Doctor Who - Age discrepancy in canon?

Just watched the latest trailer for the Voyage of the Damned, where the Doctor says he's "903 years old". He's been identified as "900" since the series came back, but I always took that as a rough figure, because in "Time and the Rani", the Doctor clearly states "953 - that's my age...and the Rani's." Anyone care to suggest a way that he can have gone forward three regenerations and back 50 years in his personal timeline? Or is it simply a matter of the new team smoothing over things at the expense of canon?

The age of the first Doctor was never stated in the series, but most fans consider him to be around 400, judging from the very first mention of the Doctor's age in "Tomb of the Cybermen".

The second Doctor told his companion, Victoria in "Tomb of the Cybermen" that he was 450 years old.

The third Doctor claimed to be thousands of years old on a number of occasions.

In "The Ribos Operation" the fourth Doctor tells Romana that he is 756, but Romana knows that his real age is 759.

In "Revalation of the Daleks" and "Trial of a Time Lord, the sixth Doctor states that he is 900 years old.

In "Time and the Rani" the seventh Doctor gives his age as 953.

The 9th Doctor, of course, also claimed to be 900 years old.

In "Utopia" the Doctor told Martha that it was a "lifetime ago", when the Tardis opened the rift in Cardiff (i.e. the events in "Boomtown"), in which case he should be getting close to 1000, if the 9th Doctor's age was accurate.

So as with quite a few long running plot points in Doctor Who, the Doctor's age in any given story is one of those things that is best not examined too closely. It's probably best to consider that he's been around for so long, and has been in so many different time zones, that he has simply lost track of his own age, and tells anybody who is interested a figure that seems likely to him.

Another possible explanation is that sometimes he gives his age in Earth years and sometimes in Gallifreyan years. So then it would depend on how long a Gallifreyan year is, compared to an Earth year. Another comparison that has never been made in the series, to the best of my knowledge.

Thay can not get his age right, one moment it's 900 years old the next 944 years old and now 903 years old.
But when the series started on November 23rd 1963 the first Doctor was 900 years old, so 44 years on he should be 944 years old dont you think.

The Doctor like most people is been a little coy about his age, I think you will when ou reach 900.

I was wondering this myself. I'm sure in one of the Virgin New Adventures he celebrates his 1000th birthday.
Eventually I concluded that some effect of the Time War had altered his age, or his memory of it. Or that he has spent 903 years as "The Doctor" and before that he was Theta Sigma or whoever else he used to be known as.

i agree with spacephantom