The Ruins of Time ( short story ) The Ruins of Time was the second short story in the Short Trips anthology " " . It was written by Philip Purser - Hallard . It featured the First Doctor , Susan , Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton . Summary . Susan and Ian are playing a board game belonging to the Doctor when the TARDIS lands on a desolate planet . It used to be beautiful , but things are in ruins and there are people , not dead but not alive , frozen in place . They are surprised by one of the natives , a Torcaldian named Vedirioi , who welcomes them and gives them hospitality . Vedirioi explains that bandits have been raiding the city . Ian and Barbara are at first confused by the genders of the Torcaldians until Susan explains that they are hermaphrodite s . Meanwhile the Doctor , having found out what ' s wrong with the planet , says they must leave . He explains that some catastrophe has drained this planet of time . The frozen people have had all the time drained out of them . Susan and Vedirioi are playing the board game when bandits attack . Astebo , the leader of the city , urges the travellers to leave , but Susan wants to help her friends . She and the Doctor are captured by the bandits . The bandits drained all the time from Astebo , who is now frozen , and Vedirioi explains that is what the bandits do — steal time from other Torcaldians . Susan wakes up in a cage ; the Doctor is unconscious . Vedirioi and Ecsilo accompany Barbara and Ian to rescue the others . Susan talks with a Torcaldian , Tranell , who is a slave of the bandits ' leader Balthar . Tranell drains time from others to give to Balthar , who shares it among the bandits . Susan and the Doctor are brought to Balthar to be drained . Ian , watching , cannot help because he left the others behind . Tranell convinces Balthar that the Doctor should be drained , not Susan . Ian is horrified to see that the Doctor is frozen , but when the bandits leave , taking Susan back to her cage , the Doctor moves . Because of his " special relationship " to time , he wasn ' t affected the way the Torcaldians were . When Barbara and the Torcaldians rescue Susan , they tell her that the Doctor is fine . Barbara and the Doctor are taken by Ecsilo to the site where a tear in time , called Torcaldi ' s Bane , began . It happened during a musical presentation , and the Doctor is intrigued , even to the point where he drains time from himself to allow the music to play for a brief moment so he can record it . Meanwhile Ian and Susan are with Vedirioi ; Vedirioi asks to drain Susan of time to keep the village alive . Susan is horrified and Vedirioi feels bad , realising that it would be wrong to do this to Susan but at a loss for a way to save the Torcaldians . The four travellers reunite , then the village is once again attacked by bandits . Tranell , however , instead of draining one of the villagers , drains Balthar instead . As the travellers prepare to leave , Barbara and Ian are upset that they couldn ' t help the Torcaldians , but the Doctor is adamant that they leave nothing of themselves behind . Unknown to him , however , Susan has left the board game behind — something that has been in the TARDIS and has a special relationship to time . Notes . " to be added "