WORTH NOTING ON TV

* SATURDAY

National Press Club talk (C-Span, 6-7 p.m., ET): The speaker is Jim Courter, chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. * SUNDAY

CNN Presents ... Our Planetary Police (CNN, 9-10 p.m.): This premiere of a news-feature series - to air the first Sunday of each month - is a thorough look at how the United Nations has been facing the new world order taking shape since the end of the cold war. The report finds a world body that is freer, more assertive, and already caught up in more than 12 peacekeeping challenges. Correspondent Stephen Frazier offers a range on interviews, including one with UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who describes the UN's need for multinational peacekeeping forces, and another - in what the show is calling her `first full-length interview with United States Ambassador Madeleine Albright. * MONDAY

Talk Back America (CNBC, 9-10:30 p.m., ET): Put Phil Donahue, Tom Snyder, John McLaughlin, Dick Cavett, and Vladimir Pozner together, live, in Donahue's New York studio, and it's hard to say what the mix will produce. But you can find out in this unusual talk-show summit moderated by Bob Berkowitz. It features a call-in format that allows viewers to `talk back' to hosts who are usually the ones asking the questions. The show is part of the cable channel's `Talk Back America' week, a series of live intera ctive programs.

The Mongol Horde: Storm From the East (The Learning Channel, 9-11 p.m.): The facts, the myths, and the legacy of the reign of Ghengis Khan is the focus of this ambitious documentary series about the 13th-century Asian conqueror. A coproduction of the BBC and Japan's NHK, the series was filmed in 23 countries and covers 100 years in its chronicle of this historically important period, which marked the first interaction on a major scale between Asia and Europe. (Parts 2 and 3 air next Tuesday and Wednesday ).

Please check local listings for all programs.