Star Trek Discovery

I always have trouble with those two worlds...

In this case, either one works.

I recall one documentary said that Roddenberry originally wanted uhura to be a command officer, but ultimately traded her being out of command rank for there being no smoking in the show.

When my daughter had her first baby, it really surprised me how many of her friends tried to convince here not to have the baby vaccinated. Many of them didn't even have kids. Even now, some of them shun her for getting the vaccinations. I told her that in my opinion, they are friends not worth having.

The Kirk/Uhura Kiss; Was NOT the first interracial kiss on TV. There were at least two other shows in the US alone that had interracial kisses, one of which had a FAR bigger audience years before Trek aired and neither of which had a forced kiss as was the case with Trek.

Kirk the womanizer; Actually false. For a start the only Orion women Kirk met was insane, its the episode with Garth of Izar. The Green Orion woman seen in the titles was from the original pilot (with Captain Pike) who also didn't kiss her.
Someone actually went through the Trek series and noted down the number of cases where sexual encounters took place or were implied to have taken place and placed them in context to see if they were consensual.
Turns out that the infamous Womanizer James T Kirk comes in well behind that other famous womanizer William T Riker. Who in turn is utterly outclassed by one Jean-Luc Picard.

Uhura as command officer; She actually IS a command officer, but Roddenberry seems to have managed to slip this under the radar by not specifically naming her as such.
There is an episode where Kirk is talking to Uhura on the Bridge about the condition of the ship, then orders several decks to go to red alert. Star Fleet's chain of command and structure is based on that of the US Navy. Which means that the Captain passes orders through the next most senior officer and on down. (Which is why Riker screams 'Shields up, red alert' after Picard orders alert stations even though everyone on the bridge can hear the original order). As Kirk is passing that order through Uhura that means that she was the most senior command level officer after him on the Bridge at the time. This in turn would mean she is most likely the ships 4th Officer; Spock, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura.
So if Roddenberry did come to a deal regarding Uhura he basically ignored it.

Command officer is a position held on a ship irrespective of rank, much as 'Captain' is the term used for the senior commanding officer of a ship regardless of the officers actual rank.

This is why Harry Kim was a command officer on Voyager even though he was an Ensign. Likewise Travis on Enterprise along with Wesley and Ro on TNG were all apt of their ships command staff even though they only held Ensign ranks.

The top three command positions do, clearly, go with rank as they are Captain, Commander (first officer) and Lt Commander (second officer). But below this it is the position held on the ship rather than rank that denotes if you are in a command level position. Hence Bel'ana and Geordi are command officers due to being the chief engineers of their respective ships not their rank. Just as Data and Harry Kim were command officers due to them being the science/Ops officers on their ships not because of their ranks.

The same holds for Uhura, who is a command officer due to being the communications officer. A position that by TNG era was folded into the Tactical officers duties for the most part.

Traded command rank...oh Gene Roddenberry you wonderful genius you. I suspect he must have got one hell of a laugh out of that knowing that he could keep her on the command staff regardless of her rank. I'm guessing that the execs he was dealing with didn't understand the US Navy's command structure that was the basis for Star Fleets command structure.

McCoy was a full commander, as were Doctors Crusher and Polaski. Bashir was a Lieutenant on DS9, the EMH on Voyager seems to have held a technical rank of Commander while Phlox from Enterprise wasn't in Star Fleet and as such doesn't seem to have held any official rank.

In the context of where they were serving this makes sense. We've seen multiple times that Star Ships get called in to deal with medical emergencies, and in such situations the Ships Doctor has authority even over the Captain unless the ship itself is at risk.
Larger ships, such as Kirk and Picard's Enterprises, would become the focus of any major medical missions with the Doctor on those ships becoming the senior medical officer on scene. So it makes sense that the Doctors on those ships would hold the rank of Commander, especially as (at least by TNG era) you have to take and pass an additional course and test to reach that rank*. After all they would be expected to command not only their own medical staff, but in major emergencies could also end up commanding the staff from other ships along with any medical personal who were already on scene.

Bashir was stationed on DS9 which couldn't by its nature go anywhere to deal with medical emergencies, while the Defiant's medical staff and facilities were the equivalent of having a medically trained police officer at an accident scene; Just good enough to determine how bad the situation actually is and start to lay the groundwork for dealing with it when or if larger teams can arrive. (In situations where Bashir is dealing with big emergencies without additional support he's either unable to get such aid, due to other ships being too far away, the station being under quarantine and on several occasions he is clearly working with local medical staff as well.)

The EMH is a different matter, as by definition he was intended for short term emergency use. It seems that the EMH does actually hold a technical rank of Commander, but that this is limited to purely medical duties and most likely so that he is in a position to give orders to any medical support staff on hand and/or call up any medically trained personal (such as Tom Paris) as needed. He is however probably subordinate to any flesh and blood Doctors assigned to the ship - although this was not an issue on Voyager.

Pholox wasn't in Star Fleet, and therefore didn't hold any official rank and was most likely technically a civilian. (Although he DID serve in the Deblobian military at one point and may retain his military rank from that time). Looking at how he worked and areas in which he was able to override the Captain it seems that his authority and duties were effectively identical to his counterparts some 200 years later. Which is interesting as it seems that while Star Fleet had a lot to learn and work out in Archer's time. The medical side of things and the duties of the ships Doctor was something they seem to have worked out rather well from the start.

In all of these cases however the Ships Doctor, while part of the Command Staff, was outside the chain of command. Or basically for those who don't understand what that means, they would not take command of the ship unless they were the only commissioned officer left on board. Something Doctor Polaski specifically notes in an episode.
Doctor Crusher IS seen to command two ships on TNG, the Enterprise herself (Decent 1&2) and the Pastor (All Good Things). In the first case Picard specifically asks or places her in command to free up other senior officers for a search. In the second the ship is identified as a medical ship and she holds the rank of Captain.
Pholox does end up commanding the NX 01 in one episode, but only because everyone else had to be placed in cryostasis.
Bashir does take command outside his normal medical duties once or twice. But this is down to him being the most senior and experienced officer by a large margin with a small group he was already in command of at the time - or in the case of O'Brian was the only commissioned officer present.
Voyagers EMH commands a ship on a couple of occasions, but ended up getting additional programming to allow him to do that (which is specified as being for emergencies should the rest of the command staff being unavailable and makes sense given Voyagers lack of suitable experienced officers).

(*Note; Polaski also notes that she wasn't interested in a command of her own at one point, which has raised the question as to why she held a Commanders rank when that would require her to have taken the Command Training Course/Test. The real world explanation is that the course in question was only invented 4 season's later to allow them to fill time showing Councillor Troi being promoted to full Commander. In universe however it is logical to assume that on a larger ship like the Enterprise, which would probably become the command ship in any major medical emergencies, the position of ships Doctor may require that the holder has the rank of Commander.

Star Trek or The Orville?

Those actors are in episode 3 of season 2 of The Orville.

And then there was a third doctor, Orville's Dr. Claire Finn, (Penny Johnson) who also played Kasidy Yates, Sisko's girlfriend freighter captain, in DS9.