The title refers to the 1851 Herman Melville novel "Moby Dick" about the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaler "Pequod", commanded by Captain Ahab who had an obsession with the great white whale named Moby Dick. Richard Basehart (Admiral Harriman Nelson) played the narrating sailor Ishmael in a movie adaptation of Moby Dick (1956).
This episode takes place in the 1970s.
Richard Basehart played the former prisoner of war, Major Harry Cargill in the movie Time Limit (1957) . June Lockhart played his wife. This may add an additional dimension to the warm greeting June Lockhart gives Richard Basehart at the beginning of the show.
Irwin Allen approached June Lockhart during the production to ask her that if she had the time and if she was interested, he wanted her to shoot a pilot in January and February 1965 called "Space Family Robinson" - later changed to "Lost in Space" - she accepted and worked for 3 seasons (1965-1968) on the CBS TV series.