You state: “… that it wants to brush Doctor Who’s age, and the passing of production time, under the carpet of Rassilon” by focusing entirely on the 2005- Doctors. It seems clear that Hurt’s role was originally intended to be for Eccleston, who declined to participate, and so Hurt’s presumed Time War Doctor will get a brief appearance here (and, it’s rumored, perhaps an appearance in the Christmas Special, as he mentioned working with Capaldi in the future).

My take as a fan:

First, doesn’t it seem plausible that the focus on the present could be as much about marking the end of an era as it is playing to the presentist focus of current Doctor Who fans? It seems as though Capaldi’s hiring was in the works for quite some time, and there are persistent rumors that Matt Smith is being forced out rather than wanting to end his tenure now. It seems that a 50th with Tennant, Smith, and Hurt might be a nice clean way of finally putting a cap on the RTD era — something that it seems Moffat has been slolwy trying to do for some time.

In the past two series, the Doctor has reverted to stylistic elements of the original series in many ways (his new costume, the design of the TARDIS control room, the sparing use of the Daleks, the lessened role of the companion’s family, even the baroque style of episode titles, e.g. “The Rings of Akhaten” or “The Crimson Horror”). It strikes me that “The Day of the Doctor” may be Moffat’s attempt to wrap up many of the lingering elements of the RTD version of the show that he inherited — the presence of Hurt’s presumed Time War Doctor seems to imply that the Time War will be discussed and perhaps even resolved/reversed?

Additionally, I see John Hurt’s “mayfly Doctor” appearance as another interesting (or depressing, depending on your perspective) rehash of Moffat’s earlier work. Much has been made of Moffat’s recycling of elements from his earliest Doctor Who stories — the library in “Continuity Errors” is rehashed in “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead”, while the time-traveling revision of one’s life is rehashed in “A Christmas Carol.” Now we have a key element of “The Curse of the Fatal Death” popping up in Doctor Who proper; a one-off Doctor who allows for (1) stunt casting, getting someone like Hurt who would unlikely ever commit to a series like Doctor Who for an extended period of time and (2) giving the audience a pleasure derived from such a brief appearance — lots of other questions (and I assume fanfic) will be spawned by his brief appearance.

I’m not sure I have a point with this one, but it does seem commensurate with how Moffat has handled the show so far: Pulling elements of Doctor Who back to what it was in bygone days (and reversing or removing elements that RTD brought to the series) while also re-using bits that he’d established in earlier Doctor Who work. I see the 50th anniversary special as having the potential to be a final cap on an era (moreso than even the final Matt Smith episode), and I am curious to see the extent to which this is the case. Given the recent hirings of new blood to the directoral pool (Ben Wheatley) and the writer’s pool (Frank Boyce), I’m excited about the beginning of the Capaldi era, and it certainly seems like they could be going in a very different direction with the show.