Unplanned Reshoots And A Haircut Had Star Trek: TNG Producers Scrambling

In the second season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Trekkies were introduced to a memorable minor character named Ensign Sonya Gomez, played by actress Lycia Naff. Ensign Gomez first appeared in "Q Who" (May 8, 1989), the first episode to feature the Borg. She conversed briefly with Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) about how excited she was to be serving on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D before accidentally spilling her drink on Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). Ensign Gomez appeared again in the following episode, "Samaritan Snare" (May 15, 1989), the episode to first feature the Pakled. In a fun development, Lycia Naff would return to play Gomez in an episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" called "First First Contact" (October 14, 2021) wherein she had risen to the rank of captain. 

For a hot minute behind the scenes, Ensign Gomez was floated as a potential love interest for Geordi, and Naff was even told about a potential story wherein Geordi would get life-threatening eye surgery merely to see Gomez without his visor. The romance plot was dropped, however, when Gomez was written to be more comedic, and Naff was asked to play her few scenes for laughs. The producers felt that a "funny" character wouldn't make a good love interest, and Gomez was relegated to only two episodes. 

In a 2018 interview with StarTrek.com, Naff also revealed a minor crisis involving her hair. It seems she was dismissed from the set on her last day of shooting, told she wouldn't be needed. Naff, relieved, got a haircut and started looking for new gigs. She shouldn't have done that. 

When the idea of Ensign Gomez's long-term role fell through, Naff was sent home. She was grateful, and had already planned on getting a shorter hairdo when she got the call to do a few reshoots. Naff said:

"After I shot the two episodes and was told that I was NOT coming back next season, I told the producers 'Thank you for the opportunity' and that I was planning to cut my hair length by a few inches, which I did. Little did I know that a few weeks later, the producers wanted me back for a re-shoot of the hallway scene. At that point, they saw my hair didn't match earlier shots and we had to scramble to add extensions to match the previous length."

All credit to Michael Westmore and the rest of the hair-and-makeup team at "Star Trek: The Next Generation," because one cannot see the difference between the original takes and the reshoots; Naff's hair matches perfectly. 

Know that Naff didn't cut her hair out of spite, adding that if she "was told to not cut my hair, I never would have, but I'd been completely wrapped from the part with no hope of returning." 

It's a pity that Ensign Gomez didn't return, as she was a fun character with a lot of personality. Perhaps the plot with Geordi getting eye surgery wasn't a great idea — Geordi's blindness was hardly ever mentioned, much less used as a plot point — but Geordi and Gomez seemed to have a great rapport and could have very well have developed a romantic relationship. Sadly, it was never to be.