Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan involves a complex weaving of many borrowed elements, the most important of which is the Star Trek television series, as well as Moby-Dick, and A Tale of Two Cities. The intertextual mix is suggested in a shot early in the film when we are first introduced to Khan by scanning his bookshelf. 

In addition to a sign from his ship, the Botany Bay (named after a historic port in Australia through which many convicts entered the country), there are Dante's Inferno, King Lear, The King James Bible, Moby-Dick, and two copies of Paradise Lost. Each book suggests aspects of Khan's character. Though other references remain implicit, the Moby-Dick references are explicitly explored throughout the movie. 

Spock gives Kirk a copy of A Tale of Two Cities as a birthday present, and references to the book help us understand the Vulcan's decision to sacrifice himself to save his crew. The film includes other allusions: some recurring, such as the character named Chekhov in honor of the Russian playwright; some singular, such as the reference to the old advertising slogan "It never rains, but it pours." Some are designed to build the credibility of the fictional world (a scientist's reputation is established by comparisons to Newton and Einstein), and some to the myths of other worlds (Romulan Ale, Klingon Proverbs, and the Vulcan IDIC symbol hanging on the wall of Spock's apartment). In a key line, Spock says: "... the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one..." echoing the philosophical tenets of Utilitarianism. The Genesis project includes comparisons to Armageddon. Those interested in exploring other literary references in Star Trek are encouraged to check out http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/.

The Wrath of Khan is a feature length, live-action film based on a television series.

The Wrath of Khan was the second feature film in the Star Trek media franchise (of eleven films). The Star Trek franchise is an important example of transmedia storytelling. While Star Trek originated as a television series in 1966, the series rapidly spread into other media: first comics, later original novels, then feature films, and more recently, another television series, games, and amusement park attractions. The challenge confronting the producers of Wrath of Khan was to intensify the connection of the film franchise with the original television series. Many fans did not think Star Trek: The Motion Picture had successfully captured what they had valued in the cult program. If the franchise was to survive, the producers needed to strengthen the characters and build in more "Trek" elements. To do so, Producer Gene Roddenberry and writer/director Nicholas Meyer consistently evoked iconography, subplots, and snippets of dialogue that reminded viewers of classic moments from the television series. They also restored aspects of characterizations that had been lost in the first film in the series.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been too generic, more influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey or Close Encounters of the Third Kind than by Star Trek itself. Perhaps the most important step was to build the film as a sequel to one of the more popular episodes from the original series, "Space Seed," and bring back the character of Khan Noonien Singh, picking up the story more than a decade after it left off. In the process, the film acknowledges the affects of time not only on the world but also on the characters. A running theme in the film suggests that Kirk and his crew have aged and matured and now struggle with the next phase of their lives.

Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer was already known as an author whose prose fiction creatively interweaves elements borrowed from multiple literary sources. He broke into the national consciousness with two mystery novels, The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror. In both novels, Sherlock Holmes lives in context of Victorian London where he meets real world figures like Sigmund Freud and Oscar Wilde. Meyer entered film when he adapted The Seven Percent Solution to the screen. His first original screenplay, Time After Time, was a fantasy/romance in which H.G. Wells builds a time machine that takes him and Jack the Ripper into contemporary America. By the time Meyer was hired to revitalize the Star Trek film franchise, he already had a reputation for smart and playful remixes of literary and cultural history.

The remixing of Moby-Dick functions at three levels:

1. Moby-Dick as a Marker of Book Culture 

The inclusion of Moby-Dick and other literary sources signals the persistence of books and reading in a society reliant on computer terminals and visual displays. The world of Star Trek embodies a technological utopianism: human nature can be perfected through refinements in technology. Spock and the Vulcan tradition of rationalism (and its embrace of utilitarianism) focus on information and data required to make decisions. Across the franchise, We see many people reading from screens and monitors; books are much rarer. When Spock gives Kirk A Tale of Two Cities, it marks his understanding of his lifelong friend’s interest in antiques. 

The Dickens' novel takes its place alongside McCoy's gift—a pair of bifocals, both suggesting the sedentary lifestyle he is moving towards now that he has passed 50. We see Kirk reading A Tale of Two Cities on board the shuttle craft, the only person with a book in his hand. He hands the book to Uhura as he walks onto the bridge. She looks at it disparagingly at first; but by the end of the scene, she is curiously flipping through its pages.

At the end of the film, Kirk is reading the book more intently as he mourns Spock's death, and he quotes from its closing lines in recognition of Spock's intent in giving him the gift.

Throughout the course of the film, we watch Kirk move from the first page to the last and draw meaningful insights from it. 

