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TV critic Aaron Barnhart rates tonight's shows The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). DON'T MISS "Harsh Realm": "X-Files" creator Chris Carter is back with his third series for Fox. Unlike "Millennium," a bloody morality play that never emerged from the shadow of "The X-Files," this one stands firmly on its own footing - although you'll forgive Scott Bairstow's character if he isn't exactly sure where his feet are planted. Bairstow, an Army hero stationed at Fort Dix, is summoned one day by his superiors to take part in a top-secret virtual reality simulator called Harsh Realm. He is instantly transported to a world that at first looks exactly like Fort Dix. But soon he realizes he is in a parallel universe, one ravaged by war, swarming with human clones and dominated by a mystery man named Santiago - the Pinball Wizard of Harsh Realm. His object: take out Santiago. It won't be easy. Bairstow knows no one in Harsh Realm - even the people he thinks he knows are, at best, analogues of the people he left behind. Bairstow, best known for his turn on "Party of Five," is a credible, if predictably stiff, virtual-reality rookie. He gets help from D.B. Sweeney and Carter favorite Terry O'Quinn as Santiago. "X-Files" fans have been talking up this show, sight unseen, for months, based mainly on rumors and snippets from the set. But "Harsh Realm" may well validate all that hype. (8 p.m. Fridays, Channel 4) >>> NEEDS SHOW DOCTOR "Love & Money": This cynical romantic comedy recycles the "Dharma & Greg" concept, only this one takes place in Manhattan, involves a rich girl and a working-class boy and isn't nearly as endearing. It's nice to see David Ogden Stiers get some decent sitcom work after his embarrassing turn in "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. " Here he's the billionaire whose daughter gets cold feet and revives an old flame with the doorman's son. But other revivals are not as welcome: Swoosie Kurtz is unappealing as the drunken, sex-starved wife, and Brian Doyle-Murray plays an obnoxious lout as the doorman. As for the would-be couple (Brian Van Holt and Paget Brewster), they have all the sex appeal of two people in the park reading the newspaper. There's a pretty good gag involving an elevator alarm - but it doesn't come until next week's episode, by which time you've probably stopped watching. (7:30 p.m. Fridays, Channel 5) For full coverage of the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com