WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 9, “Lagrange Point”!

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 9, “Lagrange Point”, is the latest entry in the canon of Star Trek heist episodes. Written by Sean Cochran & Ari Friedman, and directed by Jonathan Frakes, Discovery season 5, episode 9, “Lagrange Point” saw Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her away team disguise themselves as Breen to steal the structure that contained the Progenitors’ treasure. It’s a classic heist set-up, with each character having their own role to play, and comedy deriving from the Burnham and company having to keep up appearances as Breen soldiers.

It’s not the first time that a Star Trek TV show has riffed on classic heist movies. From as far back as the 1960s, Star Trek has sent characters behind enemy lines to secure some prize or other, be it advanced technology, or to defeat a computer virus. Other Star Trek episodes have put the crew in the position of being the marks, having to fight off alien thieves who want to possess their starship. While the majority of these Star Trek episodes are sci-fi updates of heist movie archetypes, one classic episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine proved that the franchise isn’t above doing a traditional casino heist.

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Star Trek: Enterprise, Season 1, Episode 19, “Acquisition”

Captain Archer makes unofficial first contact with the Ferengi.

Star Trek: Enterprise, season 1, episode 19, “Acquisition” is a Ferengi starship heist told from the perspective of the “mark”, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). When a group of Ferengi disable the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 with toxic gas, they don’t realize that Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) was sealed in quarantine. It’s therefore up to Trip to play the role of John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard and foil the Ferengi heist. It’s a fun episode that finds a creative workaround when it comes to the official Ferengi First Contact in Star Trek: TNG.

Like many early Star Trek: Enterprise episodes, however, “Acquisition” often feels like a hollow retread of stories done better elsewhere in the franchise. While the set-up is different, “Acquisition” does feel like a knock-off of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Starship Mine”. There’s a lot of fun in watching Archer and Tucker run rings around the Ferengi villains, but it doesn’t add anything new to the starship heist subgenre of Star Trek episodes.

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Star Trek: Discovery, Season 4, Episode 8, “All In”

Captain Burnham riffs on Casino Royale to secure a powerful weapon.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 8, “All In”, sends Captain Michael Burnham to an alien casino for a highly important mission. While Burnham and Lt. Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) aren’t there to rob the casino, they do have to deploy some techniques from the heist movie genre. At the climax of the episode, Burnham and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) are pitted against each other in a card game to stop the deadly isolinium from falling into the wrong hands. Burnham loses the game, but like all good heist movie protagonists, she has a contingency plan, and places a tracker on Book’s prize.

On top of the high-stakes card game, Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 8, “All In” also features another heist taking place in the background. To secure their isolinium, Book and Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) are tasked with catching a cheater that turns out to be one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Changelings. There’s a great deal of potential in a Changeling criminal genius that would have given DS9‘s Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) a run for his money, so it’s disappointing that Discovery doesn’t do more with the idea.

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Star Trek: Discovery, Season 5, Episode 9, “Lagrange Point”

Burnham and the crew embark on a Breen heist to steal the Progenitors’ treasure.

In the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Captain Burnham leads a covert mission to steal the Progenitors’ technology from the Breen Imperium. Armed with translated Breen language, Burnham and her team pose as Breen soldiers so they can bring down the Breen Dreadnought’s shields and beam out the tech. As in all good heist movies, there’s comedy derived from the Discovery characters having to keep up the pretense and Book awkwardly asking a Breen soldier out on a date as a distraction is a standout moment.

As always in heist movies, things go wrong for Burnham and the crew as they get discovered by the villainous Moll (Eve Harlow) at a crucial moment. Unlike heist movies, however, “Lagrange Point” crashes a starship into the scene of the crime. It’s one of the more thrilling episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, as it drills down into the urgency of Burnham’s mission, and provides some exciting action sequences and tension thanks to the assured direction of Jonathan Frakes.

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 6, Episode 12, “Who Mourns For Morn?”

Quark tries to locate the takings from the Lissepian Mother’s Day heist.

Not every heist movie focuses on the planning and execution of the crime. For example, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs is largely focused on the bloody aftermath of a failed heist as paranoia sets in among the crew. Therefore, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 12, “Who Mourns For Morn?” is the closest that Star Trek will get to a Quentin Tarantino episode or movie. When his best customer, Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd) dies, Quark (Armin Shimerman) becomes embroiled in a criminal scheme to locate the takings of the Lissepian Mother’s Day heist.

“Who Mourns for Morn?” is one of Quark’s best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes because it demonstrates how resourceful he can be when his back’s against the wall. Morn’s former associates are using Quark throughout the episode, hoping that the Ferengi will lead them to the missing latinum. As ever with Quark, he’s immediately in over his head with the murderous criminals who just want to secure the latinum. However, Quark’s underhanded nature and love-hate relationship with Odo ultimately saves him and earns the Ferengi 100 bars of latinum.

