Gizmodo on Space Battle Physics
This article is an excellent overview of how near-future space combat might actually work, and also points out plenty of things that depictions of far-future space combat have gotten very wrong.
I was sad to see no mention of Babylon 5 in it, since that show made an effort to depict realistic ships and combat.
It is still questionable as to whether small, highly maneuverable fighter craft make any sense; I think it depends on how maneuverable the larger craft are. If they’re not particularly agile, then simply sending lots of firepower in a straight line will be much more cost-effective.
The comments for the article are worth reading through as well… how space combat would really be is still unclear, but the discussion there has some great food for thought.