`Scarlett' At Its Best When Removed From Its Source

----------------------------------------------------------------- "Scarlett"

CBS miniseries, 9 to 11 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, KIRO-TV. ----------------------------------------------------------------- At last! Ripped from the pages of the best seller! Six months in the making! With a cast of thousands! Filmed where it was supposed to have happened in England, Ireland and Charleston, S.C.! It's "Scarlett"! Coming to a TV screen near you, starting tonight, and starring Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and Timothy Dalton!

Who?

Just as "Scarlett," Alexandra Ripley's "sequel" to "Gone With the Wind," was considered a pale imitation of Margaret Mitchell's original novel, so are Whalley-Kilmer and Dalton pale imitations of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, the stars of the original film classic.

That's not to say CBS' four-part, eight-hour "Scarlett" - certainly the most ambitious miniseries of this TV season - doesn't have many pleasures. It is, however, at its best when farthest from its original source. Then it becomes a kind of Gothic melodrama on its own terms, and you can begin to appreciate Whalley-Kilmer's performance of Scarlett as simply another character.

Whalley-Kilmer is a good enough actress that she creates a characterization all her own. About the only time she'll remind you of Leigh's Scarlett is when she utters expressions such as "Fiddle dee dee!" and "I'll think about that tomorrow." This new Scarlett seems every bit as flirtatious as the original but a little less devious. She kept reminding me of Victoria Principal in her "Dallas" days.

But if Whalley-Kilmer is busily creating her own concept of Scarlett, Dalton too often seems to be trying to imitate Gable and not faring very well. "Scarlett" would be better if Dalton weren't such a stick. There's little charisma in his performance, and you wind up wondering why such a dynamo as Scarlett is so attracted to him.

Of course, Whalley-Kilmer and Dalton are only two members of a very large cast, although many of the "names" touted by CBS are on and off in the twinkling of an eye. Even when they're not, their roles and scenes are often little more than filler. Paul Winfield as Big Sam, former foreman of Tara, and Esther Rolle as Mammy, disappear fast. Ann-Margret turns infamous Belle Watling into a common madam with none of the original's pretensions or style, while Stephen Collins makes Ashley Wilkes even more colorless than Leslie Howard did. But the best of them make a strong contribution, even in small roles: Julie Harris as Rhett's mother, Sir John Gielgud as Scarlett's imperious grandfather, Barbara Barrie and Elizabeth Wilson as Scarlett's skittish maiden aunts, George Grizzard as Scarlett's lawyer and Jean Smart, who does what she can with a pretty unbelievable role (Sally Brewton, a friend of Rhett's).

William Hanley's screenplay is at its best, and John Erman's direction seems its surest, when the story leaves Tara and Georgia and moves on to Ireland, where Scarlett goes to search for her father's relatives and to recover from her divorce from Rhett. At that point, the ghost of "Gone With the Wind" is no longer hovering.

Colm Meaney is believable as a priest with many interests outside the church, while Tina Kellegher is sympathetic as a young serving girl in a lot of trouble. Sean Bean is scary as a scheming and dissolute Englishman, and English and Irish performers (and locations) contribute greatly to making "Scarlett" not only more convincing but more interesting.

Part I, unfortunately, takes place in Georgia and opens with the funeral of Melanie Wilkes. The rest of the two hours deals with Scarlett's pursuit of Rhett, her visit to decaying Tara (now the home of her sister, Suellen) and social activities in Atlanta, including a boat ride with Rhett that culminates in a storm at sea. This leads to a passionate encounter between Scarlett and Rhett that convinces her Rhett still loves her. It also results in Scarlett's pregnancy. There's enough "story" in Part I of "Scarlett" to last any soap opera for a year.

"Scarlett" becomes more interesting in Part II (Tuesday) because we begin to meet new characters, mainly Scarlett's O'Hara relatives, who lead a middle-class life in Savannah but maintain strong ties to Ireland, thanks to Father Colum O'Hara, played by Meaney. When Scarlett learns Rhett has served her with divorce papers and plans to marry a respectable young woman (played by Annabeth Gish), she leaves for Ireland to find her roots - and lick her wounds.

Scarlett seems to have unlimited funds, and in Ireland she finds the old O'Hara estate, now owned by Lord Fenton, an English aristocrat (Bean). She buys it and sets about restoring it, thereby improving the local economy. We meet a passel of kinfolk and friends as Scarlett eases into becoming the local celebrity. Part II ends with the birth of Scarlett and Rhett's second child.

Part III (Wednesday) begins a year later and takes place almost entirely in Ireland, except for a quick trip to Atlanta, when Scarlett turns over Tara to Suellen. But there's intrigue aplenty in Ireland as Scarlett tries to move easily between her poor Irish relatives and the English landowners to whom she has entry through Lord Fenton. There's a good deal about Irish revolutionaries plotting to overthrow the English landlords, but pay no attention to it since it's strictly filler. The most important character is Mary Boyle, played by Kellegher, a distant relative of Scarlett's and also involved with Lord Fenton. Rhett turns up in Dublin on a trip to buy horses and Scarlett decides not to tell him about their child, of whom he knows nothing, after she meets Rhett's pregnant new wife.

Part III ends with a murder, and Part IV (Thursday) finds Scarlett in London hoping to forget. Mary and Lord Fenton are in London, too, and it is about at this point that "Scarlett" begins to fall apart. Scarlett is charged with murder and Rhett and Sally Brewton rush to her side in London.

There are innumerable scenes that try to create heart-stopping suspense but to little avail. We know there will be a happy ending, and wish they'd get on with it. Much of the last two hours is padding. Just when you think it's finally going to end, there's one more scene. Worst of all, it leaves Mary Boyle's future up in the air. Could it be Alexandra Ripley, even now, is at work on "Mary Boyle"? Or is "Alexandra Ripley" merely a nom du plume for Danielle Steel?

On the whole, "Scarlett" is reasonably entertaining, an acceptable way to waste four long November evenings. It will not make you forget the original that supposedly "inspired" this sequel.

The good `Doctor' ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Masterpiece Theatre: Doctor Finlay" 9 p.m. Sunday, KCTS-TV. -----------------------------------------------------------------

If you like your drama in one-hour segments, you'll welcome the return of "Doctor Finlay," a series of six interrelated stories bringing back the characters created by Scottish writer A. J. Cronin, previously seen in an earlier series on "Masterpiece Theatre."

The time is right after World War II, and the small Scottish town of Tannochbrae is lucky to have three doctors: idealistic young Dr. Finlay, played again by David Rintoul; kindly old Dr. Cameron (Ian Bannen); and ambitious young Dr. Neil (Jason Flemyng). They're all fussed over by their housekeeper, again played to perfection by Annette Crosbie. It's a grand picture of village life - and a less hectic, more comforting picture of medicine than either "E.R." or "Chicago Hope." ----------------------------------------------------------------- A good launch "The Space Shuttle" 9 p.m., midnight Sunday, The Discovery Channel. -----------------------------------------------------------------

This new documentary, written and directed by Scott Hicks, is the most interesting film on the subject that I've seen. There have been plenty of films about the drama of space travel, and live shots of Earth from outer space, all thrilling in their own ways.

But "The Space Shuttle" is splendidly comprehensive, not only covering familiar aspects but also taking viewers behind the scenes to explain how the complicated machinery works. There are interviews with a wide variety of persons knowledgeable about space, with views pro and con - from the astronauts who pilot the space vehicles to the workers who get them launched and landed. Despite an overexuberant score, this is an outstanding film - as interesting in its own way as a trip to the Smithsonian's space museum in Washington, D.C.