Entertainment
How Battlestar Galactica Turned A Sci-Fi Plothole Into Its Most Depressing Episode
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The Battlestar Galactica reboot turned a cheesy, fun sci-fi guilty pleasure into a dramatic, dark, and shockingly emotional series that redefined the entire medium. Keeping the focus small turned every update of the colony fleet’s survivors into a dramatic moment, and it let the writers mine the humans’ need for food and water for entire episodes.
While “Water” was a disappointing episode early in the show’s run, the Season 3 episode “The Passage” began with the need for fresh food and then told a tragic story of everyday heroism, guilt, and the ultimate sacrifice.
The Passage Is A Slow Motion Emotional Doom Spiral
There’s nothing sexy or fun about logistics. It’s the act of moving things from point A to point B, and yet “The Passage” is all about the work and planning that goes into keeping a fleet of ships moving through space.
It also put one of Battlestar Galactica’s one-time background characters, intended for only a single appearance, Louanne “Kat” Katraine (Luciana Carro, who later appeared in Caprica and Ronald D. Moore’s Helix), in the spotlight. Kat had butted heads with Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) a few times previously, which is why the hotshot Viper pilot was so horrified to learn that “Kat” was a smuggler back on Caprica, blaming her for sneaking Cylons onto the planet.
Kat’s smuggling skills turn out to be invaluable when the colonial fleet has to navigate a radioactive star cluster in order to find fresh food. One of many Viper pilots tasked to guide the ships through the cluster, Kat ends up losing one, furthering her downward guilt spiral. She replaces her radiation badge, which has gone pure black from exposure to the deadly rays, with Helo’s fresh one, and on the final jump, stays behind to find a missing civilian ship. Triumphant, but sick from lethal doses of radiation, Kat comes back to Galactica as a hero.
From the moment Starbuck attacks her for being a smuggler, it’s clear that Kat is on a path of self-destruction. Her desperation to prove herself was watched with horror by Battlestar Galactica fans who knew how this story would end even before she swapped her radiation badge. Kat’s story comes to an end with heartbreaking back-to-back scenes showing her promotion to the lead of the flight group, followed by Starbuck hanging her photo on the memorial wall for those they’ve lost.
Battlestar Galactica Rewrote The Rules Of Sci-Fi
On its own, “The Passage” is a fantastic episode of Battlestar Galactica, and it all started with addressing a reality of living in space that most sci-fi ignores: food. Other shows wave away how food gets onboard, from Star Trek’s replicators to Star Wars pretending no one ever eats, and really, most series don’t want fans thinking of the practicalities of the setting. That Galactica would devote multiple episodes to managing resources and the mundane day-to-day running of the colonial fleet is a testament to the writing that, though a little uneven in the back half of the show’s run, is among the top tier of sci-fi shows in history.
“The Passage” also addressed what some fans might have considered a plot hole by bringing up how the Cylons snuck into Caprica in the first place. Kat explained she had no idea at the time that Cylons could look like humans. It’s a simple way to explain that humans like Kat may have accidentally assisted the Cylons to put them in position for the devastating attack on the colonies. It’s so simple that there was never a need for the show to even address the practical logistics of Cylons moving around Caprica, but it happened, and it was handled in a way that makes sense given the way the two pilots had been butting heads.
Battlestar Galactica ended up killing a lot of characters by the time humanity found its way to Earth, and in truth, Kat’s death shouldn’t have been as emotional as it was. “The Passage” didn’t focus on any of the main cast, and the result was a beautiful, contained story that made the world of the colonial fleet feel so much larger. A life on the run is going to be harsh, brutish, and short, but thanks to the slow-motion trainwreck of watching Kat pay the ultimate price to save the colonial fleet, it was also hopeful, beautiful, and a story that few sci-fi franchises would have ever the guts to tell.
Entertainment
Meta AI can now animate your Facebook profile picture
Facebook is rolling out a new, Meta AI-powered feature that will allow users to animate their profile pictures.
Was the online public necessarily clamoring for Facebook profile pictures that waved via AI? Well…not really. But it’s here nonetheless.
