Nibiru Nibiru was an M - class planet , and the homeworld of the Nibiran s , a primitive pre - warp species . While the planet resembled tropical regions of Earth , it possessed red instead of green flora . It was also the home of an unknown species of docile quadruped mammals and large fish . The was sent to survey the planet in 2259 , where the crew discovered a volcano was going to erupt and render all life on the planet extinct . Though the Prime Directive forbade interfering in the planet ' s natural history , Captain decided to save Nibiru and its inhabitants . To avoid revealing themselves to the natives , a disguised Kirk entered the Nibiran settlement and stole their sacred scroll , drawing them into a chase . appeared with a quadruped to ride , but Kirk accidentally stunned it , forcing both of them to flee on foot and dive into the sea . Meanwhile , and rappelled in an environmental suit down into the volcano ' s magma chamber from a shuttlecraft to stop the eruption with a cold fusion device . From the " Enterprise " ' s bridge , Kirk , McCoy , Uhura , and Sulu learned they would not be able to beam Spock out of the magma chamber due to interference from the volcano . Despite Spock ' s demands to leave him while the device detonated so as to avoid breaking the Prime Directive any further , Kirk opted to lift the " Enterprise " out of the sea and fly to the volcano to get in range . Spock was beamed out in time , and the detonation flash - froze the magma chamber and rendered the volcano inert . Although the Nibirans saw the " Enterprise " and began worshiping the starship as a god , Kirk covered up the incident in his captain ' s log , prompting Spock to write an accurate report . Admiral admonished Kirk on his return to Earth , accused him of " playing god " , and informed him the Admiralty were taking the " Enterprise " from him and sending him back to Starfleet Academy . ( ) Background information . Creating the planet . Production Designer Scott Chambliss noted that everyone involved in wanted the film to begin on a tropical planet which felt special and different from Earth . " " The guys had written it as a beautiful island , " " remembered Chambliss , " " and it sounded like Fiji or somewhere like that , quite gorgeous and lush . The one thing that I immediately didn ' t want to do was go to some place that looked like a great vacation spot and shoot this . " " ( ) Prop designer John Eaves observed that , as the film developed and subsequent revisions were made to its script , the " village shrunk in size drastically to fit budget constraints . " Bearing in mind that Nibiru was to seem particularly alien , Scott Chambliss thought , " " Well , we don ' t want it to be green . " " In retrospect , he continued , " " So what are tropical environments other than green ? They are lush and green , green , green , green . I thought , ' Let ' s flip that and go red , red , red , red . Let all the vegetation be red . ' That was inspired by one of my favorite plants I see in Hawaii , which is a kind of bamboo . " " ( ) This impetus was lipstick bamboo , portions of whose trunks are typically magenta . Conceptual artwork featuring the red vegetation then started to be created . Scott Chambliss experimented with the idea of using the color via digital artwork . Said Chambliss , " " I took a photograph of timber bamboo , a beautiful jungle of it , and played with it in Photoshop and turned it really deep ruby red . " " He further recalled , " " I just started with an assistant messing around in Photoshop , messing around with bamboo forests and inverting the colors so that they become this lush ruby red . In flipping some of the other tones around , they became this mossy golden color . Suddenly , it felt like a tropical world , but was utterly different than what we ' ve seen . " " ( ) Chambliss deemed the result " beautiful . " Concept images showing extensive views of the planet , featuring the natural red materials , can be viewed here and . It was decided that Industrial Light & Magic would develop digital treatments to turn foliage into shades of red . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) The filmmakers experimented with the option of shooting the Nibiru scenes on location . Multiple locations were considered . ( ; " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Several backlots were also viewed . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) One site scouted by Director J . J . Abrams was Hawaii , but he opted not to film the sequence there , as the plants did not produce satisfactory results . " " In a funny way , I wanted to make it work , " " conceded Roger Guyett . " " I was kind of intrigued by it . The problem is of course , the jungle has many , many shades of green and it ’ s being lit by natural light which is not like a green highlight particularly , and it ’ s exterior , it ’ s very hot . We tried – we did a whole bunch of tests and thought there would be some mileage in there . What could work about this ? Well , I felt , if you did that it would feel weird . Maybe that ’ s OK , because you ’ re in a " Star Trek " world . The thing is , it didn ’ t just look weird , it also looked very kind of false . Kind of an electronic thing and not natural . " " The idea of moving the production company to a fairly distant location , incurring substantial logistical cost , was replaced by a more local approach . " " But there isn ' t any real jungle in Southern California , " " related J . J . Abrams , " " and the more ' foresty ' it became , the less interested I was in trying to turn pine needles red . " " J . J . Abrams suggested building a small section of red jungle as a practical set , to be created at Raleigh Studios ' Playa Vista lot . This plan was inspired by Abrams having been amazed by noticing , while working on " Lost " , how quickly plants obscure the distance . " " My gut feeling was , " " he recalled , " " we wouldn ' t need much foliage , and we could put up a bluescreen behind that to extend it , if we needed . