Catherine Hicks had already started to gain a foothold for herself in the world of pop culture when she took on the role of Doctor Gillian Taylor in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.” Gillian is the level-headed gal of the ’80s who finds herself in the company of Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), who are visiting the past in response to a cylindrical probe that keeps wreaking havoc in the distant future. Their only hope? finding a whale and bringing it back in time with them so that they can respond to the distress call, as it matches the song of the humpback from the past. 

Gillian is a marine biologist who happens to be preparing whales for release back into the ocean. To get closer to the situation, Kirk finds himself romancing her — and Gillian ends up in his time and with his team, making a desperate last-ditch attempt at saving a future Earth.

As for Hicks, she started her career as Dr. Faith Coleridge on “Ryan’s Hope.” She appeared in a number of smaller movie roles — including a supporting part in “Peggy Sue Got Married” as Peggy Sue’s (Kathleen Turner) friend Carol — before becoming Gillian. It was a role that taught her to stand up for herself, thanks to William Shatner’s impish on-set behavior which was all part and parcel of the infamous “Kirk Rule” that encouraged the property to remain mainly laser-focused on him. But her acting days have tapered off a bit since her time as Kirk’s main squeeze — though she did manage to snag a lot of memorable parts on her way out the door.

After playing Gillian Taylor, Catherine Hicks appeared in the Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron feature “Like Father, Like Son,” and then took on another role that would gain her cult fame; she played Karen Barclay, Andy Barclay’s (Alex Vincent) frightened mom in the first “Child’s Play” film. In 1996, she went on to become a familiar face at the WB — and then the CW  — by taking on the life of Annie Camden. Hicks became the mom of the huge Camden clan when she was cast in the family drama “7th Heaven.” She was with that long-lived series from its first season to its last. 

When the show wrapped up in 2007, she took on a series of roles in direct-to-DVD, streaming, and television films, including “A Valentine’s Date” and “A Christmas Wedding Tail.” Her last credited role is a voiceover role in an episode of “JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales” in 2020. There’s a good reason for that, as Hicks told TMZ in 2023 she’s done with acting and wouldn’t be interested in appearing in a reboot of “7th Heaven.” But she continues to make public appearances, such as the one she made in 2022 at TCMFest to introduce a screening of “Peggy Sue Got Married.” It looks like she’s kicking her heels up and enjoying herself — something Gillian Taylor would highly approve of.