The Uncertainty Principle

Companion Chronicles #7.2

Released: August 2012

Listened: 10/18/20

This is one of the Companion Chronicles that’s linked to several others (like Steven’s trilogy following “The Savages,” or Sarah Kingdom’s trilogy), and the frame stories go in a different chronological order than the flashbacks (most of them written by Simon Guerrier). In all of these, the frame story is nearly as important as the flashback, which makes sense, because Zoe shouldn’t remember traveling with the Doctor, yet she has an eidetic memory, so there’s a conflict. In this case, the frame story comes after “Echoes of Grey” and “The Memory Cheats,” so you might want to listen to those first. Starting in “Echoes of Grey,” parts of her memories have started to come back, which means the Company (whoever they are) is interested, and has Zoe arrested on charges of sedition. The story is told as Zoe is interviewed by an agent named Kim. Wendy Padbury narrates, so Zoe has the focus this time. Jamie gets one big heroic thing to do, but is mostly sidelined for this story. Which makes sense, because it’s also one of those where Simon Guerrier is showing off his research, this time into quantum computing, an area outside of Jamie’s experience. Some of the science is a bit dodgy, unfortunately, including the definition of superposition, but it holds up well enough for the story. Zoe also gets a romantic interest, a doomed one, but it’s there. In the frame story, Jen is played by Wendy Padbury’s daughter Charlie Hayes, which doesn’t make a difference to the story, but it makes the extras fun. The frame story continues from here to “Second Chances,” down near the end of this era.