Star Trek: Discovery (season 2)

The second season of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery is set a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series in the 23rd century and follows the crew of the starship Discovery. With the crew of the USS Enterprise they investigate seven signals that were sent by a time traveler to prevent a rogue artificial intelligence from destroying all sentient life. The season was produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment, with Alex Kurtzman serving as showrunner.

Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, first officer of the Discovery, along with the returning Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Shazad Latif. They are joined by former recurring guest star Wilson Cruz, and by Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike of the Enterprise. The season was officially ordered in October 2017, and introduced the Enterprise and its crew—including recurring guest star Ethan Peck as Spock and guest star Rebecca Romijn as Number One—to help align the series to the larger Star Trek franchise, as those characters originated on The Original Series. Designs for the Enterprise and its uniforms were updated to match Discovery's more modern style. Filming took place in Toronto, Canada, from April to December 2018. Co-creator Kurtzman chose to use anamorphic lenses on the season to make it more cinematic, and he took over as showrunner from the first season's Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts after they were fired during production. The season connects to the companion shorts series Star Trek: Short Treks.

The 14-episode season was released from January 17 to April 18, 2019, on the streaming service CBS All Access. Many critics found it to be an improvement on the first season, praising its lighter tone, cast (especially Mount and guest star Tig Notaro), and high production value. The season's attempts to align with existing Star Trek continuity received mixed reviews. It won a Primetime Emmy Award for its prosthetic makeup, and received several other awards and nominations. A third season was ordered in February 2019, and after a spin-off series starring Mount, Peck, and Romijn was called for by fans and critics alike, CBS All Access ordered Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in May 2020.

## Episodes

## Cast and characters

### Main

- Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
- Doug Jones as Saru
- Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
- Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
- Shazad Latif as Voq / Ash Tyler
- Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
- Anson Mount as Christopher Pike

### Recurring

- Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson
- Tig Notaro as Jett Reno
- Bahia Watson as May Ahearn
- Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou
- Alan van Sprang as Leland
- Rachael Ancheril as Nhan
- Jayne Brook as Katrina Cornwell
- Ethan Peck as Spock
- Sonja Sohn as Gabrielle Burnham / Red Angel

### Notable guests

- James Frain as Sarek
- Mary Chieffo as L'Rell
- Kenneth Mitchell as Kol-Sha and Tenavik
- Rebecca Romijn as Number One
- Hannah Spear as Siranna
- Melissa George as Vina
- Rob Brownstien as the Keeper
- Kenric Green as Mike Burnham
- Yadira Guevara-Prip as Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po

## Production

### Background

On November 2, 2015, CBS announced a new Star Trek television series to premiere in January 2017, "on the heels" of Star Trek: The Original Series' 50th anniversary in 2016. In February 2016, Bryan Fuller, who began his career writing for the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, was announced as the new series' showrunner, and co-creator alongside Alex Kurtzman. CBS did not have a plan for what the new show would be when Fuller joined, and he proposed an anthology series with each season being a standalone, serialized show set in a different era, beginning with a prequel to the original series. CBS told Fuller to just start with a single serialized show and see how that performs first, and he began further developing the prequel concept. By the end of 2016, Fuller had left the series due to conflicts with CBS and other commitments. He had hired Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts to act as co-showrunners with him, and they took over after his departure. In June 2017, Kurtzman said that he and Fuller had discussed plans for future seasons before the latter's departure.

### Development

In August 2017, before the series premiere, executive producer Akiva Goldsman stated that though the series is not an anthology as Fuller first proposed, "it's kind of a hybridized approach. I don't think we're looking for an endless, continuing nine or 10 year story. We're looking at arcs which will have characters that we know and characters that we don't know." Kurtzman elaborated that the Federation-Klingon War story arc of the first season would not continue in a second. However, he was not interested in a full anthology series because "I wouldn't necessarily want to throw [the characters] away at the end of the season for a new show", and instead felt that the aftereffects of the first season would be felt moving forward: "The results of the war are going to allow for a lot of new storytelling", with "the casualties, the things that have grown in Starfleet as a result of the war" carrying over to the next season. By the end of the month, Berg and Harberts had developed a road map for a second season. After the series premiered, Kurtzman said a "big idea" had been proposed mid-way through production on the first season which became the "spine" of the second, with the writers' "emotional compass" having pointed them to using that idea. He added that the series' producers wanted to avoid announcing release dates for future seasons just to delay them as happened on the first season, but he hoped a second season would be available in early 2019 as long as the quality and scope of the series was not compromised to achieve that.

On October 23, a 13-episode second season was officially ordered by CBS All Access. CBS Interactive President Marc DeBevoise cited the increased subscriptions for All Access since the series' debut, as well as critical acclaim and fan interest, when announcing the renewal. In June 2018, during production on the season, CBS Television Studios fired Berg and Harberts. The studio and network were pleased with the scripts and early cuts of already filmed episodes, but the first episode had gone significantly over budget—to the point that the budgets for later episodes would have to be reduced—and the pair were allegedly abusive towards the writing staff, with multiple writers becoming uncomfortable working with them. Some had apparently been threatened by Harberts after stating their intention to file a formal complaint. Kurtzman was made sole showrunner in their place, and was described as the "glue holding Discovery together". Kurtzman took over the role because he felt Berg and Harberts had been forced to "pick up the pieces" following Fuller's departure and he did not want to make someone else do that again. Despite not planning to showrun Discovery, Kurtzman felt as co-creator of the series that it was his responsibility to make sure it was working.

With the change in showrunner came news that Goldsman had not returned as executive producer for the second season, after serving as Kurtzman's "right-hand man" on the first, because he had a "management style and personality that clashed with the writing staff". At the end of June, James Duff joined as an executive producer to help Kurtzman run the writers room. Olatunde Osunsanmi, who served as a director and co-executive producer during the first season, became a full executive producer and was set as producing director for the rest of the season. Additionally, Jenny Lumet, who joined as a consulting producer at the beginning of the season, was promoted to co-executive producer. In July 2018, the season was confirmed to premiere in January 2019. Star Anson Mount revealed in December that the season had been extended to 14 episodes to amortize the cost of production delays following the showrunner change.

### Writing

The series' writers began work on the second season in December 2017, and were considering "science vs. faith" as the main theme. Harberts said the season would be "jam packed" with things that they were not able to do in the first. In March 2018, he clarified that the series would not just be looking at religion, but also "patterns in our lives. It means connections you can't explain. Who enters your life and who leaves your life and these indelible impressions people make ... that is one of our biggest ideas now and it is threading through all of our characters' lives." Something that Kurtzman felt the best Star Trek series had was examinations of the real world at the time of their creation, and so this season would address "building walls around ourselves, literally, to keep people out" and how that can "chip away at our essential understanding of Starfleet doctrine, and what it means to assume diversity". Mount felt the season was able to "get back to those big questions" because it was no longer questioning the leadership of the Discovery as was done with Captain Gabriel Lorca in the first season. Kurtzman noted that religion is a controversial topic among Star Trek fans, and the series' study of faith was "never about picking on religion as much as it was about faith in each other and in themselves". He felt that protagonist Michael Burnham wrestles with faith because she was not raised with it, but is rewarded for finding it. He interpreted this as saying, "If you believe in yourself, ultimately, the best outcome presents itself."

