Star Trek is turning 60 – and the vision it promised feels more distant than ever | Dave Schilling

The US's deployment of weaponry in space marks the latest backward step from the show's optimistic conception of the future

Who among us doesn't dream of space in their youth?

OK, maybe some of us. Like the ones with lives. While you were out playing hopscotch with little Jimmy and Susie, I was locked in my room mainlining episodes of Star Trek or the weird, sanitized version of Aliens that aired on broadcast TV. Fantastical science-fiction adventure seemed to offer more than playground games and actual human connection. Spaceships over relationships.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist