In the 2005 episode of "", "In Harm's Way", William Windom reprises his role as Commodore Matt Decker almost 40 years later. "Star Trek Online" features the machine in the Federation storyline. For the franchise's 30th anniversary, "TV Guide" ranked "The Doomsday Machine" No. 4 on its list of the 10 best "Star Trek" episodes. Zack Handlen of "The A.V. Club" gave the episode an "A" rating, describing the episode as "very strong stuff", noting effective tension building and the development of Decker's character. Handlen also noted Sol Kaplan's score which "matches the actors' intensity." In 2010, "SciFiNow" ranked this the tenth best episode of the original series. In 2012, "Christian Science Monitor" ranked this the tenth best episode of the original Star Trek. In 2014, Gizmodo ranked "The Doomsday Machine" as the 18th best episode of Star Trek, out of the over 700 ones made by that time including later series. In 2015, WhatCulture ranked this the 6th best episode of all time in the "Star Trek" science fiction universe. In 2015, "Wired" did not recommend skipping this episode in their binge-watching guide for the original series. In 2016, "The Hollywood Reporter" rated "The Doomsday Machine" the 48th best television episode of all "Star Trek" franchise television prior to "", including live-action and the animated series but not counting the movies. "Business Insider" ranked "The Doomsday Machine" the 13th best episode of the original series. "Empire" ranked this the 9th best out of the top 50 episodes of the all the 700 plus "Star Trek" television episodes. SyFy ranked guest star William Windom's performance as the self-sacrificing Commodore Matt Decker, as the 4th best guest star on the original series. CNET noted the Doomsday Machine spacecraft as one of the powerful and important spacecraft of the Star Trek franchise. "Newsweek" ranked "The Doomsday Machine" as one of the best episodes of the original series. "Empire" ranked "The Doomsday Machine" 9th out of the 50 top episodes of all "Star Trek" in 2016. At that time, there were roughly 726 episodes and a dozen films released. TVline ranked this as having one of the top twenty moments of Star Trek, noting Kirk's line when says, “Gentlemen, I would suggest you beam me aboard…,” for the Enterprise to transport him off the spacecraft he is on.