Without the first season's Federation–Klingon War storyline, Kurtzman said there would be less focus on the Klingons in the second season and far fewer Klingon-only scenes, but Klingon characters would still appear. He added that the Klingons would grow their hair back to show that they are no longer at war, something he said was always intended and not a response to fan criticisms of the bald Klingons in the first season. The second season has a single serialized story like the first season had, but the writers moved towards a more episodic feel by having a central character or question for each episode. The second season begins where the first season ended, with the arrival of the USS Enterprise. This ties into a larger story that is the main arc for the second season, involving seven mysterious signals and a mysterious "red angel" figure. Harberts wanted to explore the character Christopher Pike, captain of the Enterprise, feeling that he had not been seen much in the franchise. Burnham's adoptive brother Spock is also a crew member of the Enterprise, but Harberts was less interested in exploring him given his many appearances throughout the Star Trek franchise. Harberts was also reluctant to have an actor other than Leonard Nimoy or Zachary Quinto portray the character. However, Spock was confirmed to be included in the season in April 2018, and his relationship with Burnham became the most important part of the season for Kurtzman. The writers wanted to tell a new story with Spock that would show him become closer to the Nimoy and Quinto versions over time, visually signified by having the character shave his beard at the end of the season to look more like them. The season also reveals that it was Burnham's relationship with Spock that allowed him to "fully actualize himself" with James Kirk in the original Star Trek series, which was an important development for Kurtzman to explore when telling this part of Spock's life.

The season finale had to answer all the season's mysteries, complete its character arcs, feature a large battle, and set-up stories for the next season. While planning this, the writers realized that they could not do justice to it all within a single episode's length. It was around this time that CBS added an additional episode to the season's order, which allowed the writers to expand their plans to a two-part season finale. Executive producer Michelle Paradise compared the scope of the finale to a feature film. A goal of the showrunners for the season was to "cement Discovery firmly in the timeline" by reconciling some of the apparent continuity errors from the first season, such as why Burnham has never been mentioned by Spock in the franchise or why Discovery's advanced spore drive technology is not used on other starships in later Star Trek series. The season ends with Discovery and its crew traveling over 900 years into the future, and Spock recommending to Starfleet that the starship and its crew never be mentioned again to prevent the events of the season from being repeated. Kurtzman said this solution was chosen after months of work with the writers, which included considerations of the future of the series; he compared the decision to the film Star Trek (2009) starting a new timeline to avoid established continuity.

### Casting

The season stars the returning Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, Doug Jones as Saru, Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly, and Shazad Latif as Voq / Ash Tyler. Wilson Cruz reprises his guest role of Hugh Culber, who died in the first season, and is promoted to the main cast for the second.

In April 2018, Anson Mount—who was considered for the role of Lorca in the first season—was cast as Pike, and a young Spock was confirmed to be appearing; Kurtzman noted that casting for Spock took into consideration a balance between Vulcan logic and revealing "emotion in the eyes and in the small gestures". Mount revealed in July that he would star for the full season, and that Rebecca Romijn would portray the original series character Number One. Mount and Romijn both signed one year deals for the series, with their characters included to help closer align the series to the wider Star Trek continuity. In August, Ethan Peck was announced as portraying Spock in the season. Kurtzman compared the actor to both Nimoy and Quinto and stated that he believed Peck "would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock's greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning".

An alternate ending to the first season was revealed in March 2018, introducing a Section 31 agent named Leland who is portrayed by Alan van Sprang. The producers confirmed that Van Sprang would be portraying the character in the second season. Van Sprang had worked with Berg and Harberts on the series Reign, and they had been trying to find a character for him to play throughout production on the first season. The actor said his role was a "massive part" of the second season. The alternate ending saw Leland approach Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou about joining Section 31, and, in February 2018 ,Kurtzman said that it was possible for Yeoh to reprise the role in the second season along with Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca. Yeoh was confirmed to be appearing in the season to continue the Section 31 storyline in October 2018, while in January 2019, Kurtzman said Isaacs would not be appearing but could still return in the future.

Tig Notaro was cast in the guest role of Denise Reno in April 2018. She later revealed that this would be a recurring role for the season, and that she had been able to rename her character to Jett Reno. That October, Martin-Green announced that her husband Kenric Green had been cast for the season, and would be making an "indelible contribution". He portrays Burnham's father Mike in a flashback in the episode "Perpetual Infinity", while Sonja Sohn portrays her mother Gabrielle. The latter is revealed to be the "Red Angel", a character seen throughout the season. Several other recurring guests also return from the first season, including James Frain as Sarek, Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson, Mary Chieffo as L'Rell, and Jayne Brook as Katrina Cornwell. Introduced in the season are Bahia Watson as May Ahearn and Rachael Ancheril as Nhan. Kenneth Mitchell, who had a recurring role in the first season as the Klingon Kol, appears in the second season as Kol's relative Kol-Sha. He also portrays the older version of Tenavik, the son of L'Rell and Tyler.

Hannah Cheesman took over the role of Airiam for the season, with original actress Sara Mitich recast in the role of Nilsson. Other returners include Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer, Patrick Kwok-Choon as Gen Rhys, Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun, Ronnie Rowe Jr. as R. A. Bryce, Ali Momen as Kamran Gant, and Julianne Grossman as the voice of Discovery's computer. David Benjamin Tomlinson also appears throughout the season as Linus. Hannah Spear and Yadira Guevara-Prip respectively reprise their Star Trek: Short Trek roles of Saru's sister Siranna (from the short "The Brightest Star") and Tilly's friend Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po (from the short "Runaway"). The episode "If Memory Serves" begins with archival footage from the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage" featuring the original actors for several characters seen in the series, including Spock, Pike, and Number One, as well as Vina and the Keeper, portrayed in Discovery by Melissa George and Rob Brownstein, respectively.

### Design

#### Costumes

Costume designer Gersha Phillips and her team created over 180 different costumes for the season. For the Enterprise costumes, Phillips applied the colors from the costumes seen in the original series to the design and style of the Discovery uniforms. She noted that the collars on the Discovery uniforms already evoked the v-shape design of the original uniform collars. The difference in uniforms between the Discovery and Enterprise crews is explained when a character remarks that the more colorful uniforms are new and being introduced to Starfleet starting with Enterprise. Phillips and her team overlooked the fact that the Discovery uniforms identify rank through pips on their Starfleet badges which are not present on the Enterprise uniforms, and so there was no identification of rank on any of the Enterprise characters. The mistake was pointed out by John Van Citters, the vice president of Star Trek brand management at CBS Studios, and the solution was to add stripes to the sleeves of the uniforms. Visual effects were used to add these stripes to footage from before the mistake was discovered.

Phillips was asked to make the Section 31 costumes black, and to not give the characters a uniform. Phillips made sure these costumes were different from the cleaner style of the main Starfleet uniforms to highlight the different types of people hired by Section 31 and their different approach. She noted that this was appropriate for Georgiou, who Phillips felt "wouldn't wear a uniform, because she's not going to conform". Kurtzman's directions to Phillips regarding the Talosians was to look at the costumes from the original series and "revamp" them. After seeing her first designs for the costumes, Kurtzman asked her to take them further. Phillips used fabrics with puffy textures printed onto them for the costumes. The Talosians also wear necklaces that were designed in collaboration with jeweler Dana Schneider. The Red Angel suit was inspired by Scarlett Johansson's costume from the film Ghost in the Shell (2017), with Discovery's prop master Mario Moreira contributing to the design. It was created with companies Plassens and By Design using 3D printing. Phillips stated that all the actors who wore the suit said it was one of the most comfortable to wear, noting that this is not usually the case for actors wearing complex costumes.

