Dr. Stephen Franklin
SPECIES:Human
HOMEWORLD:Earth
DATE OF BIRTH:Unknown
ORGANISATION:Army of Light
STATUS:Chief B5 Physician
ALLEGIANCE:Light
ACTOR:Richard Biggs

A Foundationist and the medical chief of staff and resident xenobiologist on Babylon 5 who replaced Dr. Benjamin Kyle after his recall to Earth. The son of General Richard Franklin, with whom he had a difficult relationship, he was educated at Harvard, where he studied under Doctors Everett Jacobs and Vance Hendricks, and stated he wanted his name to go down in history. Inspired by the former's tales of travels around the galaxy he hitchhiked around the galaxy on starships trading his services as a doctor for passage, visiting many worlds, including the Markab homeworld where he befriended Dr. Lazarenn (also shown), much to the disgust of Richard Franklin who considered the trip to be running from responsibilities, refusing to speak to him until he joined Earth Force for the Earth-Minbari War. During the war he destroyed his notes on the Minbari rather than turn them over to the Earth Alliance to be used in the development of a bioweapon.

A strong believer in the Hippocratic Oath he will often place himself at risk to save others, such as using Dr. Rosen's healing device to help Michael Garibaldi recover from his shooting at the expense of some of his own life force, although in his attempts to save the life of Shon this nearly landed him in very serious trouble and earned a rebuke from Jeffrey Sinclair. Stephen Franklin has similar views about Psi Corps treatment of telepaths who do not wish to enlist in Psi Corps, setting up a free clinic in DownBelow to help the lurkers and also to act as a cover for his railroad of unregistered telepaths, enabling him to alter records until John Sheridan forced him to reroute the operation away from Babylon 5 when the Psi Cop Bester started an investigation. During 2259 and 2260, with the increasing workload caused by refugees from the Narn-Centauri War he developed an increasing addiction to stims, refusing to accept the fact when the issue was raised both by medical colleagues and Michael Garibaldi, hovering on the edge of acceptance of the addiction until a near fatal incident with a patient forced him to confront the problem and check his levels of stim usage. When the results showed that he was indeed addicted to the drugs, Dr. Franklin resigned his position as chief of medical staff aboard Babylon 5.

In accordance with his beliefs as a Foundationist he embarked upon a "walkabout", an Aboriginal custom copied by the Foundationists, and roamed DownBelow where he was entranced by a singer, Cailyn (right), when he chanced upon her act in a bar. He was later to discover that she was taking Metazyne, wrongly assuming that she had an addiction similar to his own he refused to help her obtain more of the drug only to have her collapse, apparently from an overdose, having used his IdentiCard to obtain it for herself. Only when he took her to a MedLab did he realize that it was in fact a painkiller for her terminal condition and she had collapsed from pain, using his influence to get her the best care Stephen Franklin watched her performance one more time before resuming his walkabout. Shortly afterward he was almost fatally stabbed while trying to break up a fight, loosing a lot of blood and realizing his true nature before managing to drag himself to help. While recovering in MedLab he was confronted with the aftermath of the attack of Sector 83 and resumed his former role in an unofficial capacity as an advisor until Captain John Sheridan made his reinstatement formal.

Franklin's computer password is "Harriet", named for Harriet Tubman, who ran a similar underground railroad for slaves during the American Civil War.