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Star Trek: Picard, Season 3, Episode 6, “The Bounty”

Picard’s crew steal from Daystrom Station and the Starfleet Museum.

In Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, “The Bounty”, Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) leads a mission into the heart of Daystrom Station to find out more information about a recent Changeling heist. Worf, Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) and Captain William T Riker (Jonathan Frakes) have to contend with Attack Tribbles, and a highly advanced A.I. security system to secure the information they need. Riker’s friendship with Data provides him with the key to evade Daystrom Station’s security systems, free his old friend and discover what the Changelings stole.

On top of the two Daystrom heists, “The Bounty” introduces a third, as Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) and Ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) also conspire to steal a Klingon cloaking device from Star Trek: Picard‘s Starfleet Museum. So to keep score, “The Bounty” reveals the Changelings stole Picard’s body, Worf stole Data, and Jack Crusher stole a Klingon cloaking device. Such wanton criminality is justified, however, as Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) has limited time to avert the Changeling’s mysterious conspiracy against Starfleet.

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Star Trek: Voyager, Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16, “Dark Frontier”

Captain Janeway dares to steal from the Borg Queen.

“Dark Frontier” is one of Star Trek: Voyager‘s 12 movie-length episodes, centered around a plan by Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to steal a transwarp coil from the Borg Collective. The transwarp coil will shave 20 years off Voyager’s 75-year mission to get back to the Alpha Quadrant. The first half of “Dark Frontier” concerns Janeway and the crew’s plotting and execution of the heist, as they steal the transwarp coil from a damaged Borg sphere with relative ease. When Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) rejoins the Borg Collective, it becomes clear that the heist is just the start of the story.

Seven rejoining the Collective was all part of a plan by the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) to gain a better understanding of humanity. By staging the successful heist in part one, “Dark Frontier” gets to confront Janeway with the choice of keeping her prize, or risking everything to save Seven. Janeway opts for the best of both worlds, giving chase in the Delta Flyer instead of returning to Voyager with the transwarp coil. It’s a thrilling episode that reflects how much the Voyager crew have come to love and value Seven.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 6, Episode 18, “Starship Mine”

Captain Picard does the original “Die Hard on a starship.”

Captain Picard got his wish to avoid a formal dinner when he becomes trapped aboard the USS Enterprise-D with a gang of thieves in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 18, “Starship Mine”. The original version of Die Hard aboard the starship Enterprise, it’s a thrilling episode that allows Patrick Stewart to be a resourceful action hero. All the beats from Die Hard are present in Morgan Gendel’s script, from the lavish party crashed by terrorists, to Picard crawling through Jefferies tubes.

Where Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) was using a hostage situation as a distraction to steal millions of dollars, the thieves in “Starship Mine” have no such big distraction. They’re there for the dangerous trilithium resin, pure and simple, and are thwarted by Picard, who rather coldly blows up the departing ship by stealing the trilithium resin’s control rod. Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 18, “Starship Mine” is the best example of Patrick Stewart’s abilities as an action hero, which presumably led to the TNG movies doubling down on this aspect of Picard’s character.

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Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 3, Episode 4, “The Enterprise Incident”

Kirk and Spock go undercover among the Romulans to steal a cloaking device.

The original Star Trek heist episode is “The Enterprise Incident”, in which Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) leads a covert mission to steal a Romulan cloaking device. Cloaking devices are controversial in Star Trek, but this doesn’t detract from Kirk’s gloriously convoluted heist in Star Trek: The Original Series. While Spock (Leonard Nimoy) seduces a female Romulan Commander, Kirk disguises himself as a Romulan to steal the cloaking device and bring it aboard the USS Enterprise.

“The Enterprise Incident” is full of thrilling moments, from Kirk and Spock’s brutal fight to the Enterprise facing down the Romulans in the episode’s climax. It also showcases a different side of Spock’s personality as he lays on the charm to seduce the Female Romulan Commander (Joanne Linville). The fact that the audience don’t know that Star Trek: The Original Series season 3, episode 4, “The Enterprise Incident”, is a heist until halfway through only adds to its considerable charms.

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 7, Episode 15, “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang”

Star Trek does Ocean’s 11.

Star Trek‘s most overt riff on the heist movie is its best, as the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine get a chance to do their own version of Ocean’s 11. In “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang”, a rogue holographic gangster takes over Vic Fontaine’s club, forcing the DS9 crew to defend Vic’s by means appropriate to its 1960s setting. The best option to oust Frankie Eyes (Robert Miano) from the holosuite program is a good old-fashioned casino heist with the crew playing various movie archetypes.

The placement of “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7 is crucial, as there’s a palpable joy in watching the DS9 cast let their hair down for one last job before the epic finale. It’s one of the most enjoyable hours in the history of Star Trek, and celebrates the family atmosphere that Captain Sisko has cultivated aboard DS9 over the past seven years. There’s no better example of this than the whole crew instigating a huge casino heist instead of going for the simple solution and rebooting Vic’s program, robbing the hologram of his agency.