For the Klingons, Phillips was excited to depict the species in a time of peace, and was able to produce several different costumes that were not warrior-based. Phillips noted that in previous appearances groups of Klingons were often depicted as wearing the same costume, but on Discovery there was a mandate to have more diverse looks within groups of aliens. L'Rell's costumes are provocative to show the character as "just being the woman that she [is] and have her feel more of a full character". Phillips was inspired by various Klingon costumes from Star Trek: The Next Generation for the season. One of L'Rell's dresses was created from a jumpsuit bought from Gelareh Designs, a clothing company that Phillips calls "the Klingon store". A cape for the dress was made from leather pieces that were lifted from the jumpsuit and painted.

#### Prosthetics

Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page of Alchemy Studios, who provide prosthetics and armor for the series, teased in May 2018 that the season would feature a "truly alien" character for which they had to figure out new ways to reduce the weight of the prosthetics and make it breathable for the actor, as well as try improve the actor's vision because the eyes of the creature did not align with where human eyes are positioned. Hetrick said there would be more interesting prosthetics for extras, while the pair were able to use a species from earlier Star Trek canon that had not been in the first season after producing a of species they would like to use for the executive producers.

#### Starships

Several new sets for the Discovery were built for the season, adding to the ones constructed for the first. These included a new "loop corridor" and new entrances to the mess hall and sick bay sets. The engineering set from the first season was also renovated for the second, with production designer Tamara Deverell explaining that the cinematography department had issues with the large amount of light coming from the spore chamber in contrast to the rest of the room. Additionally, some season one sets were repurposed for the second season, with Lorca's season one ready room becoming a new science lab for Burnham in the second season.

John Eaves and Scott Schneider, designers of the starships for the series, were required to redesign the USS Enterprise for Star Trek: Discovery, making it 25 percent different from Matt Jefferies' original design due to legal concerns regarding the ownership of different Star Trek elements. CBS ultimately confirmed that they were free to reuse Jefferies' design in Star Trek: Discovery, but stood by the changes made by Eaves and Schneider as creative improvements that took advantage of modern visual effects. These changes included adding elements that could realistically be removed or replaced in the time between this series and the beginning of the original series. The visual effects department made further adjustments to the design after Eaves and Schneider completed their work. The final version of the ship seen in the series also adopts some of the characteristics of the Enterprise from the films, such as being "a little bit fatter, a little bit bigger", to fit into the aesthetic of the series. Elaborating on this, Kurtzman explained that the original designs for the Enterprise would look out of place in the series due to the far more advanced modern technology being used to produce the show. He added that any sets designed for the Enterprise would bridge the look of the original series and Discovery while still trying to adhere to canon.

There had been plans to show the interior of the Enterprise during the first-season finale, but this was ultimately saved for the second season. Deverell did extensive research on the original sets before trying to recreate them using Discovery's style, including searching through the CBS archives to do color tests on the original bridge sets which feature a distinctive red that sometimes appeared to be orange on the original series (Discovery includes a joke about the bridge being orange, though Deverell insisted that it is red). The Enterprise bridge set was built on a new soundstage specifically for the two-part second season finale, rather than being a repurposed set. James Cawley, owner of the Official Star Trek Set Tour, provided reproductions of the buttons from the original bridge set for Deverell to base hers on.

### Filming

Filming for the season began at Pinewood Toronto Studios on April 16, 2018, under the working title Green Harvest. Production was set to take place at the studio until November 8. At the time of Berg and Harberts' firing, production was underway on the fifth episode of the season, and a hiatus in filming was planned to follow that. This allowed Kurtzman to take the time to "regroup" the writing staff without delaying the season's production. The production was ultimately delayed enough that it needed to extend its time at Pinewood in order to complete the season, and to amortize these costs CBS added an additional episode to the season's run, which pushed the end of filming on the season to December 21. Due to the delay, episodic director Jonathan Frakes ultimately directed the ninth episode of the season instead of the originally planned tenth.

Kurtzman hoped that if the series was projected in a theater it would appear indistinguishable from a feature film, and chose to use anamorphic lenses for the season to "immediately [convey] a sense of scope and scale". He also pushed the lighting and design departments to use color in ways that are not traditionally considered for television, and challenged the episode directors to each shoot a scene where they would not use the same shot twice; this was to encourage them to use more inventive shot choices rather than just typical "coverage", which is when a master shot of the scene is filmed plus whatever extra angles from different sides there is time to capture. Kurtzman wanted as many options available to the editors as possible during post-production. Addressing the fact that Star Trek was originally inspired by naval tradition, Kurtzman said that the season would be leaning further into that than the first did, especially in the way that they filmed the bridge scenes and a funeral sequence. He named Crimson Tide (1995) as an influence for the filming style. Frakes reiterated the cinematic approach to the series, especially comparing the camera work to the style of the Star Trek films directed by J. J. Abrams. He added that Osunsanmi encouraged the episodic directors to "express ourselves visually in as exciting a way as possible".

During filming in August 2018, Mount was involved in an "on-set physical altercation" with a director when he touched them while rehearsing a pointing action before beginning a scene. The incident was reported to CBS's HR department who reviewed it and decided against any disciplinary action for Mount. The actor had apologized to the director at the time. The incident had no effect on Mount's involvement with the series, as work on the season continued without interruption and the series production was believed to be interested in working with Mount further despite his contract being only for the second season.

### Visual effects

The season's visual effects were provided by CBS Digital, Crafty Apes, Filmworks FX, Fx3x, Ghost VFX, Pixomondo, and Spin VFX. They include digitally created environments and set extensions to portray new planets, the starships, and space visuals, as well as digital enhancements to Saru's threat ganglia, and adding holograms and external visuals to the Discovery. Completely digital sets created for the season include Discovery's hangar and the mycelial network, with the actors performing in front of green screen for these. An on-set prop was used for Tyler and L'Rell's baby son Tenavik, with a digital head added that was animated using performance capture.

### Music

Composer Jeff Russo planned to begin work on the second season in May 2018, after receiving the first script for the season. He did not expect to significantly change the tone of his music for the season, feeling that so much work in the first season had gone towards creating a unique sound for the series within the Star Trek franchise which he would like to continue moving forward. Russo did feel that the score for the second season would focus more on the "swashbuckling" aspects he wrote at times for the first season. Russo generally works directly with the showrunners rather than any of the episodic directors but discussed his score for the season's second episode with director Frakes. A soundtrack album for the season was released digitally by Lakeshore Records on July 19, 2019. It includes three cues from Russo's Short Treks score. All music composed by Jeff Russo:

## Marketing

The season was promoted at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018, with Notaro moderating a panel that featured Kurtzman, Martin-Green, Jones, Latif, Wiseman, Rapp, Cruz, Chieffo, Mount, and executive producer Heather Kadin. The first trailer for the season debuted at the panel before being released online. Scott Collura at IGN highlighted the lighter tone of the trailer compared to the first season, as well as the Enterprise uniforms seen in the trailer. A second trailer for the season was revealed by Kurtzman and cast members for the season at a panel at New York Comic Con in October, providing a first look at the series' version of Spock.

After the season had completed airing, an exhibition for the series was held at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California from May 8 to July 7, 2019, titled Star Trek: Discovery – Fight for the Future. It covered the creative process for the season, including production and concept art, models, props, and costumes used during production, pieces from the set such as the USS Discovery captain's chair, and full prosthetic makeup busts. The installation covered two floors of the Paley Center building, and was free to the public.

