- "The author doesn't know anything about science" (note that this is a red herring; if the author fucks up his science, we still must accept that this is the universe he created, no matter how stupid it is)
- "The effects were not meant to scrutinized so closely" (not only would this only reduce perceived accuracy, which doesn't mean much for order-of-magnitude calculations, but it is actually false in many cases; modern FX people often do work on such a minute level of detail that you won't notice half of their work until you do go frame-by-frame).
- "The shows are fictional" (I'm not sure why this means they can be analyzed in an unscientific manner but not a scientific one).
- "The shows are not meant to be realistic" (Again, note how the person somehow assumes that this slams the door on scientific approaches while leaving it open for unscientific approaches; if a show is not realistic, how does that make it OK to analyze it anyway, but without the benefit of a rational, objective method?)
Dave starts by saying that A can outrun some other guy in A's show. Pete points out that B can outrun some other guy in B's show. They quickly realize that they will come to an impasse. Dave starts talking about how A spent a lot of time training as a runner. Pete points out that B has very strong-looking leg muscles, and is probably a natural sprinter. Dave points out that some other character on A's show once said something about how A can probably outrun his car. B smacks him and says he's obviously being an idiot and interpreting obvious hyperbole as precise data.
Sooner or later, they realize that the only way to resolve the dispute is to watch the shows and (gasp!) perform some computations. Now, the equation is an extremely simple one from elementary kinematics: velocity = distance / time. But nevertheless, they must find scenes which can be roughly scaled, determine distances and times, and then use a calculator to figure out how fast each man runs. Only in this manner can a winner be determined.
So how is the above scenario different from sci-fi analysis? Answer: it isn't. All of the whining about calculations could be equally applied to this scenario. But of course, people wouldn't say it because it seems absurd. After all, the equation "velocity = distance / time" is obvious and valid, so it can most certainly be applied, right? What people need to realize is that many other scientific equations are equally valid, and the analogy applies.
As usual.
