The Doctor's multipurpose tool is a Gallifreyan device, with numerous settings, easily controlled at the press of his thumb. The Doctor has had many sonic screwdrivers of different designs throughout his life, and this latest one was created from within the TARDIS console itself after the previous one was destroyed during a confrontation with Prisoner Zero in the village of Leadworth. This new sonic is larger, with a luminous green light but continues to be an essential part of the Doctor's equipment as he explores the universe.

Here's a question for you. How much does a sound cost? Go on, have a guess. Well, the answer is about £2.50 How do I know this? Because there's two extra sounds on the new sonic screwdriver, and it's £5 more expensive than the old one.

Okay, that's not really a fair comparison, so we'll start at the beginning. The new sonic screwdriver, as used by our new and glorious Doctor is distinctly larger than Ten's screwdriver. It's less pocket friendly, if you have the tendency to carry one around with you. The new model is longer, thicker, and extends via a spring-loaded trigger. Once extended, it's about a third longer again, and has the same four opening "claw" attachments at the end as the TV one.

Let's start with the plusses. It looks decent, especially in closed mode, and the sound effects are a lot sharper, louder and clearer, and there are four. Gone is the gentle warble of the old sonic, there's four different noises now; and to me they are as follows: normal sonic operation - sounds a lot like the Classic series sonic used to, around the Tom Baker era. The "need more power, so let's fry the thing" setting - basically supercharged and upgraded sonic operations for tricky doors. The third noise is "Car Alarm" for if someone tries to steal your screwdriver I suppose, and the fourth sound effect is a "scanning" warble variation on sound one. They're fun and clear, and work well.

The colours on the new screwdriver are sharp and pleasing, giving it the required metallic sheen, and the green LED at the end is bright enough to give a reassuring green hue to your surroundings, should you lose your key and want to look for it in the dark. Which I've done with the Ten screwdriver on several occasions.

There aren't really any downsides to the toy, as long as you remember it *is* a toy, and not a collectors' piece like Millenium FX used to make. The only real bugbear I had was taking it apart to put the batteries in is a big hassle, especially with the addition of the second screw fitting right by the sleeve for the extending part that keeps sliding down and getting in the way. You'll need a cross ended jeweller's screwdriver for this one folks, like the old sonic, be warned. Batteries however are included, as are decent instructions on how to insert/change them.

Most of the early supplies of the new sonic seem to have gone to Toys R Us, with some finding their way to Forbidden planet stores as well. It's flying off the shelves at a rare old rate, probably more due to collectors than kids at this stage, and releasing the new screwdriver to co-incide with episode one was genius - the prop will remain in the memory of children along with the series for thirteen weeks at least.

Is it worth it? Oh yes. It's the tool of necessity for the Time Lord in your life, and is fun enough to keep most geeks and kids amused. It won't, however, blow up old red telephone boxes, set off fire engines, open cracks in your wall to reveal alien prisons or get you out of trouble when locked in a cell.

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