[TYPO3] "Template on next level:" causes menu to disappear?

[Adam Harvie]

Hi all,

We've got a site with a structure as so:

root <-(default template)
--page1
--page2 <-(ext template)
---subpage1 <-(default template)
---subpage2
---etc

We're wanting to assign a different template to a particular page 
(page2), then revert to the default template for its children.

I assigned an extension template to the page in question (page2), and in 
the setup assigned a different template file to the autoparser extension:

plugin.tx_automaketemplate_pi1.content.file = 
fileadmin/templates/alternatetemp/alttemp.html
plugin.tx_automaketemplate_pi1.relPathPrefix = 
fileadmin/templates/alternatetemp/

Then in the "Template on next level" field of the extension template, 
assign the root (default) template.

This all works fine, but the menu that should appear in the default 
template isn't generated on any of the 3rd level pages. Is there any way 
that the 'next level' assignment is causing it to misinterpret the page 
levels, or where the page tree starts? The menu is set up to only 
display level 1 and 2 pages.

The reason that the alternate template is used is to get rid of the 
right-most column that normally appears as part of a three column 
layout, but have it still appear on the subpages.

Re-assigning the default template via a new extension template on the 
third level subpages makes everything behave itself, but since there are 
over 60 of them, it would be better not to have to assign 60+ extension 
templates.

Any help greatly appreciated,
Adam Harvie