Where did the Doomsday Machine come from?

The Doomsday Machine was a great episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, but it left a lingering question.

In the season two episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, The Doomsday Machine saw Captain Kirk (William Shatner) doing his best to stay alive while the whale-sized planet killer dragged Commodore Decker’s (William Windom) ship, the Constellation, into its massive opening. Decker’s crew had already been killed after being evacuated to a planet where Decker assumed they would be safe. The planet was consumed, though, leaving Decker in a state of mental anguish.

Prior to the Enterprise’s arrival, the Doomsday Machine had devoured star systems across the galaxy and showed no signs of stopping. Fortunately, Captain Kirk has an idea—blow up the Constellation inside the machine— that works. The planet killer is destroyed, but Whatculture asks a very good question. Who sent the doomsday machine?

The Doomsday Machine had to have been created by someone or something.

In Star Trek, there have been instances where things have created themselves such as V’Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. So is it possible the planet killer just spontaneously created itself? It doesn’t make sense that such an entity would be magically appear and start devouring planets. What does make sense is this thing was created with a grisly purpose.

If that is the case, who created it? Whatculture mentions author Peter David’s supposition that these killers were built to fight the Borg after being created by the Preservers, the race from “The Paradise Syndrome.” But, if that’s the case, where have they been since then? Where were they when the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation needed them?

This is an interesting question and deserves some follow-up. It’d be great to see this thing pop up in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to see how Captain Pike would handle it. Otherwise, it will remain a mystery, and I think something so destructive shouldn’t be used once, never to be seen again. Yes, this one particular version was destroyed, but are there others? If so, discovering who created them and the reasons behind it would make for some interesting episodes of Star Trek, especially if there’s a new villian involved.