Is the Doctor doing anything in this scene?

Question

During the Day Of The Moon, the 11th Doctor, River and Rory have come to rescue Amy and broadcast the subliminal message to kill the Silence on sight.

This makes the silence angry and there is a scene in which they have to escape with Silence throwing lightning around.

In this video from about 2:30 onwards, the Doctor and River are back to back fighting off the Silence. River is shooting with her blaster and the Doctor is... just joining in with his sonic screwdriver...??

Can anyone or has anyone got a explanation on if the Doctor is actually doing anything other than "Joining In"?

The post war Doctor is strictly No Guns so I can't see him shooting anything out of the screwdriver.

Best I can think of is he's running interference on the lightning strikes somehow, like some sonic chaff or jamming. I know his screwdriver is a kinda deus ex machina that does all sort of things but here I can't really see the purpose here.

Answer 1

The screwdriver appears to be used as an offensive weapon here. He downs a Silence at about 2:58 in the video clip while verbally defending the utility of his screwdriver.

River Song: You've got a screwdriver. Go build a cabinet.

The Doctor: That's really rude.

There's then a green blast from the screwdriver, and at 2:59 we see the shot Silence falling. It's possible that the green blast came from somewhere else ( not River, who is shooting in another direction at that time), but it seems to be the same green as those clearly from the screwdriver in 2:35 - 2:36 and elsewhere.

This does appear to go against The Doctor's no guns policy, but this arc is one where The Doctor is more willing to take the fight to 'the enemy' (cf A Good Man Goes to War). Alternatively, it could be rationalised as The Doctor using a 'stun' setting rather than a 'kill' setting.