## Release

### Streaming and broadcast

The season premiered on CBS All Access in the United States on January 17, 2019. Bell Media broadcast the season in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) and Z (French) on the same day as the U.S., before streaming episodes on Crave. Netflix released each episode for streaming in another 188 countries within 24 hours of its U.S. debut. In September 2020, ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021. Existing episodes of the season remained on Paramount+ along with future seasons of the series. In November 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had bought back the international streaming rights to Discovery from Netflix effective immediately. In July 2023, Bell Media announced that the series would be leaving Crave over the following month. It would continue to be broadcast on CTV Sci-Fi and past seasons would remain available on CTV.ca and the CTV app.

The episode "The Sound of Thunder" was made available to stream for free on CBS.com, StarTrek.com, and PlutoTV for a week beginning June 17, 2020, as part of a CBS All Access event titled \#StarTrekUnited. The episode was among 15 of the "most culturally relevant" Star Trek episodes that were chosen to be included as part of the event, which served as a fundraiser for several organisations including Black Strategy Fund, Movement for Black Lives, and Black Lives Matter. For the fundraiser, \$1 was donated to one of those organizations by CBS All Access for every fan that tweeted using the hashtag \#StarTrekUnitedGives on the day of June 17.

### Home media

The season was released on DVD and Blu-Ray formats in the U.S. on November 12, 2019. The release includes two hours of bonus features, including featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and cast and crew commentaries on four episodes, as well as two shorts from the Star Trek: Short Treks companion series: "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star". On November 2, 2021, a home media box set collecting the first three seasons of Discovery was released, with more than eight hours of special features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, audio commentaries, and gag reels.

## Reception

### Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 81% approval rating for the second season, with an average rating of 7.3/10 based on 208 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "The second season of Discovery successfully—if stubbornly—cleans up the problematic storylines of Trek past while still effectively dramatizing new takes on the lore." The average rating for each of the season's individual episodes is 82%. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Many reviews of the season premiere highlighted its lighter tone and focus on adventure compared to the darker, war-focused first season. This included Rob Owen, writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who praised the episode for having "a little fun along the way", as Pike says. Verne Gay at Newsday called the episode "much more fun and energetic", scoring it three stars out of four. Gay also highlighted how expensive the season looked, comparing it to the production value of Game of Thrones, as well as the returning cast and new additions such as Notaro and Mount. Vox's Emily VanDerWerff also called the premiere fun, attributing that to Mount as well as the season's central mystery, new cast members like Notaro, and the more episodic style of storytelling. She expressed concern about the season's focus on previous Star Trek elements, but felt this would work if it used those elements to further explore the series' own characters. At Newsweek, Andrew Whelan thought the premiere was promising, highlighting its action scenes and the ensemble cast (especially Mount and Notaro). He was critical of the continued focus on Burnham's backstory rather than developing her character based on present actions.

Reviewing the full season, Jordan Hoffman of Polygon praised Mount and Peck, expressing disappointment that they would not be returning for the third season, and suggesting their stories be continued in some other way. Despite this, he was positive about the way the season still focused on Burnham and its other main characters rather than letting the existing Star Trek characters take over the series. Hoffman was also positive about the efforts made in the season finale to align the series with the existing Star Trek canon, and praised the decision to have the Discovery travel to the future believing that was "where they should have been in the first place". Vulture's Devon Maloney praised the season-long story arc and how the various mystery elements all came together in the finale. He described the changes made in the finale episode to line up with continuity as an "annoyingly clever retcon", and also highlighted the season's cinematic visuals and music which he compared to the Star Wars films. Scott Collura at IGN also praised the jump into the future, but felt the attempts to fix the franchise's continuity were less successful. Overall he felt the season was both "sloppy" and "pretty effective, offering up nice character interplay, crazy visuals and effects, and some 'whoa' moments of Star Trek grandeur". Collura also expressed interest in a new series following Spock on the Enterprise. Darren Franich was critical of the season at Entertainment Weekly, grading it a 'C−'. He felt the serialized story was too stretched out, said Burnham's character did not receive interesting development, and described the efforts made at the end of the season to tie-into existing continuity as "dumb". He did praise Mount and Notaro, and felt the next season could only be better than this one.

In addition to critics expressing interest in seeing Mount and Peck continue on in a new series after the end of the season, fans also began calling for such a series, including through online petitions. Mount and Peck both responded positively to the idea, as did Kurtzman, who said in April 2019, "The fans have been heard. Anything is possible in the world of Trek. I would love to bring back that crew more than anything." CBS All Access officially ordered a spin-off series focused on the Enterprise crew, titled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, in May 2020. Mount, Peck, and Romijn all reprise their roles in the spin-off.

### Accolades

The season is one of 21 television series that received the ReFrame Stamp for the 2018 to 2019 season. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame as a "mark of distinction" for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight critical areas of their production.

Second season of Star Trek: Discovery


Attack on Sydney Harbour

From 31 May to 8 June 1942, during World War II, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle. On the night of 31 May – 1 June, three Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines, (M-14, M-21 and M-24) each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour, avoided the partially constructed Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net, and attempted to sink Allied warships. Two of the midget submarines were detected and attacked before they could engage any Allied vessels. The crew of M-14 scuttled their submarine, whilst M-21 was successfully attacked and sunk. The crew of M-21 killed themselves. These submarines were later recovered by the Allies. The third submarine attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser USS Chicago, but instead sank the converted ferry , killing 21 sailors. This midget submarine's fate was unknown until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off Sydney's northern beaches.

Immediately following the raid, the five Japanese fleet submarines that carried the midget submarines to Australia embarked on a campaign to disrupt merchant shipping in eastern Australian waters. Over the next month, the submarines attacked at least seven merchant vessels, sinking three ships and killing 50 sailors. During this period, between midnight and 02:30 on 8 June, two of the submarines bombarded the ports of Sydney and Newcastle.

The midget submarine attacks and subsequent bombardments are among the best-known examples of Axis naval activity in Australian waters during World War II, and are the only occasion in history when either city has come under attack. The physical effects were slight: the Japanese had intended to destroy several major warships, but sank only an unarmed depot ship and failed to damage any significant targets during the bombardments. The main impact was psychological; creating popular fear of an impending Japanese invasion and forcing the Australian military to upgrade defences, including the commencement of convoy operations to protect merchant shipping.

## Forces

### Japanese

The Imperial Japanese Navy originally intended to use six submarines in the attack on Sydney Harbour: B1-type submarines I-21, I-27, I-28, and I-29, and C1-type submarines I-22 and I-24. The six submarines made up the Eastern Attack Group of the 8th Submarine Squadron, under the command of Captain Hankyu Sasaki.

On 8 June 1942, I-21 and I-29—each carrying a Yokosuka E14Y1 "Glen" floatplane for aerial reconnaissance—scouted various Australasian harbours to select the ones most vulnerable to attack by midget submarines. I-21 scouted Nouméa, Suva, then Auckland, while I-29 went to Sydney.

On 11 May, I-22, I-24, I-27, and I-28 were ordered to proceed to the Japanese naval base at Truk Lagoon, in the Caroline Islands, to each receive a Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarine. I-28 failed to reach Truk; she was torpedoed on the surface by the US submarine USS Tautog on 17 May. The three remaining submarines left Truk around 20 May for a point south of the Solomon Islands. I-24 was forced to return a day later when an explosion in her midget submarine's battery compartment killed the midget's navigator and injured the commander. The midget submarine intended for I-28 replaced the damaged midget.

### Allies

The naval officer-in-charge of Sydney Harbour at the time of the attack was Rear Admiral Gerard Muirhead-Gould of the Royal Navy. On the night of the attack, three major vessels were present in Sydney Harbour; the heavy cruisers USS Chicago and , and the light cruiser . Other warships in the harbour included: destroyer tender USS Dobbin, auxiliary minelayer , corvettes , , and , armed merchant cruisers HMS Kanimbla and , and Dutch submarine K-IX. A converted ferry—HMAS Kuttabul—was alongside at Garden Island where she served as a temporary barracks for sailors transferring between ships. The hospital ship Oranje had also been in the harbour, but departed an hour before the attack.

