Yes, that was the idea -- that transporter technology could allow clothing to be fabricated at will directly onto the body. In The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, there's a chapter called "Spray-and-Wear Clothing" that begins with a discussion of this bit of futurism (before segueing into a discussion of the more conventional methods the film's costuming staff needed to use). A bit of futurism that later productions abandoned.
This does cause me to wonder: had they made a TV series with Ilia as a character would they have just made do with bald wigs, or would Khambatta (or whoever did play her) have to put up with being bald for the show's whole 13-episode run? I suppose they might've given up on making Deltan women bald, although it is a visually very striking thing, and as a costume-cheap way to convey humanoid alien-ness probably better than the Forehead Bump Brigade.
According to the novelization of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, one of the science team members on Regula I was a Deltan....but I didn't see any baldies in the movie version. Perhaps it is possible too that Deltans actually can have hair...but perhaps baldness is considered to be some form of higher beauty, or fashion statement...more of an aesthetic, rather than a result of hair loss. In other words, kinda like how some folks shouldn't wear certain styles of clothing because it just doesn't fit their body shape. So...let's put it like this: Whom would you rather see bald on screen in terms of aesthetics? Persis Khambatta....or Melissa McCarthy? Whom would you rather see wearing a Federation female bathrobe on screen? Persis Khambatta....or Melissa McCarthy? Well, I for one will take Persis Khambatta on both counts. (This is not a slam against Melissa McCarthy's acting ability or personality. From what I've seen, McCarthy is quite the actress, especially in the comedic realm...and as a person, I don't know what she's like. This is strictly visual.)
Deltans were supposed to be hairless (except eyebrows/lashes). It's stated so in a number of behind-the-scenes documents from Phase 2 and TMP.
Alrighty. So then it's another difference in the movie and the movie tie-in novelization of Wrath of Khan. 1. Saavik is Vulcan in the movie....Romulan/Vulcan in the novel. 2. There are no Deltans on Regula I in the movie...There is a Deltan in the novel.
Show me a scene or a screenplay passage where it says so, and I won't call this a conjectural assumption. Bob
Having a bald, humanoid alien is an interesting idea and visual, but not too many actresses are going to want to sport it, though. It's either a skull cap so tight you'll get migraines, or getting your head shaved. So, it's kind of unfortunate, the reality that has to factor in with something like that. CGI could be a help here, but I don't see the expense being justified for it. In short, Deltans, just by their being folically impaired, weren't going to be the kind of alien that was ever going to get shown hardly, if at all. And that's a shame, because Persis Khambatta certainly left her mark.
NO SHIT SHE'S VULCAN? And all these years I was thinking he was an Albino Orion Green girl (or a shapeshifter since she had another face in STIII )
Back to the original topic, I think V'Ger chose Ilia because he knew she was the most sensual of the bridge crew and sensuality was the one thing that placed carbon units beyond his comprehension. He took her to learn.
An interesting point. Also, being that it was a machine of pure logic, as Spock had sensed, it could not sense that Spock was innately aware of the very simple feelings it lacked, and could not compute or fathom....an awareness that would dawn on Spock later. Feelings of unity, brotherhood, communion, companionship...all expressed in the clasping of hands as Spock explained his epiphany to Kirk...these things, V'ger apparebtly could not detect in Spock. Basically, V'ger may simply have viewed Spock as too much like itself...at least at face value, so it did not need Spock. The humans? Well, they were largely uninteresting, confused, anarchic, and primitive to him. But Ilia? She probably exuded those feelings that were beyond V'ger's comprehension. This made her a curiosity to V'ger. Through her, V'ger found its liason to the corruption that it felt "repressed The Creator".
It's simple, really. V'ger was horny, and Ilia was a hot young Deltan. How was it to know she'd taken a vow of celibacy?
I wouldn't take that too seriously - it was one of a number of attempts (despite the omission of "II" from the book title) to make the story an ostensible sequel to TMP, despite the absence of such things in the movie of TWoK. Moreover, Spock's coffin is seen to burn up entering the atmosphere at the end of the TWoK novel, making Spock unalterably dead, so the whole thing takes place in a different universe as far as I'm concerned. (I never did read the novelization of TSFS to see how they resolved that aspect.)
When the novel to II was written, I think it was written at the time when Nimoy was hell bent to leave Star Trek for good. The novel may have hit after the rewritten movie ending.
But in the movie, Spock's tube was seen entering the atmosphere. Not necessarily burning up, as we found out later. I don't read the novels, so to me that's all just a bunch of hooey. (No offense to the novel authors here on the board and elsewhere. )
The novelization makes it plain that male Deltans have long hair, while the females are bald. The character of Jedda, that guy that told Carol Marcus the Reliant was calling, and was later vaporized by Captain Terrell, was the male Deltan, and he had long(ish) hair.