...crap I started replying to this post on another machine.
That's always fun.
True. For instance, that Alcubierre drive derivative (it has its own name, and has some difference in operating principle, but is functionally based off the Alcubierre drive) that NASA's been looking at,
Wait, NASA's seriously looking into that? Sweet.
allows the whole damn crew section to be built into the functional hub of the FTL drive's frame, with the reaction engines and fuel in the back, and the weapons and combat powerplants at the front. The FTL drive's geometry will naturally protect the crew and the core of the ship - it's essentially built around them. The rest of the ship can even be a cylinder, allowing easier designs for the rail-turrets' rails.
Indeed. Um...do you know any search terms I can use to identify this drive?
Just move it, no. Stop it and move it elsewhere, maybe. How much energy does it take to impart one gee of acceleration to a one ton vehicle? Something like... ten kilojoules? Ten kilowatts-second? Nine point eight something? I can't brain formulae without the wiki. Depending on how much of that is lost to heat... argh. Pyro! Thine physico-mathematical expertise is needed!
Indeed. And also important is how much energy the weapons draw, which requires us to figure out what kinds of weapons are being used, which is getting pretty specific and whatnot...
Oh, is that why this whole thing is taking so long?
That, plus my fondness for worldbuilding, plus my general levels of boredom, plus an unyielding desire to get some of my point across for once. 
Man, I've been there. All of the theres. Did I tell you about the time that I spent days working on a post-apocalyptic Chicago for a game, realized I hadn't thought about the plot, and then panicked and sent them
outside the city?
Again, depends on circumstances. For instance, what if laser weapons are rendered impotent by advances in heat-dissipating materials? What if xasers and above turn out to be unfeasible as combat weapons except in unwieldy bomb-pumped implementations? What if FTL drives turn out to be not only possible, but can be made compact enough to mount on small craft, and can be used with casual abandon? What if, what if, what if? Any circumstance that allows or requires ships to deploy into the immediate vicinity of each other instead of slugging it out at extreme ranges with deadly accurate weapons, may allow for a classic space fighter to make an appearance.
Or, contrariwise, may move them even more firmly into the "fiction" side of "science fiction".
I may simply not be content with taking something as "impossible" at face value. Why find reasons for something cool to be unfeasible, instead of finding ways to make it feasible?
Mainly because, with the right explanations, anything can be made feasible (See: Dune making futuristic combat take place almost entirely with swords and such), so that's less interesting to talk about.
