Pat, with all due respect, you *really* don't know what you're talking
about here. First, there's a substantial and profound difference between not
knowing where you're going in a regular two-part episode (for which there is
no excuse), and leaving it open to accommodate a possible cast change. You're
talking apples and oranges. You can't use the one to prove the other; this
kind of "will-he-won't-he-return" situation is absolutely the exception to the
norm; I think most people are talking about all the OTHER two-parters NOT
based around this logistical problem.

Second, every single series in TV has a slush fund in which you can
afford to junk X-number of scripts, because no matter what happens, some
scripts just don't work out. Usually the number is 5-6 scripts that can be
canned. Even if for some reason one script had to be trashed (part two),
you're talking *one script*...are you seriously trying to tell me that the
mega-million-dollar Star Trek series, which spends anywhere from 19-23 MILLION
dollars on their PILOTS and anywhere from $1.5-1.9 million per episode is
going to implode because one $17,000 script falls out? C'mon.....

Further, if the script is written one way, with Stewart out, and he ends
up coming back after all...you just REWRITE the damned thing. For starters,
these kinds of scripts are almost NEVER done by freelancers, so it's an in-
house script, and that means staffers, and that means yhou tend to get more
drafts than the usual two...and ST scripts generally go through endless
rewrites ANYway. That's what they PAY staffers for, to write and to rewrite.
Hell, I've had cast members fall in and out of scripts on many different
occasions; I've rewritten scripts when cast members got sick and couldn't be
there, broke their feet, you name it. It's what one DOES. It's why one has
the JOB. If you're indicating that they couldn't compensate for this over on
ST, then you're saying they're utterly incompetent at their work, and I don't
believe this to be true.

And any decent staffer would always prepare for either eventuality in
working out the storyline, whether or not the actor does or doesn't return.

C'mon...as you say...let's have some reality here....

jms