Then what directed it? Intelligence?
Evolutionary theory starts with the first imperfectly self-replicating organism. It matters not how this organism came to be.
Basic to the theory is the lack of an intelligence behind the life we see here, now. Hence the Great Debate among evolutionists, creationists and intelligent designers. Where the proto-organism came from would be central to the issue, don't you think? 
It's a question that biologists are interested in, but it has zero relevance to how evolution works.
The question of whether evolution is random or not is simply not stated usefully. Variation is mostly random. It does not anticipate need. Selection is not random for a species. the conditions of the environment can be studied to any arbitrary degree of precision, and the environment determines which variants are most successful at producing offspring.
Evolution cannot produce a new feature simply because it is needed. If it could, species would not go extinct.
The variations that do get produced, by whatever mechanism, are all that selection has to work with.
" Then what directed it? Intelligence?"
Intelligence is not the opposite of randomness. Natural selection is not random. Nor does it need to be directed by an outside intelligence.
"Basic to the theory is the lack of an intelligence behind the life we see here, now. Hence the Great Debate among evolutionists, creationists and intelligent designers. Where the proto-organism came from would be central to the issue, don't you think?"
Not for the issue of the theory of evolution. You are talking about abiogenesis.
Great Debate among evolutionists, creationists and intelligent designers.
The only place this debate is Great is in the minds of the creationists and intelligent designers. There is no debate among 99+% of scientists. And there is no debate between creationists/intelligent designers and that 99+% of scientists. The creationists/intelligent designers are just trying to create the illusion there's a debate, in the minds of an uninformed public, for political purposes, to advance their religious beliefs. And that is the Dove PA case in a nutshell.