I haven't played the demo, and I never even got far with the full Version, but I do know there are some "impossible" missions, so don't be afraid to run away and fail the mission every so often!
Be assured that combat in SE5 will be pauseable and you'll be able to issue orders while paused - I believe it was Aaron himself who said that it will be much the same as in SE4 only in between your orders, ships will move in real time rather than in turns. (Heck, he even said the default view would be top-down!
)
(Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with Starfury myself... I suck at it too, and I sorely miss the ability to target while paused! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/mad.gif[/img])