Lieutenant Ilia
Gender:	Female
Species:	Deltan
Affiliation:	Starfleet
Rank:	Lieutenant
Occupation:	Starfleet officer
Status:	Missing (2270s)
Played by:	Persis Khambatta

Lieutenant Ilia was navigator on the USS Enterprise during the V'Ger incident of the early 2270s. Ilia, a Deltan from the planet Delta IV, had been romantically involved with Willard Decker, who also later served aboard the Enterprise. She did, however, swear an oath of celibacy upon initiation of her service, a requirement for Deltans entering Starfleet. Although Ilia was eliminated by a probe from the V'Ger entity, a mechanical near-duplicate of her was created to collect information and ease communications between V'ger and the "carbon units" that "infested" the Enterprise. The probe was similar to Ilia down to the molecular structure, as a medical exam later revealed. The duplicate, which included both her memories and personality, though both suppressed under "her" primary programming, was so exacting a copy of the original that Admiral James T. Kirk later listed Ilia as missing instead of killed, following her involvement in the conclusion of the crisis. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Navigators of the starships Enterprise
USS Enterprise:	Arex • Bailey • Chekov • DeSalle • DiFalco • Farrell • Hadley • Haines • Ilia • Kelso • Latimer • Leslie • Osborne • Painter • Riley • Stiles • Saavik • Tyler
USS Enterprise-A:	Chekov
ISS Enterprise:	Chekov
USS Enterprise (alternate reality):	Chekov

Appendices Edit

Background information Edit

Ilia was played by Persis Khambatta. The character was originally proposed for Star Trek: Phase II. The show's production materials described the character's abilities and background – notably, that she was very intelligent, an "esper" and that almost everything with her people was sex-oriented. Khambatta had been cast in the role for the series, and had done costume and makeup tests which were used for the motion picture. (The Making of Star Trek The Motion Picture)

Ilia, as well as her relationship with Willard Decker, was the inspiration for both the character Deanna Troi and Troi's relationship with William T. Riker.

Apocrypha Edit

According to Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Ilia's rank was lieutenant junior grade.

Ilia can also be seen in the first two story arcs of the Star Trek newspaper comic strip.

In The Return, by William Shatner, it is revealed that V'Ger was modified by the source species of the Borg. It is suggested that Ilia and Decker were fused to the Borg Collective, in 5-dimensional space, by V'Ger and that Ilia might be the Borg Queen seen later.

External links Edit

• Ilia at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
• Ilia at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works