Back in 1993, novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner joined forces with Oliver Stone ("JFK," "Natural Born Killers") to create "Wild Palms" for ABC. The six-hour mini-series aired to less-than-spectacular ratings and critical reviews that swung from adoration to condemnation. It told the story of a near-future Los Angeles in which a virtual reality guru tries to overtake the world. It had plenty of the paranoia and conspiracy that Stone, in particular, is fond of exploring in his movies.

Now Wagner's partnered with another feature-film legend, Francis Ford Coppola, known for his "Godfather" tales, "Apocalypse Now" and, in 1992, the lushly Gothic retelling of "Bram Stoker's Dracula." The result is "White Dwarf," a two-hour TV-movie and pilot for a possible series, airing Tuesday on Fox at 7 p.m. Peter Markle directs from a script by Wagner. Stewart Copeland, formerly of the Police, provides the score; Theadora Van Runkle ("The Godfather, Part II") designs the costumes. Robert Halmi Sr. ("Lonesome Dove," "Gypsy") is executive producer with Coppola and Wagner.

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Set on the distant planet of Rusta in the year 3040 A.D., "White Dwarf" tells the story of Dr. Driscoll Rampart (Neal McDonough), an intern from Earth (Manhattan, to be exact) who arrives to study under renowned healer Dr. Akada (Paul Winfield) and his nurse, Shabana (CCH Pounder). The planet, part of a white-dwarf system, rotates in such a way that, like Earth's moon, one-half of the planet is perpetually in the light and the other half is perpetually in the dark. The skies of the light side are dominated by giant, metal spheres called "regulators," built by someone (or something) centuries before to control the weather - but now they are breaking down. Rampart arrives in the waning days of a bitter civil war between the residents of the light and dark halves. They are all human, but their civilizations have evolved differently.

The light half is a mixture of styles and periods, with elements of the Old West, Victorian era and 20th century, including stagecoaches and radios. The dark half is medieval, with a king (Robert Cornthwaite), a princess (Ele Keats) and an evil knight, Lt. Strake (Michael McGrady). On the light side is a prison run by a walrus-like alien named Osh (Chip Heller). His most famous prisoner is Lady X (Katy Boyer), sentenced to eternal life in prison for unleashing a long-ago plague on Earth. Akada, originally from the dark side, learned many of his healing skills in that prison before setting up his clinic in the light.

Arrogant Rampart has much to learn about Rusta. Its red seas echo with a multitude of voices; and many see visions of the Two Ladies - one dark and one fair - who represent Rusta and are harbingers of good fortune and bad.

Winfield was so excited to be in the project that he took a pay cut. "I'd never read anything quite like it. I thought it was a (feature film). I'm a real sci-fi nut. Even as a kid, that was my pleasure, reading science fiction. I read Heinlein, the big anthologies, Asimov. I've always liked science-fiction movies too. I like being in them, just to see how they do it."

Although "White Dwarf" has some spectacular computer-generated effects (especially the wall between the light and dark sides), that's not what Wagner wanted to focus on. "The wall looks hot. The stuff that we did looks great, but I wanted to keep it limited. I didn't care so much about it. I wanted to create a template for our pilot where things were more emotional. I loved the stuff between Osh and Lady X. I'm enthralled every time I see those little scenes with Wagner playing in the background, this two-ton walrus alien obsessing over this gorgeous, ancient woman. And this whole scene where (Akada and Rampart) are examining her and she says, `Do you know what it's like to live forever?' I just love that stuff. When she elucidates what it is like to live forever ... I really find that moving every time I hear her do that. There are little side stories that, to me, are really cool."

Wagner claims a big inspiration for "White Dwarf" are the fantastical covers created for science-fiction novels. "I could stare at them endlessly," he says. " `White Dwarf' is really much more of a fairy tale. `Wild Palms' is a grim fairy tale, for sure, but `White Dwarf' is something that might be a little more appropriate as a bedtime story."

With a tight budget, Wagner created his alien world on locations all within a 40-mile radius of Los Angeles. Osh's massive, encrusted prison was constructed in the building where the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner used to have its printing presses. Many outdoor scenes were filmed at a ranch north of the city; Akada's clinic is an old school in Arcadia, Calif. The scenes at the red sea were shot at Malibu, with the red color added later on.

"It sort of started to have a life of its own," says Winfield. "That fantasy world became - how do I say this without sounding crazy? - it became more interesting than our day-to-day lives. It was so romantic and so fanciful that it was fun to go to work. It was fun to be in this place and wearing these kinds of clothes. It's like being a kid and playing dress-up and pretending that you're the good king or a good knight, the princess and all that. I kept thinking, `You're a grown-up person, and you can have fun like this? You haven't had fun like this since you were 12.' "

At one point, Akada describes Rusta to Rampart as "a sentient place." Some scientists theorize that Earth itself is an organism. Was this in Wagner's mind? "The idea of geography being sentient is one that's quite old. The idea of trees, of earth, of stones, of water being things that contain energy and life and consciousness is something that is very old. So when Akada says that, it's kind of a reprimand to Driscoll, who tends to think of everything in the most simple and shallow terms. So when he says, `This is a sentient place,' he's trying to wake Driscoll up to the possibilities of what surrounds him.

"The idea is so arrogant, to think that we, people, are the only things that have consciousness or sentience. So that's the thing I was trying to reflect, that Driscoll has such a long way to go, has so much to learn."

Kate O'Hare

THE LIGHT AND THE DARK SIDE OF `WHITE DWARF'