Nibiran The Nibirans were a primitive humanoid species native to the M - class planet Nibiru . Physiology . Nibirans were tall bipeds with white , chalky skin . Their eyes were black , without apparent pupils with an eyelid on the bottom of each eye . They also had four nostrils and pointed teeth , but no ears . Ceremonially , Nibirans wore painted black lines signifying tribal markings . History . As of 2259 in the alternate reality , the Nibirans , by Starfleet standards , were not very technologically advanced . They did possess basic knowledge such as writing , as evidenced by a scroll which they held sacred . Starfleet Admiral described them as " having barely discovered the wheel " . At the time , the Nibirans were under threat of extinction from an erupting volcano . Their sacred scroll was stolen from a Nibiran temple by a disguised Captain , who snatched the scroll to draw the Nibirans away from their settlement below the volcano without breaking the Prime Directive . The plan working , all Nibirans who had been in the temple chased after Kirk . After he and left the scroll on a tree to end the Nibirans ' pursuit , the Nibirans began to worship the scroll as Kirk and McCoy dived into the sea , where the was hidden . The Nibirans recoiled in horror as they saw the first stage of the volcano ' s eruption destroy their home . The retrieval of from the volcano , where he had been deploying a cold fusion device to stop the eruption , necessitated a breach of the Prime Directive ; the Nibirans gazed in awe as the " Enterprise " rose out of the sea and flew to the volcano , and then flew off after beaming up Spock before the cold fusion device detonated . The Nibirans had a clear enough view of the " Enterprise " to later draw a detailed picture of it in the soil , and began venerating it as a deity . Later , Admiral Pike informed Kirk he had been demoted for " playing God " and interfering in the Nibirans ' development . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Designing the species . Months of careful planning were required – by Lead Creature Designer Neville Page , Makeup Artist Heather Langenkamp , and the rest of the makeup team which worked on – before the Nibirans ' visual aesthetic could be agreed upon . One potentiality was using CGI for the facial designs . " " With the expense of computer - generated art for film , and the fact there was going to be 20 of these tribe members , " " explained Langenkamp , " " I think they quickly decided they wanted a great make - up . " " ( ) However , inventing how the makeup would look was extremely challenging . Langenkamp remarked , " " There were a lot of those characters and they wanted them to all look unique , but they didn ' t have a ton of money [ . . . ] So that was in the works for seven or eight months , designing what that would be . " " Neville Page was instrumental in devising the Nibirans ' physical design . Noted Heather Langenkamp , " " Neville came up with some good ideas about creating a primitive tribe . " " ( ) According to Page himself , " " The thing that really drove [ the Nibirans ' appearance ] was the find of a particular guy to play our main Nibiran . His physical state is so interesting and unique that it allowed us to do very little makeup work to create a really unique creature . " " This influential actor was Jeremy Raymond , whose pronounced cranium , strong jaw , and highly developed neck and shoulder muscles were particularly inspirational when it came time to design the extraterrestrials . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) The performer recalled that – even before he knew which part he would be playing in the film – the makeup artists asked him " to send down a bunch of reference photos for them to draw conceptual sketches on top of . " David LeRoy Anderson said of Raymond , " " He became the model for all the Nibiran artwork that Neville produced . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) At a production meeting regarding these concept images , Director J . J . Abrams issued the suggestion , " " Just . . . before you get into adjusting his nose or changing things , let ' s just look and see what " he " looks like . It ' ll be great to sort of find something with the most basic version of him , so he can really perform it . " " Moments later , it was humorously realized that an initially unrecognizable closeup of the early extraterrestrial design centered on the alien ' s crotch area . Shortly thereafter , Raymond began participating in makeup tests for the species . With the vegetation on the Nibiran island having a striking red color , a skin color for the aliens themselves also had to be decided on , as did the texture of the skin . Recalled Heather Langenkamp , " " What we came up with is this white , chalky skin that was very flakey , like mud was all over it . But coming up with this mud that was going to stick on an actor ' s body all day long , look the same all day , and not be reapplied , was very challenging . One of our artists , Jamie Kelman , really spent a good four weeks with a gentleman , applying different formulas of this clay every day . We also needed a make - up you could do within five hours [ . . . ] It was very challenging . " " Other necessities of the " mud " were that it had to be made from entirely natural materials and that these could be washed off easily . ( ) Working from the concept drawings done by Neville Page as well as from lifecastings of Jeremy Raymond , David Anderson ' s makeup team ultimately created the Nibiran makeups . Specifically , Jamie Kelman developed full - body latex and clay makeup for Raymond and multiple stunt performers . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , pp . 74 & 77 ) " " " It was a series of layers of clay put on each man , " " explained Heather Langenkamp . Each layer of clay would first be applied to the performer ' s body then dried , creating textured surfaces that Langenkamp defined as having a " real crackly , flaking - off look . " She enthused , " " It ' s a real fun look to think about . " " Noted Raymond , " " Of course the incredible special effects makeup was the result of a lot of hours of hard work by David Anderson and Jamie Kelman . " " " " So our Nibirans – of all the things that we were designing on the show , in terms of character – were probably one of the most collaborative and irritative designs , " " commented Page . " " This particular design was very challenging because it had changed over the course of time , from the very , very beginning of the film , when it was all CG , to now , where it ' s actual actors in makeup . " " Jeremy Raymond was interviewed while the base layer of white " skin " was being brushed onto his body ; still to be applied was some mud and costuming , before J . J . Abrams saw the design and gave his comments on it . Upon witnessing the makeup , Abrams stated , " " I would argue it ' s probably a better thing to just go . . . all mud , all white , and then the mud paint stuff . " " Similar to how the creation of the Nibiran makeup had been a lengthy process , its maintenance was also to take up much time . One Nibiran - playing performer observed , " " They ' re very well - maintained aliens . " " Applying the makeup to each performer ended up taking around five hours . ( ) The recollections of this procedure have slightly differed . Heather Langenkamp recalled there was " a crew of about 20 people , maybe even 30 people all told , working to get these men ready " over a period of " four or five hours , " in which the clay kept being layered then dried . David Anderson outright stated , " " It took a team of 30 A - list makeup artists six hours to ready the tribe . