Re-thinking Sci-Fi Space Battles

I don't watch a lot of YouTube anymore, and I'm trying to bring my TV watching down by a lot and read more. But one of my guilty pleasures is Retro Badger Gaming. This guy uses variants of the Bridge Commander series of games/mods to put together intriguing, insane, and often hilarious battles in the Star Trek Universe and beyond, and to showcase truly innovative and often bizarre starship creations done by the community. After flipping through his videos on my TV several nights in a row, I found myself thinking about the nature of space battles as seen on TV and in film, and the obvious lack of accuracy. Now, we all (should?) know that there's no sound in space, so a lot of the "PEW! PEW! PEW!" sounds you hear would be gone in a realistic space battle. One of the most chilling things about some of the scenes in 2001 is how utterly silent they are, while very dramatic things are happening onscreen. The realism there actually enhances the suspense, rather than dulling it. So, in…