OK, I'm using the Millenium Null character from rbtwhiz as a way to work around the crosstalk problem when both Mike 2 and Vicky 2 are in one scene. I had read that after saving to a PZ3 file, the problem will reappear upon reloading it, and that all you can about that is save the poses and then start fresh with all the figures freshly loaded. Well, for some days I had been working on a scene w/Mike 2 and Vicky 2 and there was NO crosstalk when I would reload the PZ3 file. I had even forgotten about the warning about the problem reappearing. But now, it's back! I happened to make a new scene today with the NULL character, Mike 2, and Vicky 2 (same characters as before), saved the work, reloaded it, and Vicky was all messed up with Mike's body morphs now! I have to think there's some configuration that causes work to be saved in such a way that Poser can reload it without reverting to the crosstalk problem. I know this notion will probably be pooh-poohed but I had a run of 2 or 3 days when I saved about a dozen versions of my work and could reload it and continue where I left off without any problems. Your thoughts and help would be appreciated.

Interesting. Did it continue to work so long as you still had the original instance of Poser up and running? Did the crosstalk finally rear its ugly head after you shut Poser down and then relaunched it?

For a few days, that one scene I was working one was saved and loaded many times, sometimes into the same instance of Poser, sometimes into a new instance, and sometimes after the computer had been turned off overnight. No crosstalk. The scene I started today was saved once and the crosstalk appeared right away when it was reloaded (I believe into a new instance of Poser). The differences that I can think off between the scene that didn't have crosstalk and the new one I created today are just 1 simple prop and some lights. Forgot to mention I have the latest patch, Windows XP, Pentium 4, and 512MB RAM.

Your system does not matter. It is a text file. The root of the problem is simple, just a line in every ERC script.
There are two solutions:

Null figure

Coming out the the Library, the controlling Figure # is usually #=1
since Poser inserts a new - Figure # - for the controlling figure on every save, a PZ3 may have a Figure # other than #=1 if the Figure 1 is burned by a Null. If you have cross-talk with the PZ3, Poser is obviously inserting the same Figure # in both V2 and M2. This would be considered a bug in the program, if those who added this feature, realized its potential. I don't think this was the case. They added something much bigger than they knew.
Anyway, Null does not seem to be a solution with a PZ3.

1. Text edit.

The problem is done on Save, not Open.
Edit the controlling Figure in the saved file before you open it. EditPad Lite for a V2 file by itself so, the two together must be really big.
Just do a Find = Figure ? You just must look and see
Replace = Mike or Vic
Then scroll down to where the second figure is and
Find = Mike(or Vic) Replace = Vic (or Mike) and check the box that says "from cursor location"

1. Remove the problem at the beginning

Since you are using a defined Vic and a defined Mike character, Spawn morphs for each. Make a clean Vic and Mike CR2 (clean = no construction morphs). Copy the character morphs to the clean CR2 for each and use it.
No cross-talk, CR2 files that are 1/4-1/3 the size, better Poser performance.

(This method will not solve cross-talk with JCM or JCJ figures.)

I work with ERC a lot and one thing I've noticed is that the crosstalk problem is incredibly inconsistent. I've found weird solutions to it that will work one day and not the next even though everything seems the same. I REALLY REALLY hope they fix it in Poser 5. Here's a quick easy trick. Set up Vicky how you want her then spawn a full body morph. Set it to 1 and reset the other morphs to zero. Do the same for Mike and make sure you use a different name on the full body morph. They should stay OK after that.

Crosstalk between two different base figures, now? Oyyyy...

It's the name of the channels that matters not the figure they're on. Mike and Vicky have lots of channels with the same underlying names in the cr2.