Lycia Naff's Captain Gomez Was Supposed To Be A Much Larger Part Of Star Trek: TNG
Ensign Sonya Gomez (Lycia Naff) is probably best known to Trekkies as the character who spilled a cup of hot chocolate on Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) in the second season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Q Who." In the episode's cold open, Ensign Gomez ordered a cup of her preferred beverage from a food replicator, and was careful to say "please." Lieutenant La Forge (LeVar Burton) pointed out that one needn't say "please" and "thank you" to computers. Gomez then, possessed of nervous chatter, began to tell LaForge about how excited she was to be on the Enterprise. As she exited to put her drink down, she bumped into the captain coming the other way, spilling chocolate all over them both.
Ensign Gomez only appeared on "Next Generation" one other time, in "Samaritan Snare," but was given less to do. Regardless, she stood out. Most Trekkies remember Gomez well and remember Naff for her performance. Naff has had a long TV career, appearing as a guest in many hit shows. Genre fans may also recognize Naff from the Troma film "Chopper Chicks in Zombietown," or as the multi-breasted sex worker in "Total Recall."
Years later, Naff would return to "Star Trek" in the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "First First Contact," playing the same role. By the events of "Lower Decks," Sonya Gomez had become a captain and was the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Archimedes. The hot chocolate incident, it seems, didn't hurt her career.
In 2018, Naff was interviewed by StarTrek.com, and she revealed that her role on "Next Generation" was initially pitched to her as being much larger. It seems that Ensign Gomez was conceived as a potential long-term love interest for Geordi La Forge.
Young engineers in love
Gomez, Trekkies will note, is a talkative and funny character. She converses well with Geordi, but she comes across as relatably awkward, not to mention pretty funny. Sadly, Sonya Gomez, Naff said, was written to be just a little too funny for the character's own good. As such, when it came time to bring her back, Gomez was no longer well-suited to the ultra-dramatic love story they wanted to involve her in. Naff said:
"I was told that Gomez was going to evolve into Geordi's love interest, but the dialogue and the way I was directed to play the part was more comic relief than love interest. When it came time to possibly renew me as a recurring role in the next season, I was told that producers thought Gomez was too funny to be the type of love interest that would cause Geordi to get a possibly fatal operation to see me."
A fatal operation? It seems that the "Next Generation" writers planned out a story that would have allowed Geordi, a blind man who wears an external high-tech visor to see, to have functioning eyeballs. Naff continued:
"That was the endgame. Geordi was to fall so deeply in love with me that he'd risk his life to have eye surgery in order to see me. Apparently, the character of Gomez was written comically and didn't match what they really wanted in the end. I was super-bummed when I got the news."
It's a pity about Gomez, as her return would have been welcomed. It's fortunate, however, that the showrunners didn't write a story about Geordi getting eye surgery. His disability was merely incidental to the show and was accepted by all his peers. A surgery story would have tactlessly called attention to it.
The Sonya Gomez expanded universe
Of course, some Trekkies may laugh a little bit at the fact that Geordi was denied a love interest yet again. One of the running gags of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was that Geordi couldn't ever successfully find a girlfriend. The only time he came close, he fell in love with an artificial version of a famous engineer on the holodeck. When he finally met the real-life engineer his love hologram was based on (played by actress Susan Gibney), she was understandably revolted. At least he would marry and have children by the events of "Star Trek: Picard" many decades later.
Captain Gomez, meanwhile, has remained a part of "Star Trek," even if Naff hasn't. It seems that Gomez appeared in the novel series "Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers," published from 2000 to 2007. In those books, Gomez was said to have been the chief engineer on a ship called the U.S.S. Sentinel, and would eventually become a Commander on the U.S.S. da Vinci. She was given a middle name (Guadalupe) and a family. She was also said to have had a brief relationship with Lieutenant Duffy (Charley Lang), a character who only appeared in one episode of "Next Generation."
Naff hasn't read the books, but she knows about them. She said:
"I learned about how amazing the character's legacy was and had only wished that I'd been given a chance to portray the role in the way they wanted. But they wrote her funny, so that's how I was directed. A fellow actor in a play I was starring in told me of Gomez's illustrious future in the books."
Thanks to "Lower Decks," Naff had an opportunity to return. And, yes, her future was illustrious.