All the radar work and BVR tactics ain't gonna be that exciting to read, much less watch...simply put, dogfighting is much more dramatic and cool, no matter how you slice it. So, you just need some more or less plausible excuses to get the space fighters and super high-tech nasties into the merge :)

But, the thing I ALWAYS get a kick out of, regardless of media or story, is HOW MUCH TALKING goes on over the radio! Seriously, with all that jibber-jabber in Star Wars for starters, it's no friggin wonder almost everybody got shot down, they never heard the dang threat calls with because they're too busy "standing by" and telling each other to "stay on target" -

It's called clear, concise, and tactial! ;) But it's not exactly exciting to read, nor does it make that much sense without visual references...

All snarkiness aside, I just accept that as cost of doing business to be able to follow what's happening and add dramatic tension - a couple dozen paragraphs of single-line radio calls, all in callsigns and tactical comm words wouldn't be all that interesting, to us mil geeks let anyone anybody else...

"A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan next week" - Gen George S. Patton, Jr.