As much as I enjoyed every episode on a weekly basis I was really worried for the whole run of the season about all the directions they were potentially taking. I think the door mystery was held on to for too long (no need for the promise of the same information to be the cliffhanger twice in a row), and I feared it would head too much into action territory with a major load of nostalgic bait. Technically they did all of these things, but it was executed way better than NuTrek has ever been able to pull off before. I didn't need the Borg or a certain ship to come back, but it's much easier to accept when the character-work has been so genuinely thoughtful the whole season.
Man, I've been imagining the previous seasons not existing and all we ever got was this as a one season long anniversary of TNG. It would've been such a special event.