the same thing with the Laser Screwdriver props during Series 3’s finale and would later do the same again during Series 5 when he made the 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdrivers. Both of those personal sonics would later go on to become screen used props during Series 10, in the Pilot and the finale two-parter respectively. This Third prop was closer to the Blue Prop than the Red, having the handle hatch be a decorative feature, which was due to the Neural Relay being difficult to install.
“Really? I don't think you've ever given me a present before. Oh, it's a Sonic Screwdriver! How lovely!”
And so The Present Prop seen in Husbands was this third personal Library Sonic Screwdriver, as Nicholas simply loaned it out to production when they asked for the duration of the filming.
As the prop was supposed to be a gift in brand new condition, the decision was made to remove the green Verdigris weathering from the brass sections, although some of the harder to reach spots did remain green. It was then polished up to look fresher and placed inside the red velvet lined, golden gift box. The Present Prop was then returned to Nicholas after filming concluded. It was later used as an on hand reference when making the Rubbertoe Replicas River Song Sonic Screwdrivers.
