Not since they changed his power to being able to interpret/speak any form of communication ever. So now he can rewrite any robot's programming just by talking to them or interpret martial arts as body language and anticipate moves.

Actually River's screwdriver was resolved in one of those web shorts where there's time shenanigans in the TARDIS so the Doctor meets various Rivers at different points in their relationship at the same time.

I feel like Moffat has a tendency to course correct based on what people online are saying. It happened with the "New" Daleks, it happened with how grumpy Capaldi was, and I feel like he's doing it again with plotting and all the people who miss RTD's character moments at the expense of plot pacing.