Power Rangers Dino Thunder

Power Rangers Dino Thunder is the twelfth season of the television series, Power Rangers. This incarnation of Power Rangers was based on Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger, the 27th entry of Toei Company's long-running Super Sentai franchise. Dino Thunder was also the subtitle of the Korean dub of Abaranger in South Korea and had a similar/identical logo to the American version as well. The series is notable as it features the return of Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver as a main character and a dinosaur theme for the powers, abilities and assets from most of the series' protagonists and antagonists. It was the first series to be aired on ABC Family part of ABC as well as part of Jetix on Toon Disney.

Plot
A soccer player, a computer expert, a singer and eventually a teacher with a long history of such situations become Power Rangers to help save Earth from the ruthless scheming of the dinosauric Mesogog who wishes to eradicate all human life and return Earth to the age of dinosaurs. Mesogog is assisted in his ways by Elsa, Zeltrax, and an army each of both Tyrannodrones and Triptoids as well as monsters that they call their Mutations.

In this season, Tommy Oliver, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Power Rangers Turbo fame, returns as a paleontology professor in Reefside, California and so he is known as Dr. Tommy Oliver (sometimes called by some in short as Dr. O). When he is assigned three detention students by Principal Randall (the human disguise of Elsa): athlete Conner McKnight, computer expert Ethan James and singer Kira Ford. They end up finding three Dino Gems - one for each teen, paving the way for their destiny as the Dino Thunder Power Rangers. Conner gains the powers of both the Tyrannozord and super running speed, Ethan gains the powers of both the Tricerazord and energy-formed skin-shield defense and Kira gains the powers of both the Pterazord and sonic screams.

Five episodes into the series, Tommy once again becomes a Ranger by bonding with the Black Dino Gem and receives its power of invisibility as the Black Dino Ranger. They are also later joined by Anton Mercer's adopted son Trent (some media reveals his family name, after 'Mercer', to be 'Fernandez' - 'Fernandez-Mercer') as the White Dino Ranger, whose White Dino Gem grants him the power of camouflage - before he joins, he must deal with the inner struggle of good and evil (as Tommy himself once had to do as the evil Green Ranger) because he gained his powers from a raw Dino Gem in Mesogog's lab, with the powers originally intended to be Mesogog's. Mesogog is, in fact, Trent's adopted father, who, in a faulty lab experiment, began to mutate into Mesogog. Trent later sides with good and saves his father from the mutation.

The Rangers morph by drawing power from their respective Dino Gems, which Tommy grants Conner's, Ethan's and Kira's the ability to morph into Dino Morphers whenever needed (Morph call: "Dino Thunder, Power Up!"). They use their abilities to battle Mesogog. By calling out "Super Dino Mode", the Power Rangers tap into the power of the dinosaurs, with spikes extending into view on their suits and, in the case of Kira, wings with Trent's own Super Dino Mode possessing an exclusive extra factor: bladed thin spikes extending from his hands. Each Dino Gems has a special power; red is speed; blue is armor; yellow is hyper screeching; black and white are similar, being invisibility and camouflage, which means Tommy and Trent both use stealth-themed powers with their Gems. In Power Rangers Dino Fury, the Dino Gems are revealed to be created by the Morphin Masters.

During the course of the series, the team adds the following to its arsenal of Zords: Cephalozord (based on the Pachycephalosaurus), Dimetrozord (based on the Dimetrodon), Stegozord (based on the Stegosaurus), Parasaurzord (based on the Parasaurolophus), and Ankylozord (based on the Ankylosaurus). The Stegozord later combines with Trent's Dragozord (based on the Tupuxuara) to form the Dino Stegozord, effectively stealing the Stegozord. Tommy is paired with the Brachiozord (based on the Brachiosaurus), a carrier Zord for most, but not all, of the other Zords. Conner is also later given the powers of the Shield of Triumph to morph into the Triassic Ranger for extra power and pilots the Mezodon Rover/Megazord (based on the Styracosaurus), the Zord that corresponds with the Triassic Ranger powers, which can combine with the Cephalo, Dimetro, Parasaur and Ankylozords to form the Triceramax Megazord.

