Fantastic Beasts: 10 Ties To Doctor Who You Might Have Missed
4. As It Is Written
Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them is based on the fictional textbook that was required reading for first year students at Hogwarts. Rowling published the book in 2001 for Comic Relief under the penname Newt Scamander and the movie series tells the story of Newt’s travels whilst compiling the book. The journal catalogues for reference purposes the fantastic beasts and numerous spells that Newt discovers, but it also serves as his aide memoire.
It’s all very reminiscent of the Doctor, who at various points in the show’s history has consulted his various diaries. In Patrick Troughton’s first story as the second Doctor (The Power of the Daleks, 1966) the Doctor reads his 500 year diary. The same book later comes in handy for the Fourth Doctor, providing valuable information on the Sontarans. In subsequent adventures we see a 900 year diary (the TV Movie) and a 2000 year diary which again the Doctor uses to give him the lowdown on an alien race (The Mire, in The Girl Who Waited, 2015).
River Song also carries a diary, designed to look like the TARDIS, and in an episode in which the Doctor becomes human as a way of hiding from the Family of Blood, he writes as John Smith, The Journal of Impossible Things. The book contains his drawings from the buried memories of the aliens he encountered as the Doctor (just like Jacob does with his cake designs).
The prevalence of books and diaries in Doctor Who since its return in 2005 might suggest that Rowling’s work (and almost certainly Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was an influence, but given that the Doctor’s diary has featured since 1966, it works both ways.