Ilia (Star Trek)

Star Trek character|if=|Title = Ilia
bgcolor = #ccccff
Caption = Lt. Ilia as portrayed by Persis Khambatta in ""
Size = 180px
Species = Deltan
Gender = female
Planet = Delta IV
Affiliation = Starfleet
Posting = USS "Enterprise" navigator
Rank = Lieutenant
Portrayed = Persis Khambatta

Lieutenant Ilia (pronounced eye-LEE-ah ) was a proposed character on the cancelled ' series. When Paramount instead decided to produce ' (TMP), the character was included in the crew of the upgraded USS "Enterprise" as navigator. She is a Deltan, a species who are bald, empathic, and exude pheromones which arouse human males, and she had once been romantically involved with Commander Willard Decker. Ilia is killed by the sentient alien probe known as V'ger and replaced by a robotic duplicate that became V'ger's emissary in its quest to find its creator.

She was played by Persis Khambatta, who had been crowned Miss India in 1965, and died of a heart attack in 1998. Khambatta had originally been cast as Ilia for "Star Trek: Phase II", and was the only major actor from the aborted series to play the same role in TMP.

Major elements of Ilia's character as conceived for "Phase II", most notably her empathic abilities, and her prior relationship with the ship's first officer (Willard Decker or Will Riker) were later incorporated into the character of Deanna Troi in "".

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