Haha...I've read that the writers definitely had a master plan which is why they can refute many of the theories. I'm pretty sure they have the general idea since they gave lots of clues this summer in the Lost Experience. That gave more of a picture as to who the others are. Watch the Others training video, that was really helpful.

I think what you have to remember is that there are two seperate things, character plots and island plots. I think that the main island was planned out all along, they knew what was happening and they knew a few basic characters who were needed.

As for characters, we all know they've winged it, Jack was meant to be killed off in the pilot, Ben and Desmond were meant to have left permanently. Kate was originally meant to have had Rose's storyline, Sawyer was originally an older man, as was Charlie.

So yeah, part of it is on the fly, but the main part, the part that matters, isn't winged, it's just very VERY clever.

Yeah.... I agree with benji. What they're doing is drip feeding the audience a few nuggets now and again, when it is needed... However 24 is not as thought out as you'd think.... they have a very vague idea of what they will do, but mostly they make it up as they go.... the producers have admitted that!

I haven't watched the 3rd season (waiting for the DVD), so I'm just talking about the 1-2 seasons...
The first season had this feel that if you collected enough pieces of the puzzle you'd be able to figure it all out.
My problem with the second was that it didn't. I thought it was like "let's see what crazy ideas we can find and fit it the show, however detached they are"...