Murdoch was randomly chosen by myself, actually (just popped into my head). Never have seen the Dark City, but it sounds interesting.
Regarding the acceleration thing, here are notes from 1.999I, upcoming:
-Warheads, Vampire Claws, and Vorticular Cutlasses no longer decelerate when reaching their targets, though they do still have to accelerate up to their maximum speed.
-The following ships now have 2X acceleration rate: Fighters, Bombers, Bulletproof, MicroFighter, Engineer I, Laser Gatling.
-The following ships now have 3X acceleration rate: Raiders, Vampires, Raptors, Scouts (except Mark IV), Space Tug, Electric Shuttle, Cutlass, EyeBot, Autocannon, Space Plane, EtherJet.