It's "lame" to imagine that there's one special direction in space which you mustn't use because your spaceship happens to have a pointy end. If you need to use reverse trust to bring your weapon on target, do so.
yes. should have avoided saying 'lame'. the lameness though is that it relies on a senseless suicidal reaction of the npc. i realize npc mostly are in fact suicidal, but just chasing me in a straight line while getting shot in the face has to be the oddest part of their repertoire. [haha]