Cellini's Dragon

This strange beast (appearing in the Space: 1999 episode "Dragon's Domain") represents a kind of life completely unknown to science. It was discovered dwelling in what could be called a starship graveyard: an area of space filled with several derelict vessels; the crews of which had previously fallen victim to this alien predator. The single specimen that the series's plot deals with inhabits a large, pressurized spacecraft, possibly one of which it devoured the crew, or even one built by its species and operated by itself.

Biology
Apparently, this creature is able to shift between two forms: an immaterial form which manifests itself as an eerie floating light pattern; and a material one which looks like a monstrous amorphous creature, dark green in color, bearing several grasping tentacles and what seems to be a single, brightly luminescent white eye.

It is capable of exerting some sort of supernatural attraction over its helpless victims, pulling them towards itself to consume them. It swallows its prey whole and, a few seconds later, spits out the remains: nothing but a carbonized carcass.

Despite its eldritch nature, the monster (at least in its solid form) is still a flesh and blood creature and vulnerable to bladed weapons. It is, though, invulnerable to laser weapon fire.

Michele Tetro's novel L'occhio ardente di Mbatian ("The burning eye of Mbatian") greatly expands on the monster's history, hypothesizing that it might be a manifestation of the will of Mbatian, the chief of an ancient African tribe.

Appearances

 * Space: 1999, s01e23 - "Dragon's Domain" (1975)
 * Tetro, Michele: L'occhio ardente di Mbatian (2005)