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Regarding the red - colored vegetation that had been decided on , Roger Guyett concluded , " " At the end of the day , we realized that to really successfully do something like that , we had to build part of the planet . " " However , budget concerns were raised over the construction of the set . " " We ended up building a very small piece of forest , literally enough for them [ Kirk and McCoy ] to get up to speed and run , " " said Roger Guyett . ( ) The set was outdoors , contained foliage props as well as part of the volcano , and was constructed in Marina del Rey in California . Noted Guyett , " " We even had a little cliff edge that was probably three feet high . " " This set piece was used for the scene showing Kirk and McCoy , as portrayed by Chris Pine and Karl Urban respectively , diving into the Nibiran water . ( ) The area of the set which included the alien - looking foliage was a 75 - by - 100 - foot patch of forest , designed by Scott Chambliss and with vegetation comprised of bamboo and red leaves . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Jeremy Raymond , who portrayed the lead Nibiran , commented , " " Walking onto the Nibiru set for the first time was as close as I ’ ve ever come to being actually transported to an alien world . Everything was so wonderfully constructed , with a keen eye to detail , that you would walk up to any part of the set and scrutinize it closely and it would still seem real . " " Due to the smallness of the set , much of the views of Nibiru had to be rendered digitally by the film ' s visual effects team . " " Just about every shot of the forest , everything past 25 feet , is us , " " explained Roger Guyett . " " It was a huge endeavor . " " ( ) " " That being said , " " clarified Jeremy Raymond , " " there was far less green screen on " Star Trek " than most people might think . " " Using CGI , ILM modeled a Nibiran temple and rendered volcanic terrain based on US Geological Survey data of Mount St . Helens . The visual effects group also generated jungle extensions , creating an entirely digital jungle for the film ' s opening shot , which descends through the clouds above Nibiru . " " We spent a couple of days photographing trees in different lighting scenarios , " " remembered Barry Williams , " " That enabled us to place trees behind the set wherever we needed , and we used those textures as reference for modeling . We had 20 types of trees and variations on each of those , making 60 unique trees . We randomized scales and rotations , and that created a really nice organic look . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) The digital parts of the jungle were rendered in V - Ray . The scene depicting Kirk and McCoy jumping off a cliff into water below additionally required much visual effects . Roger Guyett explained , " " Chris Pine and Karl Urban are literally jumping three feet [ from the artificial cliff edge ] onto a mat . Everything you see over the edge is basically CG . " " ( ) As reference , the film ' s production crew filmed a down - angle of a cliff on the Californian coast . ILM then digitally manipulated the footage to exaggerate distance to the ocean . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Trivia . When quizzed for an in - universe reason the " Enterprise " was hidden underwater , Roberto Orci said a " " line of sight [ was ] necessary given [ the ] unstable and shifting magnetic field of [ the ] super volcano on alien planet . That ' s why no beaming . Gotta physically get back to the ship . " " Alex Kurtzman came up with the image of the ship rising out of the sea , but they acknowledged fans would find it questionable so they wrote Scotty ' s line questioning Kirk ' s decision . The docile animal Kirk shoots is a disguised version of the Drakoulias from . " " We gave it a shave and a spray tan , " " remembered Paul Kavanagh , " " and we re - rigged it with some new techniques we ' ve developed to handle quadropeds , which gave us better animation controls . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) According to the website FXGuide , the filmmakers dubbed the Nibiran version of the animal " Niborilla " . However , according to " Cinefex " ( No . 134 , p . 77 ) , this name is spelt " Nibirilla " . A deleted scene would have stated that Nibiru was newly discovered and the " Enterprise " mission was the one establishing that there was intelligent life there . According to Lauren Polizzi , the area of Nibiru shown was a volcanic island .