Okay, that was pretty much off the top of my head. I could nail it down with a couple of season marathon viewings (I did one for Season Two a few months ago), but that's going to have to wait until I can find the time. In the meantime, anybody who's doing marathon viewings now, or who knows better, is welcome to jump in with corrections to this list.

What I did was read each episode synopsis from the Lurker's Guide, then try to remember if Franklin had anything significant to do or say in that particular ep. I put an asterisk by episodes where we learned something major about him -- or if he learned something major about himself, which I think is particularly neat. You don't see many TV series characters learning something about themselves (all hail JMS!).

Now, that was a list of Franklin stuff in general. Most of you reading this are also interested in the man without his clothes on and to that end, I submit the following:

FIRST SEASON:

"Infection" -- Our first glimpse of Stephen-skin! What tickled me about this glimpse is the man had a sprinkling of hair on his chest in this ep; said sprinkling is nowhere in evidence in the two subsequent displays of Stephen-skin. I bet that wax job hurt like hell!

"Quality of Mercy" -- Looks like Stephen is workin' on a groovy thing with June Lockhart's daughter. He's obviously quite attracted to her... and she is attracted to him. Gee, I can't imagine why... Frankly (no pun intended :), I think he got him some of that.

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SECOND SEASON:

"The Long Dark" -- This ep was as dumb as its name, but it was a heavy Franklin ep for all that. He played the Knight in Shining Armor (Black Knight, as the case may be ;), riding up on his hoss to rescue the newly-thawed damsel in distress. He does this with much tenderness, but when accused of taking advantage of said damsel, he rather self-righteously stated that he doesn't date his patients. He probably should have told his patient that. She seemed to have other ideas. Not that I blame her...

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THIRD SEASON:

There was another ep in which we get to see Stephen-skin (baby smooth this time). I don't recall the name of it, but he's changing his shirt and having an argument with Garibaldi over his stim use.

"Walkabout" -- Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time we saw a human in the sack with another human it was Jeffrey "I make one BUTT-ugly Minbari" Sinclair, WAY back in the beginning of first season. In this ep we see Stephen snuggled up cozy with Cailyn, who was a pretty neat character in her own right. We're also treated to the most Stephen-skin we've ever seen, bare-chested AND in shorts. I think they went for two, don't you? After the first time you're still a little buzzed and nervous. You cuddle and you talk and you offer and she asks and you not only turn her down, you reprimand her for being a lush. But she ain't mad, plus she knows how to get what she needs when asking nicely doesn't work. She lets you hit it again. You get it right this time, and she knocks your boots off so hard you don't notice she's left the bed, gotten dressed and stolen your identicard until she wakes you up by passing out and falling over a table in the other room.

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FOURTH SEASON

"Lines of Communication" -- "Oh, Stephen..." Totally off-camera action, yet exquisitely graphic, somehow. No doubt this is due more to my gutter mind than anything I saw on the screen, although Marcus extending and retracting that damned pike had definite Freudian overtones. What I wonder is, what exactly Stephen DID to elicit that kind of response. "Has his hands full," indeed!

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