Geek Tech 101: Sonic Screwdriver

Nearly every incarnation of the Doctor has utilized a version of this iconic gadget. With few exceptions, a Doctor Who cosplay is incomplete without a sonic screwdriver—my broken screwdriver is one reason I won’t do my Eleventh Doctor cosplay right now. The sonic has a long and somewhat contradictory history. 

The first appearance of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver was during the Second Doctor’s era. And it was possibly the only time the sonic was used to drive screws. In that version, it didn’t do much beyond screws. 

The sonic screwdriver was a consistent feature of Doctor Who for the lives of the Third and Fourth Doctor and into the Fifth Doctor era, until the Tereliptils destroyed it. He was “hands free” until the Seventh Doctor returned for the TV movie. Since that time, each Doctor had a version of the sonic screwdriver (even if it was in the form of the sonic sunglasses designed by the Twelfth Doctor). 

Designed to never maim or injure, the sonic had plenty of other uses. The Third Doctor could detonate bombs with his. The War Doctor was able to complete complex computations in the background over thousands of years. The Ninth Doctor used it as a medical scanner. And pretty much all the Doctors used it for opening doors, locks, hatches, and anything else openable (unless it was wooden). 

With its versatile nature, the sonic screwdriver can be a deus ex machina. That was one of the reasons it was removed play under the Fifth Doctor. But at the same time it’s iconic for a reason. While not a magic wand, it can be whatever the Doctor needs it to be. Point and think. Essentially it’s a plot device; whatever the story, the sonic can push things along. Plus they’re just cool… which reminds me… I need to figure out where to buy a new sonic screwdriver for my Eleventh Doctor cosplay. 

Geek Tech 101: Digivice

Every Digimon fan fantasized at least once about having a digivice as a kid (and maybe still as an adult). Especially with the release of The Beginning in 2023, the history and lore of the digivices has evolved since that day that seven digivices fell to the Digi-Destined at summer camp.

The original digivices were designed to assist in the bond and digivolution of the partner Digimon. They also assisted the Digi-Destined in reaching the Digital World through various portals. The digivice enabled the Digi-Destined partners to reach as far as champion level. In conjunction with the child's crest power, the Digimon could reach ultimate and sometimes even mega. But even from the beginning, it was explicitly stated that the digivices were only a tool to assist in digivolution, not the means itself.

Compared to some later digivices, the original was very basic in function. Their power was nullified by the Control Spires and were unable to open a Digi-Port on their own. And without the crest power, the children's partners could only reach so far. Though limited in range in the real world, the digivices were able to track each other, which was especially important when tracking down the eighth digivice.

In the digivices history, we know they existed as far back as Daigo and Hime's team in the 1980s. Though we never saw their crests, we know their Digimon partners were able to reach ultimate and mega levels. The tricky thing (as far as the timeline) is that by all accounts these digivices predated Lui's bond with Ukkomon (who claimed he was the first digi-destined).

After these flashback events, the digivices were seen with our first season team of Digi-Destined, paired with their eight crests. Even without the physical crests, the children were able to use their digivices to reach ultimate and mega levels against Apocalymon. Though, in the interim between seasons, the kids gave up that crest power to strengthen the Digital World’s defenses. 

As I mentioned earlier, the digivices had their limitations in season two, forcing the evolution of the D3 (which I’ll spotlight another time) but that was only for six of the kids. The regular digivice still became the standard digivice for all children worldwide (until Oikawa’s children received their D3s). 

Year later the digivices were paired with smart phones that were able to tap into that power of digivolution. Presumably this was the work of Izzy (who else would come up with that?). The digivices and their associated smart phones eventually displayed the ring of light that served as the indicator or countdown to the Digimon’s disappearance. At the time that their bonds supposedly ended and the partner disappeared, the digivices cracked and presumably lost their power. 

A couple years later their purpose and history was called into question by Lui. Through the reconciliation of Lui and Ukkomon, the digivices and D3s disappeared. Their purpose fulfilled I suppose. But the bonds still existed.

