Marnal was the Castellan on Gallifrey before the Doctor left the planet. Marnal was sent by the Time Lords to the Shoal to investigate the threat of the Vore to Gallifrey. He destroyed the Shoal after a meeting with Larna, a Time Lady from Gallifrey's future. Marnal had a son on Gallifrey, who visited him during the 1970s and told him that the Doctor was the renegade Time Lord who stole his TARDIS. He also had four adopted daughters on Earth from his wives' previous marriages, whom he described as parasites.