Review: The Blue Tooth

The third Companion Chronicles release is The Blue Tooth, a Third Doctor story by Nigel Fairs, narrated by Caroline John as Liz Shaw. It gives us a meeting between the Third Doctor and the Cybermen - something that was never seen on screen - as one of Liz's friends joins a growing list of missing people, and the early stages of an invasion begin . . .

As with the previous releases, The Blue Tooth is divided into short 'episodes' - here, four fifteen-minute bursts. Whilst scattering several tonal climaxes throughout the story is a sound and successfully-executed idea, interrupting the flow with the theme tune really threw me out of the adventure. The audiobooks based on the new series run for over two hours, and the only division is between discs; splitting up a short and well-paced hour-long story like this one doesn't seem necessary at all.

The story begins with a stunning pre-credits sequence which automatically grabs the listener's attention, in which Liz alludes to her reasons for leaving UNIT and leaving the Doctor, but thesese are disappointingly not followed up. As the play drew to a close, I wanted a resolution of these earlier comments; perhaps Big Finish intended to leave room for a sequel, but ultimately it feels like there are a few threads left hanging and thus the conclusion isn't entirely satisfactory.

Caroline John's narration is good, giving us a slightly cynical Liz who looks back with slight disapproval on her earlier life. Her Brigadier and Doctor impersonations are limp, but not so bad as to be uncomfortable; and it does sometimes feel like she's reading rather than telling the story in comparison to the natural feel of the previous Companion Chronicles.

Writer Nigel Fairs' script is, as with previous stories, very much in the vein of Jon Pertwee's television episodes, strong and intriguing throughout. My only criticism would be that some things are unexplained, and some events never 'seen' - this is fair enough, since we're being told the story from Liz's point of view, but I felt as if I'd missed out slightly. The Cybermen, as is fairly common for stories in which they appear, don't physically appear until a very late stage, but their effects and the use of the Cybermats in the earlier scenes are very effective. There's nothing on the level of horror seen in Spare Parts, but there some nice gruesome and harrowing moments, and some originality in the behaviour of the race.

The Blue Tooth is not as good as the first two CDs in this series, but it's still one of Big Finish's best, and there is a lot to enjoy here.