What happens to Time Machine if my backup drive isn't connected?

I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.
What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive, or does it only keep one increment between the last backup and the current one? Does it still automatically back up, or do I have to prompt it?
I understand that Lion has a feature that keeps local backups until it sees the backup drive again, but it's not clear to me (because Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS...) whether something like this happens in Leopard.

Sockatume wrote:
***I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.***
Time machine will recommence back ups from the last point backed up.
***What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive.
Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS.***
It should scan and pick up alterations to previous back ups as a matter of course.
For all matters dealing with Time machine Google 'Pondini' and a variety of options about it will appear.  
For trouble shooting ...Time machine.                  http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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