We might understand Moby-Dick and the other classics on Khan's bookshelf as markers of time passing. Khan was born in the late 20th century and spent much of the intervening years in suspended animation or in isolation stranded in an arid and lifeless world. He is one of the most brilliant humans who ever lived, genetically engineered to be intellectually superior. For Khan, as for Kirk, he integrates the text into his own life, but it is less clear that he has drawn the intended insights from what he has read.

2. Moby-Dick as a Link to the Past

Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry linked Kirk (and later Picard) to Horatio Hornblower from C.S. Forester's classic sea stories and drew comparisons between the autonomy Star Fleet captains enjoy as they encounter unexpected situations far from Earth (venturing "where no one has gone before") and the degree of control sea captains exerted over ships at sea in early periods of exploration. The seafaring tradition is suggested by naming space ships after older naval vessels—Enterprise, Reliant. The redesign of uniforms and the development of command protocols (such as the use of "Mister" to refer to female officer Saavik) in Wrath of Khan reflect the production team's desire to model Star Fleet on naval traditions. Composer Jerry Goldsmith is said to have drawn inspiration for the Enterprise theme song from earlier scores by Erik Wolfgang Korngold for Errol Flynn sea adventures like The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood. These choices reflect an older set of practices in science fiction of reworking stories set in other genre worlds, such as the old west, as space opera. 

3. Moby-Dick as a Plot Influence 

Though Khan quotes from Moby-Dick, he has clearly not heeded its warnings nor understood its message. He ruthlessly pursues revenge against Captain Kirk, whom he blames for stranding him on a lifeless planet and causing his wife’s death. Jedda, his second in command, consistently questions him about his priorities, playing a role not unlike that of Starbuck in Melville's novel. First, Jedda suggests that having captured a starship, they are free to roam the galaxy, find their own worlds, rebuild their empire, and fulfill their collective hopes and dreams; his ideas are pushed aside. Later, he notes that Khan's capture of the Genesis weapon allows him enormous power to exert his will on the universe; his suggestion of alternative goals is rejected. Each time, Khan is even more determined to destroy Kirk and the Enterprise at all costs, even willing to sacrifice the lives of his loyal young followers. When Jedda is killed in battle, Khan vows vengeance, fully misunderstanding why Jedda gave his life. 

Twice in the film, Khan quotes from Melville. 

The first time, he paraphrases the original novel. Khan says, "I'll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round perdition's flames before I give him up!", which reworks the original passage from "The Quarter-Deck": "I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up!" As in the novel, Khan uses the line to define the goals for his crew and to signal his total determination to the cause.  

The second time he quotes more accurately: "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee, for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." Ahab's final lines from the novel become Khan's last words in the film. By this point, the explosion on the ship has scarred his face and left his legs stiff and immobile, suggesting the physical marks Ahab bore on his body from his encounters with the whale.

We think of science fiction as a totally different genre from sea stories; yet science fiction—especially in its space opera versions—has been so interwoven with earlier stories of the sea that the genres are closer to each other than one might imagine. Certainly this remix involves a location shift—of time and space; but it also allows for a literal transporting of language, rituals, and references from one environment to another. Consider how easily Khan is able to substitute galactic references in the "perdition's flames" speech for Meville's aquatic ones, changing "Antares Maelstrom" for "The Horn," for example. Note that “maelstrom” appears in both speeches, through its meaning in Moby-Dick is different from its meaning in Star Trek.

Moby-Dick is evoked in multiple ways: through the image of the book on Khan's shelf, Khan's direct quoting and paraphrasing of language from the book, the borrowing and repetition of plot elements (including the destructive quest for revenge and the failure to listen to crew members who offer warnings but do not openly revolt against their monomaniacal captain), and visual references (the scarring of Khan's face and the crippling of his legs).

Star Trek shows respect for Moby-Dick and its other literary references, drawing on them, in part, to legitimize its own cultural pedigree. A newer medium—in this case, television—often remediates older content as a means of gaining greater cultural respectability. Star Trek benefits from drawing parallels between space opera and sea stories, between popular television and literary classics. The classics continue to offer wisdom for the present and the future—whether it is the insights Kirk and Spock take from Dickens or the lessons Khan fails to learn from Moby-Dick.

Despite the transposed context, The Wrath of Khan is surprisingly faithful to Moby-Dick. The key point is that had Khan read Moby-Dick closely and absorbed its truths, he might have chosen a different course, saving his life, his ship, and his crew. Khan is doomed to repeat the plot of the novel. Kirk's faithful reading of Dickens helps him understand why Spock gave his life to save the ship, substituting his life for that of his captain (a recognition of Sydney Carton's sacrifice to save the life of Charles Darnay). Kirk recognizes Carton's last words, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known," as Spock's final, healing message to him.