10 Background Star Trek Actors More Important Than You Think

Most Star Trek fans won't remember the name Ensign Sonya Gomez but they may recall the awkward, young engineering officer who accidentally spilled hot chocolate on Captain Picard in the episode Q Who, right before they encountered the Borg for the first time.

Her name was Ensign Gomez and she was originally intended by the writers to be a love-interest for Geordi, however Lycia was never told of this so she didn't play the character with that in mind. She instead played Gomez as an excited, highly nervous Starfleet newbie who was just happy to be aboard a ship as amazing as the Enterprise, a much more fun and realistic take for the character.

Lycia's portrayal of Ensign Gomez led to the writers scrapping the romance plot, but recently the writers of Lower Decks decided that they liked her performance on The Next Generation so much that they wanted to bring her back for the cartoon and finally give her character the development she deserved. By the time Lower Decks is set, Sonya is now Captain of the starship Archimedes.

Frankly, it's fitting that she would get this payoff in Lower Decks of all shows, as Ensign Gomez surely was among the lower ranks of the Enterprise and would probably fit right in with Mariner and Boimler.