France, the year 1770: by special invitation, the famous "Doctor", friend of Voltaire, arrives at the lonely estate of the lovely Marquise de Rimdelle – once a hostess to the highest of high society, now isolated by the strange, pernicious mist that lingers round the countryside.
But there's more in that fog than mere vapour, confesses the Marquise's strange niece to the Doctor's ward, Nyssa. She senses some uncanny machine circling the fringes of the estate, in the space between the shadows. Watching. Always watching. She's given it a name: "the Steamroller Man".
Meanwhile, the man in the cellar talks to the Doctor; a dead man, trapped behind the cellar walls. The Steamroller Man is coming, he says; coming to smash the place down. It seems the Doctor has been drawn into a very dangerous liaison...
Masquerade contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, it seems that the Doctor and his companions have simply bluffed their way into the Marquise's estate with the usual bald-faced lies and cover stories. But when they start treating each other according to their assumed roles even when alone...
- Call-Back:
- When trying to get his memories in order, the Doctor remembers being in Paris for the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve.
- The Doctor fondly recalls another time he visited Paris, when he saw The Mona Lisa (though he doesn't mention how many of them there were).
- Nyssa recalls tending to the groves on Traken.
- Death of Personality: Hannah's sacrifice to get the Doctor back into the real world ends up purging her of all emotion, leaving her as a kind of organic robot.
- Catchphrase: "Brave heart" pops up again.
- Deadpan Snarker: Marquise De Rimdelle has a fabulously dry wit. Once back in her original personality, out of shadow space, Sandra is sad not to be the Marquise anymore, being very fond of her comebacks.Vicomte de Valdac: I would like to know more about these newcomers.Marquise De Rimdelle: As would I. There's a most enlightening tool called conversation. Most instructive, if well-employed.
- Incompatible Orientation: Though Hannah's sexuality has never been made explicitly clear, her flustered and vaguely appalled reaction to the Vicomte's advances, as well as her focus on his "pretty niece", renders his efforts completely and utterly moot.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Though initially more controlled than most cases, Shadow-Space is designed to warp itself according to certain narratives selected by the ship's crew, assigning them roles in the "story" and letting them live out their fantasies in blissful ignorance while they sleep on board their ship.
- Mythology Gag: The Marquise describes the Doctor as having a "pleasant, open face", an iconic Creator Thumbprint of Terrance Dicks when describing Five in his novels.
- Pocket Dimension: Shadow-Space, used to store the consciousnesses of the ship's crew during warp drive flights.
- Unusual Euphemism:Vicomte de Valdac: I should like to speak alone with the governess, Madam Bartholomew. So robust a bloom deserves cultivation.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: After just three stories (and only being officially being invited aboard the TARDIS at the end of the previous one), Hannah departs, knowing that her current state would not serve Nyssa and the Doctor well at all.
