Star Trek TNG: Crystalline Entity Ideas

Rewatching TNG I did not realize they revisited the Crystalline entity one more time. From S1 E13 Datalore to S5 E4 Silicon Avatar, this thing appeared to devour planets of all life (rather quickly, I might add). This thing had me question a lot of things about it. It reminded me of the planet killer in the TOS S2E6 episode The Doomsday Machine.

I decided to do an “exhaustive” search of all the apocrypha before I wrote something about this. Once mentioned a Tholian connection. It said in some novel or other source, they worshipped it. In other novels, they had more of these. As I watched this, my son and I had a conversion about it. While Picard was trying to communicate to it and try to find his diplomatic solution, I asked some questions.

Is it a alien lifeform or a construct of some kind? Perhaps it is a weapon like the Planet killer was assumed to be? Is there a relation between the crystalline entity and the planet killer?

While they are chasing it down, my thoughts wondered to the Romulans or the Cardassians. How much do they know about it and what do they think of the Federation studying it? Do they think that the Feds are turning it into a weapon?

There was a lot of missed opportunities I think in TNG for storylines like this. I think they started exploring this kind of intrigue on DS9 mostly because it was stationary and more consistent story arches could be told. Also the books explored the planet killer a little more. I need to read those books.