## Harbour defences

At the time of the attack, the static Sydney Harbour defences consisted of eight anti-submarine indicator loops—six outside the harbour, one between North Head and South Head, and one between South Head and Middle Head, as well as the partially constructed Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net between George's Head on Middle Head and Laing Point (formerly known as Green Point) on Inner South Head. The central section of the net was complete and support piles were in place to the west, but 400 m (1,300 ft) wide gaps remained on either side. Material shortages prevented the completion of the boom net prior to the attack. On the day of the attack, the six outer indicator loops were inactive; two were not functioning and there were not enough trained personnel to man both the inner and outer loop monitoring stations. The North Head – South Head indicator loop had been giving faulty signals since early 1940, and as civilian traffic regularly passed over the loop, readings were often ignored.

Harbour defence craft included the anti-submarine vessels and Bingera; the auxiliary minesweepers HMAS Goonambee and ; pleasure launches converted to channel patrol boats (and armed with depth charges), namely , Lolita, Steady Hour, , Marlean, and ; and four unarmed Naval Auxiliary Patrol boats.

## Prelude

The Japanese Navy used five Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines in an unsuccessful operation against US battleships during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The navy hoped that upgrades to the submarines, intensified crew training, and the selection of a less well defended target would lead to better results and an increased chance of the crews of the midgets to return alive from their mission. Therefore, on 16 December 1941, the navy initiated plans for a second midget submarine operation.

The plans called for two simultaneous attacks against Allied naval vessels in the Indian and South Pacific oceans. These attacks were intended as diversions ahead of the attack on Midway Island in the North Pacific, with the Japanese hoping to convince the Allies that they intended to attack to the south or west of their conquests. Eleven submarines of the 8th Submarine Squadron were to carry out the two attacks, the five submarines of the Western Attack Group in the Indian Ocean, and the six submarines of the Eastern Attack Group in the Pacific Ocean. The submarine groups were to select a suitable port of attack, based on their own reconnaissance.

The Western Attack Group selected the port of Diégo-Suarez in Madagascar. This attack—which occurred at nightfall on 30 May and resulted in the damaging of the battleship HMS Ramillies and the sinking of the tanker British Loyalty—came 22 days after the British captured the port from Vichy France at the beginning of the Battle of Madagascar.

The four potential targets for the Eastern Attack Group were Nouméa, Suva, Auckland and Sydney. Identified by reconnaissance flights conducted by Warrant Flying Officer Nobuo Fujita of the Imperial Japanese Navy flying from I-25; commencing 17 February over Sydney Harbour, and the eastern Australian harbours of Melbourne and Hobart (1 March), followed by the New Zealand harbours of Wellington (8 March) and Auckland (13 March). I-21 and I-29 were sent to select the final target, with I-29 sailing to Sydney. On the evening of 16 May, I-29 fired on the 5,135 long tons (5,217 t) Soviet merchant vessel Wellen, 30 mi (26 nmi; 48 km) from Newcastle, New South Wales. Although Wellen escaped with minimal damage, shipping between Sydney and Newcastle was halted for 24 hours while aircraft and all available anti-submarine ships from Sydney, including Dutch light cruiser HNLMS Tromp, Australian destroyer and US destroyer USS Perkins, searched unsuccessfully for the submarine. Muirhead-Gould concluded that the submarine had operated alone and had left the area immediately after the attack.

I-29's floatplane made a reconnaissance flight over Sydney on 23 May. A secret radar unit set up in Iron Cove detected the flight, but authorities dismissed its report as a glitch, as there were no Allied aircraft operating over Sydney. The aircraft was damaged or destroyed on landing, although its two crew survived. They reported the presence of several capital ships, including two battleships or large cruisers, five other large warships, several minor war vessels and patrol boats, and prolific merchant shipping. The report, which the Allied FRUMEL signals intelligence network partially intercepted, resulted in the Japanese Navy selecting Sydney as the target. The three midget-carrying submarines rendezvoused with I-29 and I-21 approximately 35 mi (30 nmi; 56 km) north-east of Sydney Heads, with all five submarines in position by 29 May.

## Midget submarine operation

### Final reconnaissance

Before dawn on 29 May, I-21's floatplane, piloted by Ito Susumu, performed a final reconnaissance flight over Sydney Harbour, with the mission of mapping the locations of the major vessels and of the anti-submarine net. Multiple observers spotted the floatplane but assumed it was a US Navy Curtiss Seagull. No alarm was raised until 05:07, when it was realised that the only ship in the area carrying Seagulls was the U.S. cruiser Chicago, and all four of her aircraft were on board. Richmond Air Force Base launched Wirraway fighters, which failed to locate I-21 or the floatplane. Therefore, the reconnaissance flight did not result in the authorities in Sydney taking any special defence measures. The floatplane was seriously damaged on landing and had to be scuttled, but both aircrew survived.

### Plan of attack

The Japanese planned to launch the midgets one after the other between 17:20 and 17:40, from points 5–7 nmi (5.8–8.1 mi; 9.3–13.0 km) outside Sydney Harbour. The first midget was to pass through the Heads just after 18:30, but heavy seas delayed her by over an hour. The other two midgets followed at twenty-minute intervals and were similarly delayed.

The choice of targets was left up to the midget commanders, with advice that they should primarily target aircraft carriers or battleships, with cruisers as secondary targets. The midgets were to operate to the east of the Harbour Bridge, although if no suitable targets were to be found in this area they were to move under the Bridge and attack a battleship and large cruiser believed to be in the inner harbour. When the second reconnaissance flyover revealed that the expected British battleship—HMS Warspite—was nowhere to be found, USS Chicago became the priority target.

After completing their mission, the midgets were to depart Sydney Harbour and head south for 20 nmi (23 mi; 37 km) to the recovery point off Port Hacking. Four of the mother submarines would be waiting in an east–west line 16 km (8.6 nmi; 9.9 mi) long, with the fifth waiting 6 km (3.2 nmi; 3.7 mi) further south.

### Attack

Midget submarine M-14—launched from I-27—was the first to enter Sydney Harbour. The Middle Head – South Head loop detected it at 20:01, but dismissed the reading due to heavy civilian traffic. At 20:15, a Maritime Services Board watchman spotted the midget after it passed through the western gap, collided with the Pile Light, then reversed and trapped its stern in the net. The submarine's bow broke the surface; the watchman rowed toward it to determine what it was and then rowed to the nearby patrol boat to report his finding. Despite efforts by Yarroma to pass on this information, Sydney Naval Headquarters did not receive the report until 21:52. HMAS Yarroma and were dispatched to investigate. Upon confirming that the object in the net was a "baby submarine", Lolita dropped two depth charges while Yarroma's commander requested permission from Sydney Naval Headquarters to open fire. The depth charges failed to detonate, as the water was too shallow for the hydrostatic fuse setting. At 22:35, while Yarroma was waiting for permission to fire, and Lolita was setting up to deploy a third depth charge, the two crewmen on M-14 activated one of the submarine's scuttling charges, killing themselves and destroying the submarine's forward section.

Muirhead-Gould gave the general alarm, along with orders for ships to take anti-submarine measures, at 22:27; the alarm was repeated at 22:36 with advice for ships to take precautions against attack, as an enemy submarine might be in the harbour. At the time of the first alarm, Sydney Harbour was closed to external traffic, but Muirhead-Gould ordered ferries and other internal traffic to continue, as he believed that having multiple ships travelling around at speed would help force any submarines to remain submerged.