I’d wager the digivolution was still possible (just like Tai and Kari with the original Koromon). And I’m still holding out for more of the Digimon Adventure story, connecting to the season two epilogue (which takes place next year). Here’s hoping. *fingers crossed*

Geek Tech 101: The Swan Station

I recently finished rewatching LOST and as usual enjoyed it from start to finish (even “Stranger in a Strange Land” because I had laughing gas at the dentist when I watched it). Despite what haters will say about the series, I have fond memories of the series, even with its controversial ending. The mysteries and easter eggs along the way were ahead of their time, since the series premiered before this age of streaming television. The first season in particular had a few potent mysteries: the Monster, the Others, and the Hatch.

The Hatch (known to the DHARMA Initiative as “The Swan”) was found by Locke and Boone after about a month on the Island. Decades before that, it was the site of a catastrophic electromagnetic incident. “The Incident” was affected by the appearance of the Flight 815 survivors (after having traveled through time). Honestly, it probably would have been worse if it hadn’t been for Jack, Juliet, and their bomb. Regardless, the event had a significant impact on the function of the Swan for decades.

Instead of being solely a research facility for electromagnetic research, the Swan ended up being the means of containing the energy released during the Incident. Every 108 minutes, someone would input the code (Hurley’s numbers) to allow the energy to be released little by little. Why did the code have to be that string of numbers? Why couldn’t the system be on automatic? Why did it need to be put in manually? These are among the mysteries that LOST fans will never have a satisfactory answer to.

Theoretically, the Swan was to be staffed with two individuals for a period of time and switched out with fresh team members. Each team would take shifts so that one could always sleep at one point or another. However, by the time Desmond marooned on the Island, the Swan’s only resident was Kelvin. This former US military man ultimately tried to ditch Desmond, under the assumption that the button didn’t need to be pushed. However, the first time Desmond failed to put the code in quickly, the electromagnetism brought down Oceanic Flight 815.

About a month after crashing on the Island, Locke and Boone were tracking Ethan to rescue Claire when they chanced upon the outer door of the Swan, which they dubbed the Hatch. They tried everything they could to open the door (not knowing there was a side entrance not too far away). Following Locke’s dreams, Boone ended up dying in an attempt to learn the secret of the Hatch. It wasn’t too long after that that the rest of the A-Team learned about the Hatch and opened it in an attempt to hide from the Others.

After opening the Hatch, discovering Desmond, and watching him escape, the Flight 815 survivors took custody of the Hatch and the button. For a while it was a nice reprieve at times from roughing in on the beach. Naturally, someone had to throw a wrench into the mix though… Ben Linus. Posing as Henry Gale, Ben got into Locke’s head that the button was pointless and his venture to the Pearl Station (we’ll cover that another time) didn’t exactly bolster Locke’s faith in the whole thing.

In the end, his broken faith led to Locke and Desmond letting the timer run out, seeing the electromagnetic catastrophe unfold, and turning the failsafe key. With that, the last we saw of the Swan was an empty crater where the station imploded. 

With much of the first two seasons centering around the Hatch, it was a central point of the show's heyday. Long before time travel or alternate timelines, the mystery of the Swan Station had center stage. The Hatch and the button played into some powerful themes about how faith and doubt intertwine and what it takes to keep faithful. There’s a gospel analogy in there somewhere. Despite being one of the first mysteries “solved” in the series, it also left just as many unanswered questions. But the fans would never be satisfied. It would take an info-dump to answer all the questions and they’d just complain about the dump. Already I can’t wait to rewatch LOST again (gotta finish a couple of other shows before I can entertain that idea).

4. 8. 15. 16. 23. 42. Execute.

 

Geek Tech 101: Duel Disks

As long as the card game and anime exist in some form, there will always be memes about the fate of the world being decided by a children's card game on Yu-Gi-Oh! I still love the mythology of the series (though I didn't care for how it changed during Zexal and Arc-V) but the series would not be near as engaging if the card game was played on tables and mats, like in the real world. That's why Kaiba's innovation of the duel disk is iconic and revolutionary for the purposes of the series.

Before the Duel Disk

Prior to Kaiba's innovations, it seems that Duel Monsters was played on regular playing mats and tables, like in the real world. It's actually funny to see Bandit Keith dueling in front of a crowd with a little table. But by the time the series begins, Kaiba had already developed his first holographic stadium. This technology was stolen borrowed by Pegasus for the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Imagine trying to install all those random stadiums throughout the island. Silly Pegasus, doing things the hard way. Meanwhile, Kaiba had already begun improving the holographic system with his first frisbee-like duel disk. Like Duelist Kingdom itself, the first duel disk made for some strangely unique rules. Of course it wasn't until Battle City that we got some more standardized rules for the card game.

