Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine

Episode: "The Doomsday Machine"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 6
Original Air Date: October 20, 1967

via Memory Alpha

In our story, the Enterprise crew encounter a weapon of mass destruction from another galaxy.  The object, which looks an awful lot like a tin foil windsock, demolishes entire solar systems, then gobbles up the debris for fuel.  In one of Trek's less subtle commentaries on Cold War diplomacy, Kirk and Spock compare the device to the "H-bombs" of the 20th century.

The windsock actually looks a lot less tin-foily than it did when I first watched this episode back in the '70s.  When the series was re-mastered digitally, "The Doomsday Machine" was given the most thorough make over of the whole lot.  The space effects in general are a lot more impressive than they used to be.

*****

via Memory Alpha

William Windom played the role of Commodore Matt Decker, commander of the USS Constellation, a ship that fell victim to the windsock.  Windom was born September 28, 1923 in New York City.  His great-grandfather, of the same name, served as Secretary of the Treasury under Benjamin Harrison.  The younger Windom was a paratrooper during the Second World War.

Windom had a long career in television, covering nearly half a century.  He won a Best Actor Emmy for My World and Welcome to It in 1970.  He made his big screen debut in 1962 as the prosecuting attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird.  He died in 2012 of congestive heart failure.