Oh I love a story like this, encapsulating everything Who in a short, easy to digest manner.

I'm almost reminded of The War Games or The Girl in The Fireplace. Starting off in one where you think you know what side of the whoniverse we're exploring today before then taking that expectation and completely flipping it. I especially like it here with how long before the twist is revealed, but how you've got all that build up and hinting towards the twist that in hindsight make complete sense.

The masquerade balls of Venice are an incredible setting for a story and conjure brilliant imagery in the minds of the listeners, as well as working incredibly thematically for the story when it's revealed that the whole ball is in fact a 'mask' itself for the drowning spaceship, and that the crew are nearly all dead, these partygoers being robots designed to mask that. Eleven also using his Psychic Paper for the first time here and Valarie knowing what it does it great, and again leans into that theme of masking yourself.

Eleven also gets an incredible moment here where he hints about The Time War, about how many people he's killed, and about what it does to a person, in an attempt to empathise with the ship's AI.

And then that's also followed by another incredible moment of Valarie questioning Eleven about it, him explaining what he was talking about (taking off the mask), and then offering to take her home if she wants, with her reassuring him that he's not a monster. Him then offering for her to talk about her mum if she needs to, it's all just brilliant character stuff.

I absolutely adore Bill for a multitude of reasons, but in some ways I think Valarie is what I wish Bill were.