We met this exotic bald beauty in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. She is the navigator of the newly refitted Enterprise.
She is not an Earthwoman, nor is she really human. She is a Deltan. She is all business with Captain Kirk, but she smiles when she sees handsome, young Commander Decker.
FWIW, Kirk is totally all business toward her. He shows no interest in her as a woman. None. Come to think of it, Spock is also totally indifferent towards her.
Apparently Ilia and ~Will Decker~ have a thing for each other. They met before on her homeworld, years ago, and it's obvious from the start that Decker is still carrying a torch for her. Alas, she has taken a vow of celibacy, for reasons unexplained.
When Chekov gets injured by an energy blast, she uses some mysterious power that she possesses to stop his pain. What she did is not explained, and why she's acting like a nurse instead of a navigator is also not questioned nor explained.
For reasons that are not obvious, a probe from V'Ger absorbs Ilia, and later returns an android double of her to act as its emissary. Ilia the person is in effect dead at that point.
The Ilia probe shows no feelings for "her" other shipmates, but "she" seems to recognize and have feelings for Commander Decker. It's because of this that Kirk in effect orders Mr. Decker to attempt to, uh, manipulate the "emotions" of the thing.
In the past, Kirk would have done that job himself, but he doesn't even pretend to want the job in TMP. Good thing, because as it turns out, V'Ger ultimately demands an opportunity to physically merge with its "creator" (humanity) and this is accomplished when Will Decker physically merges with Ilia-the-probe...which apparently destroys them both in a final orgasmic cataclysm.
We learn very little about Ilia, but she apparently was skilled and competent. She gave her life in the performance of her duty.
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