‘Dinosaur Planet’ Is The Greatest Story (About Space-Faring Dinosaurs) Ever Told (In a Rock Opera)

In the entire history of the universe, there have been few things more awesome than dinosaurs. Seriously, giant carnivorous monsters that occasionally had hilariously tiny arms? The only thing that could make them any better is if they were actually a race of ruthless space conquerors.

Which is, of course, the premise of Dinosaur Planet, a musical concept album by the UK's MJ Hibbet and the Validators that tells the story of the dinosaurs' invasion of England after 65 million years of conquering the stars as the kidnapped warriors of a race of giant robots. It's a hilarious concept album, and you can check it out in a video featuring the art of Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery creator John Allison right now!

According to Hibbet's liner notes, the idea for the album had its roots in the late '80s, when he was living with Doctor Neil, who is featured on the album as the voice of the Iguanadon. Neil was apparently a fan of cheap sci-fi paperbacks, which led to the two friends coining the term "dinosaur planet" as a shorthand for the entire genre. As the years went by, the simple concept turned into an idea for a musical, and thus the album was born.

The key idea here -- along the same lines of a recent plot thread in the always-amazing Adventures of Dr. McNinja -- is that the dinosaurs didn't go extinct, but rather launched themselves into space in a massive starship. And really, that's the perfect explanation for the crater and layer of iridium in the geologic record thought to be a product of the Cretatcous-Tertiary Extinction Event. It just makes sense.

Admittedly, it doesn't quite explain why the dinosaurs talk like pirates, but don't worry: Track 19 covers that question.

But if that premise and the video above aren't enough to convince you, don't worry: You can stream the entire album and find out all the twists and turns of the Great Space Dinosaur War and the moving love story within for free:

It's well worth picking up the full album, and while you can grab a digital copy above, I'd definitely recommend getting the hard copy, which features John Allison's awesome illustrations of the saga in the liner notes. It'll set you back £10 (or around $16 here in the good ol' U.S. of A.), but in a pretty cool move, that price includes shipping to anywhere in the world. As Hibbet says, "I don't see why you should pay more depending on where in the world you've ended up."

Which is a good thing. The entire world needs pop songs about space dinosaur romance -- now more than ever!