It looks more like a sonic shoe tree than a sonic screwdriver, but hey, we've had sonic sunglasses. The sonic can be whatever the Doctor wants.
LOL! One heck of a shoe tree. It's a terrific design.
I also noticed how Ncuti paraphrases the 5th Doctor's "scrapes" comment from "Castrovalva" and smiled -- in a good way, "Castrovalva" is a classic, I'd forgotten, and Ncuti's use of it is very subtle. Plus, I was already in cloud nine when Ncuti utters "technology" - one could make a drinking game when previous modern Doctors all hipster slang it up with "tech". Well, drinking game or upchuck game... maybe both rolled into one, it's all good...
I vaguely remember the sunglasses shtick. What I do remember is positive and mostly because Capaldi acted his socks off. One of the best Doctor actors ever, that's for sure, and one of the few I could buy into while looking like a cool California surfer with them on... it makes cosplay a lot easier as well, that's the one benefit of when the show has the lead using a costume that is an off-the-shelf item. It's not as iconic, but anyone can do it. The next time I go to a convention and if everyone looks the same, I am so going to quote the Doc from "The Mind Robber", but I digress.
So I looked it up:
Still a lampoon more often than not and, IMHO, the music is overdone and detracts in a number of clips. Capaldi doesn't need such backing to make any scene the better for it. He could read a recipe for skunk souffle and it'd be compelling on its own. Indeed, I cracked up royally at 4:26... 4:44 too and I like wood... oh piffle, there I go digressing again, so...:
The sonic is great, when used sparingly and not as a gimmick or panacea, or used so often that the contrivances needed to make it unusable take one out of the story. Critics complained in the late-70s regarding overuse as well as doing too many things above and beyond the original intent*, to the point incoming producers had a monster destroy it, and I doubt many of them changed their minds if they saw the show some thirty years later, unless they had some major epiphany and wanted the thing waved more and faster than a symphony conductor... which reminds me of 'The War Games' when the Doctor whips it out and Zoe stares in awe as the sound waves may cause the wall, conveniently held together via a magnetic field for no reason**. Since it's magnetism that can control sound frequency and not the other way around that I'm aware of... but each episode was written in a span of two days to meet tight deadlines because so many previous stories fell through due to budget or other issues and I implore you to not look up "The Prisoner of Space", which - from what is available sounds more like a lame parody but maybe that's why it was dropped (not released) - couldn't be reformatted into something less cringeworthy in time, and even had rewrites for Jamie's replacement, had he left the show as he originally devised (but opted to stay until the end of the season, fortunately.). Indeed, "The War Games" is one of the best accidents to have ever been written for the show...
* a unidirectional flow of concentrated and aimed sonic vibrations for a certain set of purposes, which felt authentic for the most part for a while, and the speed of sound is fairly formidable, so I could roll with it... once it started to become
flanderized, it took me out of the show but some people hated it outright. Others love it more and more regardless of what else it's able to do. The gamut's inevitable, isn't it?
** Save for headcanon and how the wall was modular, and near a power generator since magnetism can be used to generate power (e.g. smartphone rechargers), so it made more sense to build it with big blocks as opposed to steel or whatever other materials for paneling. If nothing else, it was easier to buy into the device being used as a "blowtorch" via sonic vibrations inducing friction to cause heat, though I wouldn't try that on any surface willy nilly...
But seriously, it's an interesting design, a fresh approach. It looks like maybe the smaller lobe can rotate 180 degrees and be flush with the larger one in sort of a pocketwatch shape.
Great point, re: pocket watch shape (hadn't noticed, actually) and fresh approach (which I did notice but didn't articulate, I just love the introduction - which I wasn't expecting either). Especially the fresh approach; the show in its "controversial" finale did find a way to shed "baggage" in its own way. I'm approaching the new era with a clean slate, but usually shows that ditch the baggage are usually new ones with new names that share some basic concepts but then do their own thing to build their own lore. Like "Firefly" was influenced by "Blake's 7" but is clearly its own universe and scale and scope, and B7 itself came from a handful of other shows melded into one.
I love the Rwandan proverb, which is so very Doctor-like.
I loved it too - definitely a Doctor bit. It reminded me of "the pen is mightier of the sword".
Also, if we want to return to 80s-style thrills, let's see a Doctor who'll start to quote proverbs like Marie-Jeanne Roland's. Never ever do a crossover between DW and B7!
of course I also thought Angel was riffing on Forever Knight and let's be honest here, Doll's House is just Joe 90 
