The Space War (unproduced TV story)

The Space War, also known as The Furies was written by Ian Stuart Black for Season 8. It was commissioned on 9 November 1969, but was dropped in October 1970 after complaints that the show was becoming too dark for family viewing.

The story would have mainly focused on Jo. After a bombing run seemingly kills the Doctor at the start of the story, she is rescued by an all-female squadron of pilots called the Furies who train her to become one of them. She would later uncover a conspiracy, learning that the war the Furies were fighting in was a lie engineered by the War Council as part of a plot to launch a military coup.

Jo would have led the Furies in a final battle against the War Council, who it would eventually turn out were led by the Master. All of the Furies were supposed to have died in this final battle, and Jo would have narrowly escaped in the TARDIS with the Doctor, who had been held prisoner by the Master since the bombing run.