Fantastic Beasts: 10 Ties To Doctor Who You Might Have Missed
2. Loving All The Strange And Dangerous Creatures
One reviewer described Newt as “a fabulous mash-up of Noah, Dr. Doolittle, Tarzan and Steve Irwin." The same could be said of the Doctor - a character who also embodies that sense of adventure and affinity with non-human life. Given that there are many other traits that Newt shares with the Doctor, it’s tempting to suggest that he resembles those other characters only because of how closely he is modelled on the Time lord.
The Doctor, like Newt, never makes any blanket moral judgements about the alien creatures he meets, even those ones that look fearsome and horrific to human eyes. The two are able and willing to communicate with beasts that almost any sane person (or wizard) would either leave well alone, or destroy to be on the safe side.
Newt treats the Thunderbird like an adorable pet, even giving him the name Frank. Similarly, the Doctor sees beauty in the feared beast, whether alien or not, and attempts to foster good relations, such as with Aggedor (The Curse of Peladon), the Minotaur (The God Complex), and the T-Rex (Deep Breath). For a while he even has the head of a Cyberman as his travelling companion, affectionately nicknaming him Handles.
These examples are not just isolated cases, as the two renegade characters both see it as their mission to fight against those who would seek to kill the beasts indiscriminately. And for both characters it is often the humans who are the biggest monsters of all.