At the end of the series, the Rangers destroy Mesogog with their raw Dino Gem powers combined into a single last-resort attack which burns out the gems in the process. Just before this final battle, they are forced to sacrifice the Zords in their last battle with Zeltrax. Finally they return to their normal lives.

Cast and characters
Dino Thunder Rangers
 * James Napier as Conner McKnight, the Red Dino Ranger and Triassic Ranger.
 * Kevin Duhaney as Ethan James, the Blue Dino Ranger.
 * Emma Lahana as Kira Ford, the Yellow Dino Ranger.
 * Jason David Frank as Dr. Tommy Oliver, the Black Dino Ranger, and previously the Green Ranger, the White Ranger, the White Ninja Ranger, Red Zeo Ranger and the first Red Turbo Ranger.
 * Jeffrey Parazzo as Trent Fernandez-Mercer, the White Dino Ranger.

Supporting characters
 * Ismay Johnston as Hayley Ziktor.
 * Katrina Devine as Cassidy Cornell
 * Tom Hern as Devin Del Valle.
 * Latham Gaines as Dr. Anton Mercer.

Villains
 * Latham Gaines as Mesogog.
 * Miriama Smith as Elsa/Principal Randall.
 * James Gaylyn as the voice of Zeltrax.
 * Adam Gardiner as the voice of Evil White Dino Ranger Clone.

Guest stars
 * Pua Magasiva as Shane Clarke, the Red Wind Ranger.
 * Sally Martin as Tori Hanson, the Blue Wind Ranger.
 * Glenn McMillan as Waldo "Dustin" Brooks, the Yellow Wind Ranger.
 * Adam Tuominen as Hunter Bradley, the Crimson Thunder Ranger.
 * Jorgito Vargas, Jr. as Blake Bradley, the Navy Thunder Ranger.
 * Jason Chan as Cameron "Cam" Watanabe, the Green Samurai Ranger.
 * Grant McFarland as Sensei Kanoi Watanabe and Lothor.
 * Peter Rowley as the voice of Zurgane.
 * Katrina Browne as Kapri.
 * Katrina Devine as Marah.

Production
Jason David Frank, formerly a main cast member from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Power Rangers Turbo, returned to portray Tommy Oliver as a mentor for the new team as well as a fellow Power Ranger.

The episode "Legacy of Power", the 500th episode overall, featured a look back on all previous Power Rangers seasons. "Fighting Spirit" saw Tommy encounter his previous Ranger forms and aired on the eleventh anniversary of Power Rangers.

Dino Thunder was the first Power Rangers season to overtly acknowledge its Super Sentai roots with an episode entitled "Lost and Found in Translation," which featured a Japanese show based on the Power Rangers dubbed in English. In actuality, the footage used in that episode was from episode 10 ("Abare League Bind") of Dino Thunder's source series, Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger, dubbed in a manner similar to the comedic parody dub of Kagaku Sentai Dynaman in the late 1980s.

Video games
There were two games produced for Dino Thunder. On the Game Boy Advance, there was a sidescrolling game, which was a platformer involving fighting several villains from the series. The other game was produced for the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube. This was the first Power Rangers game produced on a sixth generation console. All the action takes place inside the zords. This game also had some inconsistencies with the television series to allow the action to take place in the zords while battling the regular enemies who were human size.

Home media
In the United States, the series was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on five volumes, consisting of the first twenty-four episodes, except for Episode 10:
 * Day of the Dino (June 1, 2004, episodes 1-3, also includes Episodes 37-38 of Ninja Storm)
 * Legacy of Power (September 7, 2004, episodes 4-8)
 * White Thunder (September 7, 2004, episodes 9, 11-14)
 * Collision Course (December 7, 2004, episodes 15-19)
 * Triassic Triumph (December 7, 2004, episodes 20-24)

These volume sets were also released in regions where BVHE held distribution rights, however, Volume 1 does not include the bonus Ninja Storm episodes. In countries where licensing was held by Jetix Europe, releases depended on the region or distributor.

BVHE released the complete series in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2008, on a seven-disc boxset. In the United States, Shout! Factory released the complete series on a five-disc set on October 18, 2016 in the United States.