Battle City's Innovation

At first it seems duel disks were exclusive for Battle City Tournament participants. Duelists weren't limited to the need for a stadium if they wanted a fancy holographic battle. Instead, the Battle City duel disks had holographic projectors that launched and created a stadium anywhere (though it seems like the flying projectors were phased out later on). Finally duelists could play wherever they wanted, including the park, the street, an aquarium, or on the top of a blimp. Dueling would never be the same.

Alternative Duel Disks

Despite the innovation of Kaiba's duel disks, it wasn't long before others would develop their own. During the Orichalcos arc of the anime, Dartz and his minions had their own alternatives to Kaiba's duel disks. He had to make them look extra freaky though apparently. By the time Kaiba opened Duel Academy and Jaden's cohort was in attendance, there was a new duel disk that seemed to be specifically for Duel Academy (though plenty of others had similar ones). Throughout Yu-Gi-Oh GX, we saw plenty of other weird duel disk variations from the Shadow Riders, duel spirits, and some of the transfer students. At some points it seemed like every new character had a duel disk customized for their deck.

Duel Runners and Beyond

After Yu-Gi-Oh GX, all bets were off with duel disks. By the time Yusei had his duel runner, the standard duel disk was a thing of the past in many ways. Dueling on motorcycles was the way to go. But if you weren't a turbo duelist, you still had your regular duel disk that detached. In later seasons, we saw plenty of duel disk variations throughout the multiverse. It kind of makes me sad though... later series like Zexal and Arc-V take the innovation of the duel disk for granted. It was a big deal when it first showed up during Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. A game changer! And we all wanted a duel disk in real life (I had two: original Battle City and the Orichalcos version). Now if only the real ones projected holograms like on television....

More Content You Might Like:

• "LDS Geeks Podcast #15: Yu-Gi-Oh Nostalgia" with Spencer and Joe
• Available for listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

Geek Tech 101: Zords

It’s been well over a year since the final episode of Power Rangers. Even though whispers of a reboot keep coming around, the franchise will never be the same. But maybe the beauty of Power Rangers is that it kept evolving and rebooting. Despite literally dozens of soft reboots, one of the things (besides vibrantly colored heroes) that made the franchise iconic was their Zords.

From its earliest episodes, it was a recurring element of the series for the monster of the day to grow to Godzilla size. On occasion, like with the robots in SPD, the monster didn’t grow but a gargantuan enemy needed to be defeated. So each generation of Rangers needed Zords and Megazords. 

The concept of the Zords changed from season to season, but generally each Power Ranger had a Zord they piloted and the team’s Zords would combine into their Megazord. Exceptions to this include the Astro Megazord and the Delta Base Megazord. Regardless of how each Megazord was formed or transformed, it’s amazing that the civilian casualties didn’t reach hundreds during the seemingly daily monster battles. 

Because some Zords are sentient, I thought for a short moment about making this blog post into a Creature Feature. However, enough number of Zords are pure technology (like on Lightspeed Rescue and on SPD) that they fit better as tech, not creature. All the same, the creature-based Zords are phenomenal. The Zords of the Wild Force Rangers and the Galactibeasts of the Lost Galaxy Rangers are some of my favorite sentient Zords. 

The Zords turned into plot points and deus ex machina at times, depending on the season, with their miraculous arrivals or hunting for them. Some seasons it barely seemed like the Zords played a part in the plot, like with the Space Rangers. Other times it felt like a new Zord was discovered every other episode, like with the Wild Force Rangers. I think my favorites were the seasons somewhere in the middle, where they supplemented the Rangers character arcs, instead of becoming characters themselves. 

The 2017 Power Rangers movie kind of poked fun at this, but I often find it interesting how intuitive driving a Zord must be. Sometimes these Power Rangers were barely old enough to drive, but they could drive a Megazord with no problem (and then there was Justin who was young enough the Zord had to drive him). That’s the plot armor of a kid show though, not having to worry about the technical experience to fight the weekly baddie. 

With 2025 being the year of Power Rangers SPD, I plan to write more Ranger content this year (like I tried to do with LOST’s twentieth anniversary last year) so if there’s something you want explored from the Power Rangers franchise, you can reach me at the Command Center.

Go go Power Rangers!