Yup.
This is why the later seasons of DS9 were some of the best ST (mostly thanks to Babylon 5 trouncing it so they needed to change it up to compete or it would have failed) as they moved to much more intersting and in some ways more truthful stories.
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.
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.
