Alexander Siddig on Doran Martell and Dorne

For every character killed off, two more appear. This seems to be the motto of both George R.R. Martin and the producers of Game of Thrones. With so many dead in Season 4, it only stands to reason that an entire new region had to crop up in order to fill the gap. That new region, Dorne, was introduced to viewers this past weekend, as we had our first scene set in the gorgeous Alcázar de Seville, which stands in for the Dornish palace known as “The Water Gardens.”

And with our introduction to The Water Gardens came some brand new characters, including Prince Doran Martell, played by actor Alexander Siddig. Siddig is well-known in the SciFi universe for his role as Dr. Bashir in Star Trek DS9, as well as roles in Atlantis, Primeval and 24. He was approached for the role by Benioff and Weiss, and admitted that his take on it is “shamelessly” based on Pedro Pascal’s performance as Oberyn last season. There’s just one big difference:

Doran couldn’t be quite as dramatic or quite as romantic because my character is the ruler and [Oberyn] wasn’t a ruler. Oberyn could afford to misbehave in a way that my character cannot. There’s a difference there.

Well, actually two. One thing I noticed about the lead up to season 5 is how the promo pictures at first tried to play down the fact that Doran is confined to a wheelchair. That aspect of the character is actually what made Siddig so keen to play him.

I was really excited by that, not just from an actor’s point of view – because it’s always exciting to play under some strict limitation – but it was really, could I possibly figure out a way to give this guy gravity, authority and a sense of romance? This race of people seems to imbue that in their nature which is quite different from the other families who can be quite stern or mysterious. I was hoping I could do that in a wheelchair, and it was a great challenge.

I don’t think he gets out very much, because he’s a little bit ashamed of the fact that he’s meant to be a masculine guy in a really macho culture. The fact he can’t get out of his chair is a real disability to him. I think it forces him to be more philosophical, or at least attempting to be wiser…. I’m playing him right now as being a pretty equivocal, pragmatic, wise ruler who doesn’t want to rush to judgment and, more importantly, doesn’t want to subject his whole kingdom to a state of war. But that is obviously in the cards, and goodness knows there’s enough reason for it with what happened to his daughter* and his brother being slaughtered abroad.  It’s going to be very difficult to decide what to do and he’s making a lot of enemies by taking his time and not just rushing out there. I hope he comes off as wise.

*I assume Siddig means Elia Martell here, slaughtered by The Mountain, who Oberyn was trying to avenge. As viewers will remember, Elia is actually Oberyn’s older sister, which makes her Doran’s younger sister, not his daughter (These family trees can get very confusing).

Meanwhile, the Game of Thrones YouTube channel has released a featurette on Dorne where Siddig expounds a little more on his character. It also features an exploration of the set for the Water Gardens. The video has minor spoilers concerning the relationship between Trystane Martell and Myrcella Baratheon, and a bit of footage involving the pair of them that haven’t aired yet.

Speaking of Trystane and Myrcella, it continues to startle me how much of a Disney-fied couple they are. Trystane looks like he could shed his Dornish outfits for the currently open slot in One Direction, while the recast Myrcella could easily be mistaken for Generic Princess for Kindergartener Photo Ops in Disneyland. One gets the idea that their looks are deliberate, and serve to heighten the sense that they are a pair of “doomed teenage star-crossed lovers.” With their plotline somewhat up in the air due to the many departures from the books, one wonders if the show is planning to recast their story in a more “Romeo and Juliet” vein.

• Published on 04/22/2015 at 11:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT