A new story from Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker titled Don’t Blink has progressed the narrative of the multi-platform adventure with a Weeping Angel and a stunning cliffhanger.
I haven’t purchased all paid Circuit Breaker media but this free-to-read story, written by novelist Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, is the most gripping, perilous story out of all the episodes I’ve followed so far. For anyone who has not yet read Don’t Blink, there are spoilers in this article.
To recap, In the depths of UNIT’s most secure facility, the Black Archive, familiar objects ‒ a Dalek gun stick, a Sontaran helmet, mace, and handcuffs, a Memory Worm chrysalis, a Gallifreyan Time Ring, a Carrionite Crystal Ball, a Weeping Angel and a Clockwork Droid mask have been pulled through time and space.
Surrounded by a dangerous energy signature, the objects threaten to tear reality apart. With time running out, newly appointed Head of the Black Archive, Petronella Osgood and her assistant Andrew Turner turn to the only person who can help ‒ the Fugitive Doctor.
The Doctor has managed to neutralize and return all but the Carrionite Crystal Ball, the Weeping Angel and the Clockwork Droid mask to their original timelines.
Don’t Blink begins at UNIT headquarters at the Tower of London. Osgood has discovered that the Fugitive Doctor’s TARDIS has been sabotaged, allowing the Doctor’s activities to be monitored. The circuit boards in the shielding device were damaged by a teaspoon wedged between two electromagnetic plates.
There is a tense conversation with Osgood’s assistant Andrew Turner, who has had recent access to the TARDIS. Turner denies causing the damage. Osgood then discovers that the spoon is the exact model from a well-known home furnishing company as the spoons in the UNIT lab’s kitchenette.
There are several hints in the Circuit Breaker narrative that Andrew is the primary locus of the circuitous phenomenon which Jikiemi-Pearson described.
Before the discovery of the UNIT spoons can be discussed, Osgood receives a notification that former Tenth Doctor companion and UNIT operative Martha Jones has arrived at UNIT. Osgood has asked Martha to help with the project due to her experience with the Doctor and with the Carrionites.
Osgood and Martha join the Doctor and Andrew in the Lab. Andrew has somehow obtained Osgood’s notes without Osgood having given them to him. Andrew promises to disengage from the project for a time to get some sleep. He slides some folders into his notebook before leaving.
Osgood, Martha and the Doctor go to SUB-LEVEL 7 in the Black Archive where the dangerous artefacts are contained.
Martha finds herself mesmerized by the Crystal Ball which she and the Tenth Doctor once used to trap the Carrionites. The same happens to Osgood as the image of a Weeping Angel appears to her inside the ball. The Doctor manages to break the spell with a sonic screwdriver she finds on a shelf.
There is the sound of crashing glass and it soon becomes clear that the Weeping Angel, entrapped in the archive by its reflection a mirror, has broken loose. What’s worse, Andrew, who is supposed to be resting, has entered the level.
What follows is an enthralling chase ending with the Angel trapped, gazing at it’s reflection in the Carrionite Crystal Ball and Andrew unconscious. To their horror, Osgood and Martha find that the Doctor is now trapped inside the ball.
And that is where we leave Circuit Breaker for now ‒ with one last glimmer of hope suggested by Martha ‒ The Indigo Device.
The Indigo Device was created for teleportation in 2009 by UNIT from technology left over from the Sontarans. Martha used it during the Dalek Crucible incursion in The Stolen Earth. UNIT has since updated the device. It was recently used by Ruby Sunday to gain access to the Rani’s Bone Palace in The Reality War.
Martha Jones will appear again in a Circuit Breaker novel coming out 3 September, The Kaleidoscope written by Jo Martin. In the interim, the short story The Doctor and the Three Witches (20 August) and the mobile game Moment Mori (27 August) will continue the Circuit Breaker narrative.