10 Most Paused Doctor Who Moments
9. Matt Smith Bares All? (The Lodger)
The Mandela Effect describes a shared false memory and was coined by historical and paranormal researcher Fiona Broome, who, along with many others, incorrectly remembered Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s.
One rather unexpected example of the Mandela Effect in Doctor Who came in the days following the broadcast of The Lodger in 2010.
A handful of viewers genuinely believed that Matt Smith was naked in the scene where the Eleventh Doctor drops his towel after rushing to get out of the shower. Fans were encouraged to pause the scene in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Smith's, well... sonic screwdriver, and the story got so big that it even started making news headlines.
Matt Smith of course was not nude in the scene, but a BBC spokesperson and the actor himself still came out to deny the story. Smith told the press that he was wearing "flesh-coloured trunks" and that fans "definitely didn't see more." He also said that nudity on a Saturday teatime "wouldn't be proper", which is about the most British response you could possibly get.
So there we have it, fans were simply experiencing a false memory. Almost like there was something... in the corner of their eye.