Stephen Franklin quotes from Babylon 5

John Sheridan

They nibble a little bit here, a little bit there--next thing you know, you're not even in charge of your own command anymore!

Stephen Franklin

No taxation without representation. Give me liberty or give me death!

Sheridan

Abso-fraggin'-lutely!

G'Kar

How is the poor fellow? I was so looking forward to meeting him and opening up...a dialog.

Stephen Franklin

He said..."We're wrong. The hatred between our people can never end until someone is willing to say, 'I'm sorry'. And try and find a way to make things right again, to atone for our actions."

Dr. Stephen Franklin

I'm a doctor! My duty is to heal!

Then heal humans! Stephen, I know you're fascinated by these alien creatures, but they're a threat to humanity. And they always will be. Help your own kind!

Dr. Franklin

Life is life, whether it's wrapped in skin, scales, or feathers! Now if you respected these beings instead of constantly trying to murder them, you'd appreciate that!

It does not serve evolution.

Stephen Franklin

Well, my job isn't serving evolution -- it's serving humanity, even when the patient isn't human.

Yes, but what happens when the inferior, saved from the process of natural selection, begin to outnumber the superior?

Susan Ivanova

You know, I think we should all be moving on by now...

Franklin

I don't believe that any form of sentient life is inferior to any other.

Yes. We often hear that argument from inferior species and their sympathizers.

Michael Garibaldi

Absolutely. Sure, when things get tense out here, we have to be careful. Our search of the Centauri vessels we captured proved that they were bringing in weapons of mass destruction, offloading them outside the station, and sending them on to the front lines. Now that we know that, we can make sure it doesn't happen any more. We learn. It's what humans do.

Londo Mollari

Misunderstandings aside, yes! I definitely think it's worth it. We must simply work harder to make sure we communicate with one another to prevent this sort of tragic situation from ever happening again! A violent attack by Narn forces is an unacceptable response to a peaceful protest by my government. And with the intervention of Earth, perhaps we can keep them from making a similar mistake in the future.

G'Kar

I don't know any more. I used to think so, but now...

Susan Ivanova

Yes.

Delenn

Of course it is. For the simple reason that no one else would ever build a place like this. Humans share one unique quality: They build communities. If the Narns or Centauri or any other race built a station like this, it would be used only by their own people. But everywhere humans go, they create communities out of diverse and sometimes hostile populations. It is a great gift, and a terrible responsibility--one that cannot be abandoned.

Well...I guess we'll just have to see...won't we?

Franklin

All right, Med 2--go, go! Look, if we weren't here right now, half the people in this room would be dead! Now that should be a good enough answer for anyone.

Sure! What, are you kidding? I have a retirement pension to make, you know?

John Sheridan

Yes. But not for any of the reasons that you've probably been told. The job of Babylon 5 is not to enforce the peace. It's to create the peace. And this place was built on the assumption that we could work out our problems and build a better future. And that, to me, is the key issue. See, in the last few years, we've stumbled. We stumbled at the death of the President, the war, and on and on. And when you stumble a lot, you...you start looking at your feet. Well, we have to make people...lift their eyes back to the horizon, and see the line of ancestors behind us, saying, "Make my life have meaning." And to our inheritors before us, saying, "Create the world we will live in." I mean, w-we're not just...holding jobs and having dinner. We are in the process of building the future. That's what Babylon 5 is all about.

Stephen Franklin

Well, anyone willing to command Babylon 5 has got to be slightly insane, but I don't think that you're ready for the asylum just yet.

John Sheridan

I prefer to be only slightly insane.

Garibaldi

Don't we all.

Michael Garibaldi

And after that, there are only two options. He turns us in, we're court-martialled, then shot for treason. Or we kill him, before he has a chance to tell anybody.

Stephen Franklin

I will not support murder. We can not kill him.

Ivanova

Can we wound him? Just a little?

Bester

On the other hand, we learned some interesting things about Miss Winters, in the course of her debriefing and dissec-- that is, examination.

Bester

I'm here to save your butts! Next time, show a little gratitude.

