4. Sacrificial Death
Sacrifice is an overarching theme of Steven Moffats era. River Song, for example, is introduced to us as she gives up her life for the Doctor. We meet Clara in a similar way, as she aids the Doctor then blows up the dalek asylum. She also dies in The Snowmen, and then over and over again throughout the Doctors time stream as she sacrifices herself to save him and thwart the Great Intelligence in The Name of the Doctor. This is death with a purpose just as lethal but somehow more meaningful. Hide explores sacrifice from a different angle. Doctor Palmer is a war veteran who sent many people to their deaths in defense of a cause. He believes that his reasons for doing so are just but is haunted by the ghosts of his past. Palmer is, of course, a mirror for the Doctor who was forced to do something similar in the Time War. Is this perhaps foreshadowing for the John Hurt Doctor and the role he may have played as judge, jury and executioner? In Nightmare in Silver, the emperor, Porridge, tries to run away from his role and responsibility for destroying a galaxy in the cyber wars. Does his failed attempt to hide from his past actions give us a clue as to the Doctors feelings when refusing to acknowledge the John Hurt Doctor incarnation?