Ok, I’ve managed to get it sort of sorted.
If anybody runs into this problem, and you’re stuck on the blue screen just type the following:

Windows key + R

type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe

Press enter. It stops with whatever Windows 8.1 is busy with at that moment with the blue screen. It’s not an indefinitive cure, but it allows you to work on your computer until it decides to throw the problem again.

Thanks for the other advice