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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 2 - "Children of the Comet"
A comet introduced in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 2 proved to be the intriguing and welcome opposite of the robot planet killer in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine." In Strange New Worlds, the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) has embarked on a new five-year mission of galactic exploration. Their first crisis brings the Enterprise to the planet Persephone III, which is under the threat of a rogue comet on a collision course. Yet the celestial entity is not what it seems and "Children of the Comet" proves to be a clever inversion of "The Doomsday Machine."
In Star Trek: TOS "The Doomsday Machine," the Starship Enterprise under the command of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) comes to the rescue of its sister ship, the USS Constellation, which has been nearly destroyed by an encounter with a planet killer. A massive robot that originated from beyond the galaxy, the planet killer was an automated weapon that existed only to destroy entire planets. The loss of his crew and his ship drove the Constellation's Commodore Matt Decker (William Windom) insane and he attempted to hijack the Enterprise to attack the planet killer before embarking on a suicide mission against the robot. Finally, Captain Kirk piloted the Constellation into the maw of the machine and beamed back to the Enterprise before the starship self-destructed. The Constellation's explosion debilitated the superweapon, leaving the planet killer inert in space.
However, the comet in Strange New Worlds episode 2 wasn't another force of destruction but a giver of life, in spite of its apparent trajectory to destroy Persephone III. The comet already defied expectations by containing a structure within it and even being capable of defending itself with shields. Soon, Captain Pike and his crew learned that the comet was actually an "ancient arbiter of life" called M'hanit and it was guarded by a race of zealous "space monks" called Shepherds. The Enterprise's efforts to disable or redirect the comet, as well as fend off the Shepherds, seemed successful. M'hanit not only passed safely by Persephone III but it released a chunk of ice that ended up giving rain and water to the desert planet and its inhabitants. As the Shepherds claimed, the so-called comet brought life to that world and continued on its fated course throughout the galaxy.
"The Doomsday Machine" is one of the most exciting and action-packed Star Trek: The Original Series episodes. It's one of the few hours where the Starship Enterprise battled a seemingly unstoppable adversary while also dealing with an internal betrayal by Commodore Decker, who was so traumatized by the planet killer that he became a madman. In contrast, Strange New Worlds' "Children of the Comet" certainly wasn't lacking in action or tension, but it had a far more optimistic and uplifting outcome. The planet killer was ultimately defeated in TOS but at a great cost in a pyrrhic victory. Pike's run-in with the Shepherds and their arbiter of life taught a different lesson about the wonders of space and reminded the Starfleet Officers of how much more there is to learn, which is why they're exploring the galaxy.
The planet killer in "The Doomsday Machine" was an early version of a cosmic superweapon that Starfleet is nearly powerless against, which is a trope Star Trek has repeated numerous times; for example, V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Dark Matter Anomaly in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. The beauty of Strange New Worlds' arbiter of life is that it's a long-awaited opposite number to the tired planet killer cliche. The comet, which seemed to possess a form of sentience, balances the scales somewhat to help and heal worlds in need. In only its second episode, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds already proved it has a brighter more optimistic outlook reminding audiences of the wonders of the vast universe, as opposed to space being filled with only enemies the Enterprise must defeat.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+