The Battle

Technically, this story doesn't have any kind of time travel in it. Similar to the oversights that commonly occur to many people who try to explain Einstein, relativity, and the speed of light, it only LOOKS like the Stargazer travels a tiny bit back in time to appear in two places at the same time, thus confusing the enemy. Funky. So there clearly is a difference here between what ACTUALLY happens, and what it should LOOK like. Cool. However, the Visual Effects department clearly took their cue from what actually happens, instead of really visualizing what the Enterprise crew should have seen. All in all, the writers themselves probably haven't thought this one all the way through....

At no point should anyone see two versions of the Stargazer during the Picard manoeuvre. However, for a brief time, a ship in the right position might see THREE.

That's right, THREE. While the ship is still visible in its original position, it should suddenly appear in the new position. The instant that a second ship appears, a third ghostly/streaking image of it should be seen almost in almost the same place, but traveling backwards towards the original position. Yes, backwards. The light from those images will get to the observer in REVERSE order from the order in which things originally happened. When the ghostly/streaking ship is seen to reach the ship at the original position, both will disappear, leaving the ship in the new position as the only one seen in the sky.

If this entire manoeuvre is shown to last the usual length of Star Trek ship streaking visual effects, it will be noticeable but probably not last long enough for any enemy to target the wrong ship (especially since the new position is right in their face). If we were to get technically real with the timing, and the Stargazer were close enough to be within visual range in its original position, you'd be lucky to see more than one ship in more than one frame of film. Hardly long enough to truly confuse the enemy. Mind you, a quick move is good tactics anyway. Even without still appearing to be in the old position, the enemy might still be targeting it and unable to adapt quickly enough.

It is refreshing to see the crew's characters begin to gel in this story. It's particularly amazing how much mileage many of them get out of Picard's headache situation, leaving stiff acting behind and suddenly having natural understandable emotions to play. Riker equally gains much from dealing with the Ferengi second-in-command. This seems to be one of the Next Generation's better efforts for season one so far. Nice.