Users will have access to preset animations that will turn a photo into an AI-powered, GIF-like moving profile picture. Wrote Facebook in a press release:
Mashable Trend Report
“You can now animate your profile picture, turning a still photo into a playful animation in seconds. Choose from preset animations — like natural, party hat, confetti, wave, and heart — to bring your profile picture to life depending on how you’re feeling. We’ll add more animation options throughout the year so you can celebrate and express yourself during seasonal moments and special events.
For the best results, we recommend using a photo that features a single person facing the camera with their face clearly visible, and not holding other objects. You can select photos to animate directly from your camera roll or choose photos you’ve already uploaded to Facebook. Once a photo is animated, you can share it to your Feed and view it on your profile.”
How the animation process looks.
Credit: Meta
Is it the coolest thing to animate your profile picture to make it look like you’re making a heart with your hands? Not really. But honestly, I can imagine a kooky aunt or uncle loving it. And kooky aunts and uncles love Facebook as much as they love AI photos and images.
Facebook also announced it had added a “restyle” feature that uses AI to touch-up or change photos in Stories. So, a normal photo with a friend, for instance, could be reimagined to look like an illustration. The restyle feature has preset options and can also reimagine a photo based on a text prompt.
Entertainment
Bumble quietly removes option for men to message first in Mexico and Australia
The dating app Bumble has been known for “women making the first move” (messaging first) in straight matches since its 2014 launch. Now the company is reversing a more recent change to let men message first — but only in a couple of areas.
Last week, Bumble announced that it’s removing the Opening Moves feature in Mexico and Australia. The feature has been removed automatically for those users.
Opening Moves was introduced in 2024 as a way for men to send the first message to women and was advertised as a way to lessen exhaustion with dating apps. The company’s former CEO Lidiane Jones led the charge after taking over from founder and first CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who shortly thereafter returned to the CEO role after Jones held the position for only a year.
Mashable Trend Report
While the reputation of dating apps overall has been slipping in recent years due to burnout and bad actors, Bumble has been especially hit financially. The company laid off 30 percent of its workforce last year, and its stock price has fallen 95 percent from its IPO as of this writing.
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Bumble seems to be returning to its original ethos even amid legal challenges. The Observer reported Bumble introduced Opening Moves following lawsuits and legal threats in California, claiming that the app discriminated against men, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Observer states that the company is starting to remove Opening Moves in Australia and Mexico due to lower legal risks in those markets.
“At Bumble, we regularly test and innovate our features to foster healthy, respectful connections while staying true to our women-first mission and prioritizing member safety,” a Bumble spokesperson told Mashable. “Supporting our community as they go from match to message is a key part of that work. As with all testing, we evaluate our learnings before considering a wider rollout, ensuring any changes continue to meet our community’s needs and deliver a positive experience for our members.”
Entertainment
Erupcja trailer: Charli XCX stars in explosive sapphic romance
Charli XCX is going from pop star to movie star with a string of films, including the queer fantasy 100 Nights of Hero, the mockumentary The Moment, and the sapphic romantic drama Erupcja.
Charli XCX co-wrote the script for Erupcja with director Pete Ohs and co-star Lena Góra. Set in Warsaw, the film focuses on two women, a local florist named Nel (Góra) and a tourist named Bethany (XCX), who has repeatedly crashed her love life. But this time, Bethany’s brought her current boyfriend Rob (Will Madden), who is looking for the perfect moment to propose.
In my review out of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is quoted in the above trailer, I cheered: “Shot with the kinetic yet poised cool of the French New Wave, this Polish production feels timeless. Its scenes play out with enough specificity for audiences to hook in, but enough ambiguity that they can feel like a dream. There’s a touch of fairy tale to that. Ohs keeps his characters curious and fluid, refusing to shove them into easy-to-define roles of hero and villain. Instead, Erupcja embraces the feral nature of love, messy and wondrous…. Erupcja is a thundering rumble of drama and romance, leaving its audience excited and rattled.”
Erupcja opens in theaters April 17.
Meta AI can now animate your Facebook profile picture
Bumble quietly removes option for men to message first in Mexico and Australia