Midget submarine M-24 was the second to enter the harbour. HMAS Falie grazed M-24's hull and reported the contact to command. The report was not followed up. M-24 crossed the indicator loop undetected at 21:48, and at approximately 22:00 followed a Manly ferry through the anti-submarine net. At 22:52, M-24 was spotted by a Chicago searchlight operator less than 500 m (1,600 ft) to the moored cruiser's starboard, and on a course roughly parallel to the ship's facing. Chicago opened fire with a 5 in (130 mm) gun and a quadruple machinegun mount, but inflicted minimal damage as the weapons could not depress far enough. Some of the 5 in (130 mm) shells skipped off the water and hit Fort Denison's Martello tower, while fragments were later found in the suburbs of Cremorne and Mosman. The senior officer present aboard Chicago ordered the crew to begin preparing for departure, and for USS Perkins to begin an anti-submarine screening patrol around the cruiser, orders that were revoked by the sceptical Captain Howard Bode when he arrived on board at around 23:30.

`and  also fired upon M-24 as it fled west toward the Sydney Harbour Bridge, before the midget was able to submerge and escape. When it returned to periscope depth, the midget found itself west of Fort Denison. It turned and sailed east for about 1 nmi (1.2 mi; 1.9 km), then took up a firing position south-west of Bradley's Head, from where its commander could see Chicago's stern silhouetted against the construction floodlights at Garden Island's new Captain Cook Graving Dock.`

Midget submarine M-21—from I-22—probably entered the harbour at the same time that USS Chicago opened fire on M-24. The unarmed Naval Auxiliary Patrol boat Lauriana (later commissioned HMAS Lauriana) spotted M-21 and illuminated the submarine's conning tower, while sending an alert signal to the Port War Signal Station at South Head, and the nearby anti-submarine vessel HMAS Yandra. Yandra attempted to ram the submarine, lost contact, regained contact at 23:03, and fired a full pattern of six depth charges. At the time of the attack, it was assumed that the depth charges had destroyed or disabled the midget, but M-21 survived. Historians believe that the midget took refuge on the harbour floor and waited until the Allied vessels had moved away before it resumed the attack.

At 23:14, Muirhead-Gould ordered all ships to observe blackout conditions. Just after 23:30, he set off on a barge towards the boom net, to make a personal inspection. The Admiral reached Lolita at about midnight and indicated to her crew that he did not take the reports of enemy submarines seriously, reportedly saying: "What are you all playing at, running up and down the harbour dropping depth charges and talking about enemy subs in the harbour? There's not one to be seen." The crew reiterated that a submarine had been seen, but Muirhead-Gould remained unconvinced and before he left, added sarcastically: "If you see another sub, see if the captain has a black beard. I'd like to meet him."

Despite the blackout order, the Garden Island floodlights remained on until 00:25. About five minutes later, M-24 fired the first of its two torpedoes; it delayed firing the second torpedo for several minutes as the midget submarines would lose longitudinal stability immediately after firing a torpedo. Historians are divided as to the exact paths of the torpedoes relative to Chicago, although all agree that the US cruiser was the intended target. Both torpedoes missed Chicago, while one torpedo may have also passed close to Perkins''' starboard bow. One of the torpedoes continued underneath the Dutch submarine K-IX and HMAS Kuttabul, then hit the breakwater Kuttabul was tied up against. The explosion broke Kuttabul in two and sank her, and damaged K-IX. The attack killed 19 Royal Australian Navy and two Royal Navy sailors, and wounded another 10. The explosion shook residences in the area and damaged Garden Island's lights and telecommunications. The other torpedo ran aground on the eastern shore of Garden Island without exploding. M-24 then dived and moved to leave the harbour.

A crossing over the indicator loop that was recorded at 01:58 was initially believed to be another midget submarine entering the harbour, although later analysis showed that the reading indicated an outbound vessel and therefore most likely represented M-24's exit. M-24 did not return to its mother submarine, and its fate remained unknown until 2006.

Ships were ordered to make for the open ocean. Chicago left her anchorage at 02:14, leaving a sailor behind on the mooring buoy in her haste to depart. Bombay, Whyalla, Canberra, and Perkins began their preparations to depart.

Just before 03:00, as Chicago was leaving the harbour, the lookouts spotted a submarine periscope passing alongside the cruiser. At 03:01, the indicator loop registered an inbound signal; M-21 was re-entering Sydney Harbour after recovering from the attack four hours previously. HMS Kanimbla fired on M-21 in Neutral Bay at 03:50, and at 05:00, three auxiliary patrol boats—HMAS Steady Hour, Sea Mist, and Yarroma—spotted the submarine's conning tower in Taylors Bay. The patrol boats had set their depth charge fuses to 15 m (49 ft), and when Sea Mist passed over where the submarine had just submerged and dropped a depth charge, she had only five seconds to clear the area. The blast damaged M-21, which inverted and rose to the surface before sinking again. Sea Mist dropped a second depth charge, which damaged one of her two engines in the process and prevented her from making further attacks. Steady Hour and Yarroma continued the attack, dropping seventeen depth charges on believed visual sightings and instrument contacts of the midget over the next three and a half hours. At some point during the night, the crew of M-21 killed themselves.

At 04:40, HMAS Canberra recorded that the Japanese may have fired torpedoes at her. This may have been one of many false alarms throughout the night. However, M-21 had attempted to fire its two torpedoes, but failed because of damage to the bow either from HMAS Yandra's ramming or depth charges, or a possible collision with USS Chicago, making it possible that M-21 attempted to attack the cruiser. The observer aboard Canberra may have seen bubbles from the compressed air released to fire the torpedoes.

## Secondary missions

As per the operation plan, the five mother submarines waited off Port Hacking on the nights of 1 and 2 June for the midget submarines to return. FRUMEL picked up wireless traffic between the five submarines, leading the Royal Australian Air Force to task three Lockheed Hudsons and two Bristol Beauforts with finding the source of the communications. They were unsuccessful. On 3 June, Sasaki abandoned hope of recovering the midget submarines, and the submarines dispersed on their secondary missions.

### Attacks on Allied merchant shipping

Four of the submarines began operations against Allied merchant shipping. I-21 patrolled north of Sydney, while I-24 patrolled south of Sydney. I-27 began searching off Gabo Island for ships departing Melbourne, and I-29 travelled to Brisbane. I-22 left the group to conduct reconnaissance operations, first at Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand, and then at Suva in Fiji.

Between 1 and 25 June, when the four submarines arrived at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to re-supply before proceeding to Japanese shipyards for maintenance, the four submarines attacked at least seven Allied merchant vessels. Three of these were sunk: Iron Chieftain by I-24 on 3 June, Iron Crown by I-27 on 4 June, and Guatemala by I-21 on 12 June. The first two attacks resulted in 12 and 37 fatalities respectively, though the third attack killed no one. The attacks forced the authorities to institute changes in merchant traffic; travel north of Melbourne was restricted until a system of escorted convoys was established.

I-21 was the only submarine to return to Australian waters, where she sank three ships and damaged two others during January and February 1943. During her two deployments, I-21 sank 44,000 long tons (45,000 t) of Allied shipping, which made her the most successful Japanese submarine to operate in Australian waters.

