star trek the motion picture ilia

Creating Lieutenant Ilia

Gene Roddenberry created the character of Ilia for the aborted second Star Trek television series Phase II . The show’s 1977 bible described the young navigator as “breathtakingly beautiful” and second in intelligence only to the ship’s Vulcan science officer. (Leonard Nimoy hadn’t been interested in reprising his role as Spock for television but was persuaded to return for The Motion Picture .)

Her smooth, slender bare head has the almost sensually quality of delicately contoured nudity, always hidden before in other women. It gives her a striking, almost “Egyptian” look, particularly when wearing a Deltan jewel-band head ornament.

The Deltans set up an interesting contrast with the Vulcans. They could not mind meld but rather sense the emotions and thoughts of others in the form of images. Whereas the Vulcans repressed their feelings, Deltans were extremely sensual:

On 114-Delta V, almost everything in life is sex-oriented; it is a part of every friendship, every social engagement, every profession. It is simply the normal way to relate with others there.

This is the origin of the “oath of celibacy” Ilia had to take before joining Starfleet.

Costume designer Bob Fletcher borrowed heavily from the Phase II bible in his own notes for The Motion Picture , which he shared with Fantastic Films and Starlog magazines in early 1980. (Links point to scanned version of the interviews by My Star Trek Scrapbook .) He described the Deltans as “poised, proud, somewhat aloof, but with a keen sense of humor.”

Achieved Earth’s technology 100 centuries ago, but then turned away from the materialism of technology toward the richer rewards of self-realization. Have learned to live each moment of life to the fullest. Unlike the Vulcans, they value and delight in emotion. A sensual race, their senses are far more sensitive than humans.

Fletcher suggested the reason Deltans make such excellent navigators is that their highly evolved intelligence can “handle the most complex spherical trigonometric complexities of space navigation as easily as a human learns simple multiplication tables.”

He also described the Deltans as great jewelry makers:

Their jewelry is sold throughout the galaxy and is very popular.

In several of the costume and makeup tests that were shot for what was then still Phase II , Persis Khambatta, the Indian actress who had been cast in the role of Ilia, can be seen wearing various pieces of jewelry.

Khambatta told Star Trek Communicator in an interview that was published in December 1998 — four months after her death from a heart attack at the age of 49 — that hundreds of actresses had tested for the role:

There were a lot of women with hair that looked really stunning, but when you remove the hair they somehow lose the look. Basically, they had asked me if I would shave my head or wear a bald cap. I said look, if you are doing a series for five years I would want to shave my hair because I would go bald with all the gum and glue from the bald cap. Besides, a bald cap would have never looked real.

She told People magazine in January 1980 ( My Star Trek Scrapbook has the original version , with pictures) that she seldom wore wigs or hats during production. “I thought I was very pretty without hair,” but — “some people must have thought I was an exhibitionist or religious fanatic.”

Khambatta’s skimpy outfit as the V’Ger-controlled Ilia probe was the actress’ idea.

“I was supposed to wear one of those same grey uniforms,” she told Star Trek Communicator .

[B]eing bald and wearing that grey starship uniform, I would have looked like a boy. I wanted to look like a sexy female.

Persis Khambatta, William Shatner and George Takei

Khambatta’s unique look was an ubiquitous part of the movie’s advertising campaign. Film critic Jordan Hoffman writes for the official Star Trek website that back in 1979, a woman with no hair was still quite a shocker:

Indeed, Khambatta’s real-life head-shave was enough of a news item that it was filmed for promotional purposes.

Desperate their elaborate backstory, Deltans were seldom seen in Star Trek again. But they were reinvented. The Next Generation introduced the empathetic Betazoids, which were based on the Deltans. The character of Deanna Troi, and her history with First Officer Will Riker, was based on Ilia and her relationship with Will Decker.

It was always a shame that the Deltans were not used in subsequent productions of Trek (big screen or small).

Thank you for this insightful report on this pivotal actor/actress (politically correct wasn’t “in” then) to the Trek universe and her character’s link to Star Trek: The Next Generation . The movie demonstrated some of our frst concerns over AI and is still relevant today. Her dedication to her role and her craft was important. May Pariss Khambatta NEVER be forgotten!

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Persis Khambatta

View history

Khambatta was born in Mumbai, India in a middle-class Parsi family. At age 13, she was hired for advertisements for a soap brand after photos of her taken accidentally by a famous photographer became popular. This led to a successful career in modeling.

In 1965, at the age of 17, Khambatta was named Miss India and participated in that year's Miss Universe pageant. Unable to find success in the Indian film industry (known as Bollywood), she began acting in international films. She also became a model for various companies, including Revlon. She made her English-speaking acting debut with a supporting role in the 1975 thriller The Wilby Conspiracy , which she followed with the crime drama Conduct Unbecoming later that year. The latter film starred Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country actor Christopher Plummer .

Khambatta's first US production (the previous films were made in the UK) was the 1977 NBC TV movie The Man with the Power , which co-starred John de Lancie , Tim O'Connor , Roger Perry and Jason Wingreen . For her very next project, Khambatta played the role for which she is most recognized – that of Ilia, the Deltan navigator of the USS Enterprise , in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The following year, she became the first Indian actress to present an Academy Award. Specifically, she co-presented the Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects & Features at the 52nd Annual Academy Awards.