Franklin

On the other hand, maybe wounding him isn't such a bad idea after all.

Sheridan

When you were hurt, when you were in my arms, I was ready to kill that guy with my bare hands. I realized I have never told you how much I cared about you, how much you mean to me. I think it's time you knew that. I can no longer imagine my world without you in it. I don't know exactly when or how it happened. But I'm glad it did.

Garibaldi

No one knows, but…I'm afraid all the time…what I might do if I let go.

Ivanova

I think I…loved…Talia.

Dr. Stephen Franklin

I…think I have a problem.

Stephen Franklin

A lot of folks around here seem to think that lurkers deserve what they get. They figure it's better to let them die and...

Marcus Cole

"...and thus deplete the surplus population." Dickens! You know, um...I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.

Marcus

Where my people come from, his story has great power. I'll miss him.

Franklin

Even if he wasn't Arthur?

Marcus

[as Kosh appears] Now, now! Next thing you'll be saying is he's not Merlin! [Franklin laughs.] Merlin was a great teacher, you know!

Franklin

I'm not hearing this.

Marcus

They say he aged backwards. That was how he was able to foretell the future–by remembering it! Which means he came from the future! Maybe he had Arthur form the Round Table by remembering us! We're forming one of our own, after all. Which makes you Percival. I'm Galahad, him being sinless and all. Sheridan is Arthur. Ivanova, perhaps Gawain. I think we both know who Mordred is. So the question is...who is Morgana le Fay?

Stephen Franklin

You know, as a Foundationist, I was always taught that if you're not careful, you can lose yourself in the world. You get too busy with things, not busy enough with yourself! Spend your days and nights living someone else's agendas, fighting someone else's battles, and you're doing the work you're supposed to be doing, but every day there's less and less of you in it all! Till one day, you come to a fork in the road, and because you're distracted, you're not thinking. You lose yourself. You go right, and the rest of you, the really important part of you, goes left! And you don't even know you've done it till you realize, you finally realize, that you don't have any idea who you are when you're not doing all those things!

Michael Garibaldi

Stephen...you don't really believe there are two of you, do you?

Franklin

[chuckles] No, it's a metaphor! All right, there isn't literally another me walking around the station. But the principle is real! I realized I didn't have any idea who I was when I wasn't being a doctor, and I think I was using the stims to avoid facing that. Now I gotta fix it.

Garibaldi

How?

Franklin

By going walkabout. You just leave everything, and you start walking. I mean, the Foundation adopted the idea from the Aborigines back on Earth. The theory is, if you're separated from yourself, you start walking and you keep walking until you meet yourself. Then you sit down, and you have a long talk. Talk about everything that you've learned, everything that you've felt, and you talk until you've run out of words. Now, that's vital, because the real important things can't be said. And then, if you're lucky, you look up, and there's just you. Then you can go home.

Stephen Franklin

I can't go back, but I can appreciate what I have right now, and I can define myself by what I am, instead of what I'm not.

John Sheridan

And what are you?

Franklin

Alive. Everything else is negotiable.

Lennier

It was the year of fire...

Zack Allan

...the year of destruction...

G'Kar

...the year we took back what was ours.

Lyta Alexander

It was the year of rebirth...

Vir Cotto

...the year of great sadness...

Marcus Cole

...the year of pain...

Delenn

...and a year of joy.

Londo Mollari

It was...a new age.

Stephen Franklin

It was the end of history.

Susan Ivanova

It was the year everything changed.

Michael Garibaldi

The year is 2261.

John Sheridan

The place, Babylon 5.

Stephen Franklin

Is this really the best ship you could find?

Marcus Cole

Yes. [he flicks his pike open, then closes it just as quickly]

Franklin

Smells like the inside of a Martian pleasure dome on Sunday morning.

Marcus

Wouldn't know about that.

Franklin

Don't make me come over there and [flick] take that thing from you.

Marcus

Helps me relax.

Franklin

Marcus, this is the kind of conversation that can only end with a gunshot!

Marcus

Would you like me to sing instead?

Franklin

No.

Marcus

You haven't heard me!

Franklin

Marcus, please!