In what manner was Babylon 5 trouncing Star Trek? Was it even on broadcast TV? I remember occasionally seeing a commercial for VHS tapes of it, but I never actually saw it.
Discussion
babylon5 had more violence, and didnt suffer from starfleet 'perfectionism'/'self-righteousness'.
it was significantly darker.
it was on broadcast tv
Ratings.
B5 was run on the SciFi channel. The then president of the channel acknowledged not having a clue about sci-fi and moved B5 to horrible time slots, but viewership kept growing, as opposed to DS9 tanking hardcore until they changed the formula.