Her performance in Star Trek and the film's success led to major roles in Nighthawks (1981, featuring Jim Beaver and cinematography by James Contner ), Megaforce (1982, featuring Bobby Bass and directed and co-written by Hal Needham , who also performed stunts), and Warrior of the Lost World (1985, co-starring Fred Williamson ), and First Strike (with Harvey Vernon ). She never really found success, however, and decided to return to India to try, once again, to establish herself as a Bollywood actress. When that did not work out, she returned to the United States and began working in television.

Khambatta in 1978 with make-up artist Fred Phillips

In 1986 Khambatta guest-starred in an episode of Hunter with Rod Arrants and Ben Slack and in an episode of MacGyver directed by Cliff Bole and featuring Sid Haig . The following year, she appeared on Mike Hammer along with Ian Abercrombie and Michael Ansara . She then returned to films, starring in the direct-to-video thriller Deadly Intent . This movie reunited Khambatta with her Warrior of the Lost World co-star (and Star Trek: The Original Series guest actor) Fred Williamson and also featured Clayton Rohner . Khambatta then played the lead role in She-Wolves of the Wasteland (1988), which proved to be her last film.

In 1993, Khambatta appeared in the pilot episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , which starred Teri Hatcher , Tracy Scoggins , and K Callan , and was directed by Robert Butler . The pilot also featured fellow Trek alumni Christopher Darga , Clyde Kusatsu , and Kenneth Tigar . By 1997, Khambatta had returned to her native Bombay. In that year, she wrote and published a coffee table book about the history of the Miss India pageant titled Pride of India . On 17 August of the following year, Khambatta complained of chest pains and was admitted to a Bombay hospital. She died of a massive heart attack the next day. She was 49 years old.

External links [ ]

Persis Khambatta at Wikipedia
Persis Khambatta at the Internet Movie Database

Ilia (Persis Khambatta)

Character analysis.

Ilia: proving since 1979 that you don't need Rapunzel-like tresses to be totally gorgeous.

Ilia: also proving since 1979 that you can be evaporated, put back together as a sentient android, and still find everlasting love.

What do we talk about when we talk about Ilia ? Well, we'll be talking about the two versions of Ilia.

The first is the real Ilia: the newly hired helms officer of the Enterprise who was once romantically involved with Willard Decker. We don't get to know that girl too much—besides the fact that she must have inspired at least a couple of women to rock the Daddy Warbucks hairstyle.

The Robot Blues

Instead, we spend the bulk of our time with a character we'd like to dub "Robo-Ilia"—an unholy hybrid between a Starfleet officer and living machine. According to her, she was "programmed by V'Ger to observe and record the normal functioning of the carbon-based units infesting U.S.S. Enterprise ."

In fact, she's the one who reveals V'Ger's name.

The crew attempts to reawaken the real Ilia within this android by showing her things from her past life, like the games and clothes she used to enjoy. This will usually work for a second or two, but she inevitably slips right back into being a mechanical zombie. Decker in particular is hurt by this. He clearly still has feelings for his ex-bae.

Peeking to the Surface

Interestingly, however, Robo-Ilia seems to have some residual feelings too. We can see this most notably in the fact that she refers to Decker by his actual name from the get-go, rather than stylizing it as "Decker-Unit" like she does with everyone else on the crew.

We'd argue that this connection is the real reason why V'Ger chooses to merge with Decker. After all, it's been struggling to figure out these weird human emotions, and now it's been struck by the most powerful one of all—love. D'aww.

In this way, we can take small comfort knowing that Ilia and Decker's connection still lives on strong, even if their physical bodies might not.

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W hy's T his F unny?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Persis khambatta: ilia.

Photos (39)

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Persis Khambatta in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Quotes

Lt. Ilia : My oath of celibacy is on record, Captain.

Captain James T. Kirk : Where is Lieutenant Ilia?

Lt. Ilia : [as the alien probe] That unit no longer functions. I've been given its form to more readily communicate with the carbon-based units infesting Enterprise.

Ensign Perez : "Carbon-based units"?

Dr. McCoy : Humans, Ensign Perez. Us.

[the Ilia-probe sees Decker for the first time]

Lt. Ilia : Decker?

Spock : [aside to Kirk] Fascinating. Not "Decker-unit".

Lt. Ilia : [bumping into Will after his conversation with Capt. Kirk] Was it difficult?

Commander Willard Decker : No more than I expected. About as difficult as seeing you again. I'm sorry.

Lt. Ilia : That you left Delta IV? Or that you didn't even say goodbye?

Commander Willard Decker : If I had seen you again, would you have been able to say it?

Lt. Ilia : No.

Decker : I'm sure the Captain didn't mean anything personal.

Lt. Ilia : I would never take advantage of a sexually immature species. You can assure him that's the truth, can't you?

Lt. Ilia : [Ilia the probe] You are the Kirk Unit. You will assist me. I've been programmed by V'Ger to observe and record normal functions of the carbon-based units infesting USS Enterprise.

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