### Bombardment

On the morning of 8 June, I-24 and I-21 briefly bombarded Sydney and Newcastle. Just after midnight, I-24 surfaced 9 mi (14 km) south-south-east of Macquarie Lighthouse. The submarine's commander ordered the gun crew to target the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They fired 10 shells over a four-minute period; nine landed in the Eastern Suburbs and one landed in water. I-24 then crash dived to prevent successful retaliation by coastal artillery batteries. Only one shell detonated, and the only injuries inflicted were cuts and fractures from falling bricks or broken glass when the unexploded shells hit buildings. A United States Army Air Forces pilot, 1st Lieutenant George Cantello, based at Bankstown Airport disobeyed orders and took off to try and locate the source of the shelling, but was killed when engine failure caused his Airacobra to crash in a paddock at Hammondville. In 1988, following efforts by residents and the US Consulate in Sydney, the City of Liverpool established a memorial park, the Lt. Cantello Reserve, with a monument in his honour.

At 02:15, I-21 shelled Newcastle, from 9 km (4.9 nmi; 5.6 mi) north-east of Stockton Beach. She fired 34 shells over a 16-minute period, including eight star shells. The target of the attack was the BHP steelworks in the city. However, the shells landed over a large area, causing minimal damage and no fatalities: the only shell to detonate damaged a house on Parnell Place, while an unexploded shell hit a tram terminus. Fort Scratchley returned fire, the only time an Australian land fortification has fired on an enemy warship during wartime, but the submarine escaped unscathed.

## Analysis

The attack on Sydney Harbour ended in failure on both sides, and revealed flaws in both the Allied defences and the Japanese tactics. During the primary attack, the Japanese lost all three midget submarines in exchange for the sinking of a single barracks ship. The subsequent operations were no more successful as the five large Japanese submarines sank only three merchant ships and caused minimal property damage during the two bombardments. The performance of the Allied defenders was equally poor. However, one historian states that the lack of damage in Sydney Harbour was due to "a combination of good luck and aggressive counter-attack".

The main impact of the midget submarine attack and subsequent operations was psychological; dispelling any belief that Sydney was immune to Japanese attack and highlighting Australia's proximity to the Pacific War. There was no official inquiry into the attacks, despite demand from some sections of the media, as there was concern that an inquiry would lead to defeatism and reduce faith in John Curtin's government, particularly after the damaging inquiry into Australian defences that had followed the Japanese aerial attack on Darwin three months earlier.

### Failures in Allied defences

The Allies failed to respond adequately to several warnings of Japanese activity off the east coast of Australia prior to the attack; they simply ignored the warnings or explained them away. They attributed the unsuccessful attack on the freighter Wellen on 16 May to a single submarine, and assumed it had departed Australian waters immediately after the attack. The first reconnaissance flight went unnoticed, and although FRUMEL intercepted the report and distributed it to Allied commanders on 30 May, Muirhead-Gould apparently did not react. New Zealand naval authorities detected radio chatter between the Japanese submarines on 26 and 29 May, and although they could not decrypt the transmissions, radio direction finding indicated that a submarine or submarines were approaching Sydney. The Allies considered dispatching an anti-submarine patrol in response to the 29 May fix, but were unable to do so as all anti-submarine craft were already committed to protecting a northbound troop convoy. The only response to the second reconnaissance flight on 29 May was the launching of search planes. No other defence measures were put into place. Although the midget attack on Diego Suarez in Madagascar occurred on the morning of 31 May (Sydney time), the Allies sent no alert to other command regions, as they believed that Vichy French forces had launched the attack.

Historians have questioned the competence of the senior Allied officers. Muirhead-Gould had been hosting a dinner party on the night of the attack, and one of the main guests was the senior United States Navy officer in Sydney Harbour, Captain Howard Bode of USS Chicago. Both officers were sceptical that any attack was taking place. Muirhead-Gould arrived aboard HMAS Lolita at approximately midnight, an action he described as attempting to learn about the situation. But members of Lolita's crew later recounted that when Muirhead-Gould came aboard he immediately chastised the patrol boat's skipper and crew, and quickly dismissed their report. Junior officers on Chicago provided similar descriptions of Bode's return on board, and members of both crews later claimed that Muirhead-Gould and Bode were intoxicated. It was only after the destruction of HMAS Kuttabul that both officers began to take the attack seriously.

During the attack, there were several delays between events and responses to them. Over two hours passed between the observation of M-14 in the boom net and Muirhead-Gould's first order for ships to commence anti-submarine actions. It took another two hours to mobilise the auxiliary patrol boats, which did not leave their anchorage for a further hour. Part of these delays was due to a lack of effective communications. None of the auxiliary patrol craft in the harbour had radio communications, so all instructions and reports came from signal lights via the Port War Signal Station or Garden Island, or by physical communication via launches. In Muirhead-Gould's preliminary report on the attack, he stated that the Port War Signal Station was not designed for the volume of communications traffic the attack caused. Telephone communications with Garden Island were unreliable during the early part of the attack, and then the first torpedo explosion disabled them completely.

The need to keep information secret may also have contributed to the delays and the defenders' scepticism. As the auxiliary patrol boat crews, the indicator loop staff, and other personnel manning defensive positions would have been outside 'need to know' and would not have been informed about any of the incidents prior to the attack, they would not have been alert, contributing to the disbelief demonstrated in the early hours of the attack.

### Flaws in Japanese tactics

The main flaw in the Japanese plans was the use of midget submarines for the primary attack. Midget submarines were originally intended to operate during fleet actions: they would be released from modified seaplane carriers to run amok through the enemy fleet. This concept went out of favour as changing Japanese naval thinking and experience led to recognition that naval warfare would centre around carrier-supported aerial combat. As a result, the midget program's focus changed to the infiltration of enemy harbours, where they would attack vessels at anchor. This concept failed completely during the attack on Pearl Harbor, where the midgets had no effect, and tying up 11 large submarines for six weeks in support of further midget submarine attacks on Sydney and Diego Suarez proved a waste of resources.

Moreover, the failures at Sydney Harbour and Diego Suarez demonstrated that the improvements to the midget submarines made after Pearl Harbor had not increased the overall impact of the midget program. The modifications had various effects. The ability to man and deploy the midgets while the mother ships were submerged prevented the Army coastal radars from detecting the mother submarines. However, the midgets were still difficult to control, unstable, and prone to surfacing or diving uncontrollably.

Beyond the use of the unreliable midgets, historians have identified areas in the plan of attack where the Japanese could have done significantly more damage. If the Japanese midget submarines had conducted a simultaneous, co-ordinated attack, they would have overwhelmed the defences. A chance for more damage came following the destruction of Kuttabul, when several naval vessels headed to sea, including USS Chicago, USS Perkins, Dutch submarine K-IX, HMAS Whyalla, and HMIS Bombay. The five mother submarines were already en route to the Port Hacking recovery position, and although Sasaki's plan at Pearl Harbor had been to leave some submarines at the harbour mouth to pick off fleeing vessels, he did not repeat this tactic.

### USS Chicago's survival

Several factors beyond the control of any of the combatants contributed to the survival of USS Chicago. At the time of M-24's attack on Chicago, the latter had spent some time preparing to depart from Sydney Harbour, and although still moored and stationary, was producing large volumes of white smoke as the boilers warmed up. This smoke, streaming aft under the influence of the wind, and contrasting against the dark, low-lying cloud, may have given the impression that Chicago was moving, causing M-24 to lead the target when firing its torpedoes, and consequently sending its torpedoes across the bow. Another factor that may have influenced Chicago's survival was the extinguishing of Garden Island's floodlights minutes before M-24 fired its first torpedo, impeding targeting.

