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.

The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles #3.2 - "The House of Masks" by Georgia Cook

The Inheritance was great. It dropped me right back into the best of Matt Smith and had some absolutely outstanding characters and performances. The story was alright and it was conceptually rich but its main selling point was introducing Valarie Lockwood, who immediately got me sold on the rest of this range. So, how is it followed up? I guess I'm alone on this opinion but I found The House of Masks to emulate Eleven stories well, but emulate all those forgettable middle episodes everybody forgets (The Beast Below, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Vampires of Venice). A little boring, just a little too fast and with a plot I've heard before.

Plot:
Following a distress signal, The Doctor takes Valarie to Carnivale in Venice, eventually making their way to the exclusive party of one Lady Sicura in an expansive palazzo that appeared overnight. Stuck in a sinking building and surrounded by idiosyncratic guests, can the Doctor and Valarie discover the palazzo's secrets before it's too late?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

If I do have to give House of Masks one merit, it definitely continues the trend of emulating Eleven's era pretty darn well, the plot feels straight out of Series Five. A spaceship masquerading as a Venetian palazzo with a rogue AI keeping the guests entertained at any cost does feel like something we'd reasonably see 11 and Amy tackle (I mean, they did in Curse of the Black Spot), it's definitely the type of small scale serial the should would have between big showdowns and it's still joyous to be dropped right back into the Moffat Era. The most impressive thing I noticed listening to The House of Masks is its sound design; throughout the whole thing, the vibrant sounds of the far off Carnivale, the sloshing sounds of the flooded palazzo basement and the eerie synchronised utterances of the robotic guests all build up a great atmosphere that the script doesn't really live up to. However, the setting of the regal Venetian masquerade is fantastic and probably should've been in a better story.

My main gripe with the House of Masks is that I've just seen everything in it before: a historical setting (The Vampires of Venice, The Curse of the Black Spot, A Town called Mercy) has a crashed ship in it that's camouflaged (The Lodger) with a rogue AI trying to help people based on its programming but instead harming them (The Lodger, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Girl in the Fireplace). Because of this, it just comes off as mediocre and repetitive. Maybe if the story had gone in a more inventive or ambiguous direction rather than just a rogue AI I would've been more invested but who knows? Another step down from The Inheritance is in the characters, I found the dialogue in this episode to be so unbelievably insufferable and Valarie to become immediately overly-familiar - this doesn't feel like it should be her first trip in the TARDIS. I also found all the emotional beats to be pretty unaffecting, especially after The Inheritance knocked it out of the park in that respect. However, I did like the Doctor talking about the Time War with Valarie at the end, even if it is just a retread of the speech from Gridlock. One more thing that annoys me about this episode is how it does that thing when the Doctor and company just happen to stumble across a sci-fi plot with nothing triggering it, just discovering it out of pure luck; it dips too far into the unbelievable.

The House of Masks, whilst overall enjoyable, felt like a retread of episodes from the show that eventually came off as mediocre. There are a few good positives but none of that's in the script or story, still, it's definitely a good addition to Series 7V.

6/10

Pros:
+ Manages to drop you right back into Series Five
+ The setting of the Venetian palazzo is brilliantly atmospheric
+ The mystery, right up until its reveal, is pretty engaging
+ Wonderful sound direction that really helped visualise the story
+ Found the guests themselves and the repeated phrases to be really eerie and slightly akin to Chimes of Midnight
+ The Doctor and Valarie talking about the Time War was decently written and acted

Cons:
- Just a series of things I've seen before, emulations of previous episodes, none of which were stand out
- The dialogue really got on my nerves in this one, very twee and forced
- The emotional scenes just didn't do it for me throughout, none of them hit very hard
- Valarie feels overly familiar and a whole lot less interesting than before
- Contains the really annoying trope of the TARDIS Team just stumbling across a plot without any reason for coming across it
- The resolution to the central mystery wasn't all that interesting, its a concept that has been done better before and isn't very engaging here

Series 7V | Ranked:
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2. The House of Masks by Georgia Cook - 6/10
1. The Inheritance by Alfie Shaw - 8/10

Overall - 7.0/10

The House of Masks: 9.0/10 - I think this episode was another great episode. Tomasi was a very somber character and you can see his anger and horrid guilt come out numerous times. Lady Secura was another great villain and yet another AI villain. For a majority of the story, shes your typical AI villain but at the end of the story, her breakdown is absolutely devastating. The setting is also great with the palazzo being full of detail throughout the story and the fireworks in the background were great for establishing the setting. Valerie's discussion with the Doctor at the end of the story was also great and genuinely very emotional.

A very good second episode that doesn't quite live up to the first. The plot is good, if not a little saggy in the middle. The threat is interesting and well played by the guest cast. The voice acting is great all around, with the chemistry between Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar a highlight. Sound design is top-notch, for the most part, as usual. My only issue with this release was the sound mixing in some areas made some voices slightly too quiet to hear fully. This only happened in a couple of areas, and it may be my own setup, so it won't go against the rating. Overall, this was a great addition to the overall Eleven & Valarie series.