Blink (Doctor Who) - Plot

Plot

In 2007, Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) enters the dilapidated house, Wester Drumlins, to look for subjects to photograph but instead finds eerie angel-like statues and messages from the Doctor (David Tennant) behind the peeling wallpaper addressed to her, warning her of the "Weeping Angels". Sally returns the next day with her friend Kathy Nightingale (Lucy Gaskell) to explore further; Kathy disappears as at the same time a young man claiming to be Kathy's grandson delivers a letter to Sally. The letter from Kathy explains, just moments ago from Sally's perspective, that Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s in Hull. Kathy settled down with a husband and led a peaceful life and, in the letter, requests Sally to let her closest relative, her brother Larry, know of her disappearance. Sally finds a Yale key hanging from the hand of one of the statues and takes it before leaving.

Sally visits Larry (Finlay Robertson) at a DVD rental shop and finds that he has documented an "Easter egg" across seventeen unrelated DVDs, with a man calling himself "The Doctor" having half of a conversation with the viewer. Larry gives Sally a list of the DVDs as she leaves for the police station. There, she meets Detective Inspector Billy Shipton (Michael Obiora), who explains that there have been several disappearances at the Drumlins and shows her an impound lot containing vehicles abandoned near the Drumlins, including a locked fake police box. Sally leaves, but remembers the key she found and returns to find that Billy and the phonebox have disappeared. She immediately receives a call from a much older Billy (Louis Mahoney) on his death bed at the hospital and visits him. Billy explains that after she left the lot, he discovered the Angels trying to retrieve the police box. Billy then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor, who asked him to relay a message to Sally decades later; Billy subsequently married and started a video production house and was responsible for putting the Easter egg on the DVDs. Before Billy dies, he tells Sally the Doctor's message to her; the message is to look at the list. Sally realises that the list is her own DVD collection and that the Easter egg is meant for her.

Sally and Larry return to the Drumlins with a portable DVD player and watch the entirety of the Easter egg. Sally discovers she can "converse" with the Doctor as, in the past, he possesses a complete version of the transcript that is currently being compiled in the present by Larry as he watches. The Doctor explains that he and Martha Jones were transported to the past by the Weeping Angels, beings that feed off the potential time energy of others. The Angels are "quantum locked", allowing them to move incredibly fast when unobserved but when they are seen, they literally turn to stone. They cover their eyes to avoid looking at each other, giving them their "weeping" appearance. He warns Sally not to look away or even blink when they are around. The Doctor tells them they are seeking his TARDIS—the fake police box—to acquire its potential power, which could have catastrophic results. When the Doctor comes to the end of the transcript, Sally realises Larry has stopped writing it due to the presence of an Angel in the room and the two quickly escape to the basement. There, they discover the Angels have brought the TARDIS and Sally and Larry take shelter inside it as the Angels surround them. Inside, a hologram of the Doctor informs them that the TARDIS has detected a control disc—the DVD they have just watched—which can activate it for one journey; upon doing so the TARDIS dematerialises, leaving the two of them behind. However, with the TARDIS gone, the Angels have been tricked into observing each other, permanently frozen as statues staring at each other.

A year later, Sally and Larry have opened a DVD and book store together, though Sally's insistence on keeping a folder of the events for the Doctor worries Larry. Larry longs for a romantic relationship, but Sally insists their relationship is defined as "just a shop." As Larry steps out for an errand, Sally sees the Doctor and Martha hurriedly leave a taxi in front of the shop, carrying a bow and quiver of arrows and goes to meet them. When they do not recognise her, she realises that they have yet to experience the events that sent them to the past and hands over her folder of information, warning the Doctor he may need it in his future, thus completing the ontological paradox. The Doctor and Sally say their goodbyes as Larry returns, surprised to see the man from the Easter egg. Sally and Larry return to the shop hand in hand, hinting that she is now ready for a romantic relationship. The episode ends with a repeat of the Doctor's warning to Sally, this time directed at the viewer, overlaid with flashes of famous bronze and stone statues.