### Bombardment impact

The bombardments failed to cause significant physical damage, but had a major psychological impact on the residents of Sydney and Newcastle. Due to the inaccuracy of the submarines' range-finding equipment, coupled with the unstable firing platform of a submarine at sea, specific targeting was impossible. The intention of the submarine bombardment was to frighten the population of the target area.

The failure of the majority of the shells to detonate may have had various causes. As the submarines fired armour-piercing shells, intended for use against steel ship hulls, the relatively softer brick walls may have failed to trigger the impact fuses. Sea water may have degraded the shells, which the Japanese had stored in deck lockers for several weeks. The age of the shells may also have been a factor; some of the shells recovered from the Newcastle bombardment were found to be of English manufacture: surplus munitions from World War I.

In Sydney, fear of an impending Japanese invasion caused people to move west; housing prices in the Eastern Suburbs dropped, while those beyond the Blue Mountains rose significantly. The attack also led to a significant increase in the membership of volunteer defence organisations, and strengthening of defences in Sydney Harbour and Port Newcastle.

## Aftermath

The papers did not publish news of the submarine attack until 2 June, as most of the attack occurred after the newspapers went to press on the morning of 1 June. Instead, on the morning after the attack, the front pages carried news of Operation Millennium, the Royal Air Force's first 1,000-bomber raid, although several newspapers included a small interior article mentioning the final reconnaissance flyover. The Federal Censor ordered total censorship of the events, issuing an official statement on the afternoon of 1 June which reported that the Allies had destroyed three submarines in Sydney Harbour, and described the loss of Kuttabul and the 21 deaths as the loss of "one small harbour vessel of no military value". Smith's Weekly finally released the real story on 6 June, and follow-up material in 13 June issue caused more political damage, prompting the Royal Australian Navy to attempt to charge the newspaper with releasing defence information.

It was several days before the 21 dead sailors aboard Kuttabul could all be recovered. On 3 June, Muirhead-Gould and over 200 Navy personnel attended a burial ceremony for these sailors. On 1 January 1943, the Navy base at Garden Island was commissioned as in commemoration of the ferry and the lives lost.

The Australians recovered the bodies of the four Japanese crew of the two midget submarines sunk in Sydney Harbour and had them cremated at Eastern Suburbs Crematorium. For the cremation, the Allies draped the Japanese flag over each coffin and rendered full naval honours. Muirhead-Gould was criticised for this, but defended his actions as respecting the courage of the four submariners, regardless of their origin. Australian politicians also hoped that the Japanese Government would notice the respect paid to the sailors and improve the conditions Australian prisoners-of-war were experiencing in Japanese internment camps. Japanese authorities noted the funeral service, but this did not lead to any major improvement in conditions for Australian POWs. Following the use of the midget submariners' funeral by the Japanese for propaganda purposes, the Australian High Command forbade similar funerals for enemy personnel in the future.

An exchange of Japanese and Allied diplomatic personnel stranded in the opposing nations occurred in August 1942, which allowed Tatsuo Kawai, the Japanese ambassador to Australia, to return home with the ashes of the four Japanese submariners. When the exchange ship Kamakura Maru arrived in Yokohama, several thousand people were present to honour the four men.

The two main targets of the attack, USS Chicago and HMAS Canberra, were both lost within the next year: Canberra sinking on 9 August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island, and Chicago on 30 January 1943 following the Battle of Rennell Island. None of the Japanese submarines involved in the attack survived the war. USS Charrette and Fair sank I-21 on 5 February 1944 off the Marshall Islands. An American torpedo boat sank I-22 on 25 December 1942 off New Guinea. An American patrol craft sank I-24 on 10 June 1943 near the Aleutian Islands. HMS Paladin and Petard sank I-27 on 12 February 1943 off the Maldives. Lastly, USS Sawfish sank I-29 on 26 July 1944 in the Philippines.

### M-14 and M-21

The Allies located and recovered M-21 on 3 June and M-14 on 8 June. Although both were damaged during the attack, it was possible to assemble a complete submarine from the two vessels. The centre section of the rebuilt submarine was mounted on a trailer and taken on a 4,000 km (2,500 mi) tour throughout southern New South Wales, Victoria, and western South Australia. The purpose of the tour was twofold; it allowed Australians to see a Japanese midget submarine up close, and was used to raise A£28,000 for the Naval Relief Fund and other charities. The submarine arrived at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 28 April 1943, flying the White Ensign and a paying-off pennant. The submarine was originally displayed outside the museum in three separate pieces, but was moved inside in the 1980s due to heavy vandalism; on one occasion in 1966, a group of university students painted it bright yellow in response to The Beatles' song Yellow Submarine. The composite submarine was restored and remains on display inside the Memorial as part of a permanent exhibition on the attack, next to the recovered wheelhouse of HMAS Kuttabul.' The conning tower from M-21 is on display at the Royal Australian Navy Heritage Centre on Garden Island. Leftover material from M-21 was melted down and made into souvenirs following the construction of the combined vessel.

### M-24

Over the 64 years following the disappearance of M-24 after the attacks, more than 50 people approached the Royal Australian Navy claiming to have found the submarine. All of these claims were found to be false. One early theory about the midget's fate was that it was damaged or destroyed, along with M-21, in or around Taylors Bay, which would account for reports from Steady Hour and Yarroma of multiple submarines during their three-hour attack against M-21. A second theory was that the midget attempted to return to the mother submarines but exhausted its battery power before reaching the Port Hacking recovery point and would therefore be outside and to the south of Sydney Heads. The third theory was that the midget's crew decided to avoid endangering the five larger submarines during the recovery process, and either ran straight out to sea or headed north.

A group of seven amateur scuba divers solved the mystery in November 2006, when they found a small submarine sitting upright on the seabed, 55 metres (180 ft) below sea level and approximately 5 kilometres (2.7 nmi; 3.1 mi) from Bungan Head, off Sydney's Northern Beaches. Commander Shane Moore, the officer responsible for the Royal Australian Navy's heritage collection, confirmed that the wreck was M-24 after viewing footage from multiple dives, along with measurements the group had taken. The wreck had several bullet holes in it, most likely from Chicago's quadruple machine-gun mount. The location of the wreck was kept secret by both the divers and the navy, with Defence Minister Brendan Nelson promising to have the wreck protected as a war grave. The wreck was gazetted on 1 December 2006 as a heritage site. A 500 m (1,600 ft) exclusion zone was established around the wreck site, and any vessel entering the zone is liable to a fine under New South Wales law of up to A\$1.1 million, with additional fines and confiscation of equipment under Commonwealth law. Shore- and buoy-mounted surveillance cameras and a sonar listening device further protect the site.

On 7 February 2007, during JMSDF Admiral Eiji Yoshikawa's visit to Australia, Yoshikawa and RAN Vice Admiral Russ Shalders presided over a ceremony held aboard to honour M-24's crew. Relatives of the midget submarines' crews, one of the survivors from Kuttabul, and dignitaries and military personnel from Australia and Japan attended another ceremony on 6 August 2007 at HMAS Kuttabul. then carried relatives of M-24's crew to the wreck site, where they poured sake into the sea before being presented with sand taken from the seabed around the submarine.

In May 2012, the NSW state government announced that, with the approval of the Japanese government and the submariners' families, divers would be allowed to observe the M-24'' wreck for a short period of time. Divers would enter a ballot for places on controlled dives run on several days. If successful, opening the site would become an annual event to commemorate the attack.

## See also

- Air raids on Australia, 1942–43
- Military history of Australia during World War II

## Explanatory footnotes

## General and cited references

1942 World War II attack by Japan

Military history of Sydney during World War II

South West Pacific theatre of World War II