Sidney La Forge's Hair Told A Hidden Story In Star Trek: Picard Season 3

The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" begins with the title character (Patrick Stewart) packing up all his old trinkets and keepsakes from his days on board the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. He says out loud that he has no interest in developing a legacy and is instead eager to continue to work and have more adventures. Later on, when he and Captain Riker (Jonathan Frakes) are drinking at Guinan's bar, the bartender mentions that the Enterprise-D is an unpopular ship; of all the model starships Guinan is selling, the Enterprise-D hasn't needed a restock. It seemed that legacy was not going to be an important theme of the season.

As the series progressed, however, it became increasingly concerned with legacy until it became the central focus. Inheritance was a large part of the show and someone eventually said aloud that names are everything. (So much for not wanting a legacy.) By the show's end, Picard's son Jack (Ed Speleers) and Geordi La Forge's daughter Sidney (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) were serving on the bridge of the newly christened Enterprise-G, captained by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Jack was even visited by Q (John de Lancie), who explained that Jack had, essentially, inherited the premise from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." A proposed spinoff might even be called "Star Trek: Legacy."

Throughout the series, Jack and Sidney spent several moments connecting. Although she was a Starfleet officer and he a handsome rogue, they bonded over their mutual youth, overwhelmed by their parents' respective drama. At one point Sidney was attacked by a vicious Changeling and Jack sprung to the rescue (Jack, you see, has supernatural fight powers). The experience left both of them shaken.

In an interview with Inverse, Chestnut pointed out her hair changed after this scene, and for a significant reason.

The plot of "Picard" involved a vengeful cadre of Changelings seeking revenge after the Federation had mistreated them during wartime. It seems that the Federation hired an evil doctor to conduct medical experiments on several Changeling prisoners of war and now they had come seeking recompense. The Changelings were led by the wicked Vadic (Amanda Plummer), who had been sending hundreds of imposters out into Starfleet, hoping to sabotage hundreds of starships. On the U.S.S. Titan-A, several shape-shifting Changelings had been hiding out with the crew, including a Changeling disguised as Sidney La Forge.

When Jack "activates" and kills several Changelings, they remain in the final shape they held before death. That means Sidney was not only briefly faced by an evil doppelgänger, but that she got to, essentially, see her own dead body. This was enough to shake her. According to Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, this was reflected visually by a hairdo change. It may seem like a small detail, but for the actor, it denoted a significant character moment. She ran an idea by the showrunner Terry Matalas and it was approved. Chestnut explained:

"Just seeing myself, laying down as a dead body, that was nuts. [...] Sidney sees her dead body. She doesn't want to see that again. So. I wanted to do a hair change! I talked to Terry and asked him if Sidney could change her hair in response to this, and he was like yes."

What might have seemed like an aesthetic change was inspired by battlefield trauma. The change happened in the show's fifth episode (of ten), so the change also visually denoted a split between the first part of the season and the second.

Chestnut says she was not allowed to keep her prop comm badge, sadly.