Picture breaks up, sutters and finally freezes on side two of the first disc, episode 7: Gone Quiet .
Not a single mark or speck on the dvd.

Damn I hate when this happens. It is such a pain in the ass to have to watch all these episodes again so soon to be sure the replacement isn't also defective.

Seems to me this happens a LOT more with these double sided discs. Just another reason to hate them.

Hi. Very interesting this. I didn't have this problem with this episode but I did have what I would consider to be the exact same symptoms with disc 2 side 1, episode 'H-Con. 172'. Unfortunately I am in the UK, so it is a hassle for me to return it. It may be my player I suppose. It is a genuine R1 Panasonic machine but it is over 6 years old. Hope to see season four soon.

I had the same problem with the Season 1 set. I believe it was Disc 2, not sure about which side (or which episode). I got so frustrated, I ended up having to skip the whole episode.

Oh, you are talking about technical problems. I thought that you were just talking about the slide in storytelling and quality that started during this season. My bad!