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Langenkamp commented , " " Doing it was tough [ . . . ] The costume department also really participated by developing a few zip - suits that the guys in the very - far background could just zip themselves into so that we wouldn ' t have to prepare their whole bodies . " " Anderson further offered , " " We flanked Jeremy with prosthetic lookalikes . Behind them , we used vacuformed masks of the same sculpture that actors wore beneath hooded robes . Anytime a Nibiran had to speak , we changed Jeremy ' s tribal markings and flipped his position in the group so he played all the speaking roles , and the characters appeared identical beneath their paint . " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) A total of about twenty to thirty Nibiran actors were on set . Aspects of Nibiran culture . The design of the Nibirans relied on contributions from many different departments which worked on " Star Trek Into Darkness " . Having been granted first - hand experience of seeing the creation of the Nibiran species , Jeremy Raymond admitted , " " What was amazing to me was to see how organically the whole process was evolving – the performance would inspire changes in makeup , which would inspire changes in the costume , which would then shape the performance in new ways . " " Aside from himself , Page and J . J . Abrams , Raymond pointed out that a few other people " were absolutely instrumental to the creation of the Nibirans , " not only citing David Anderson and Jamie Kelman but also saying , " " [ Costume Designer ] Michael Kaplan and his wardrobe team created a stunning array of costumes and designs that were wonderful to play around in . " " Michael Kaplan used draped and dyed fabric for the Nibirans . " " We wanted something that was not too sophisticated , so that it would be very recognisable as a primitive race , " " he stated . " " The planet is all red , so I chose saffron gold , because it pops out . " " Nibiran weaponry constituted the first material from " Star Trek Into Darkness " that prop designer John Eaves was assigned to work on , though he wasn ' t given much details about the species to take inspiration from . " " The first volley of designs centered around a primitive alien civilization who used blow guns , clubs and spears [ . . . ] So , with that said , I was off to research dart guns and a host of other primitive weapons and give them a bit of a " Star Trek " twist , " " Eaves related . He also noted that , as the film developed and underwent subsequent revisions , " the grand alien nation [ . . . ] shrunk in size drastically to fit budget constraints , " resulting in many prop concepts which he had developed ending up by the wayside . Unused concepts for Nibiran tools that were thought up and illustrated by Eaves include saddles , a " rock - throwing running stick , " as well as other examples of " savage gear " including a short spear and a longer equivalent , stones made easy for throwing with fabric tied around them , a " shell club " , and a sling . The artwork additionally encompassed at least four pages showing illustrations of blow guns . Linguist Marc Okrand invented a Nibiran language . However , it was ultimately removed from the film . Likewise omitted from the movie was a deleted scene in which Kirk , recording a false version of events in , reported the discovery of the Nibirans . In this log entry , he described them as an " intelligent " but " primitive " species with indications of early language and religion . CGI embellishments . Industrial Light & Magic enhanced live - action close - ups of Nibirans by adding bird - like nictitating membranes which flickered upward across the aliens ' eyeballs . Additionally , a group of CGI animators at ILM replicated Nibirans using digital animation and motion capture technology , as J . J . Abrams wanted a massive throng of Nibirans to be shown chasing Kirk and McCoy . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) Abrams wanted the digital doubles to be present in the background . " " I volunteered to shoot motion capture on our stage at ILM , " " admitted ILM Animation Supervisor Paul Kavanagh . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) He consequently donned a motion - capture suit . " " I got into character , " " said Kavanagh , " " and acted out multiple action clips in our 30 - foot motion capture volume . It was quite exhausting . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) He therefore thought he was perhaps not the best choice for performing the motion capture , though he nonetheless had fun doing so , later recalling , " " I ran around the stage doing the praying and getting on my knees , which was quite funny . " ” Animators used keyframe animation to augment the motion capture data , prior to digitally inserting a crowd of 120 rampaging Nibirans . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 77 ) For the scene showing the Nibirans awed by the " Enterprise " , ILM artificially dwarfed the aliens in relation to the vessel . Although such an effect was generally avoided because it can lessen the seeming reality of a shot , the creative staff thought it appropriate for the view of the Nibirans facing the " Enterprise " s comparatively enormous deflector dish . " " We wanted to make the Nibs feel very small in the face of this gigantic object , " " mused ILM Visual Effects Co - Supervisor Pat Tubach , " " and that causes them to abandon their religion to worship the " Enterprise " . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 81 ) Apocrypha . At the end of the " Star Trek " video game , a post - end - credit scene has Kirk recording in his log that Christopher Pike has issued him a new mission to visit the planet Nibiru . The " Enterprise " is then shown warping to that planet . This is a direct lead - up from the end of the " Star Trek " video game to the opening scene of " Star Trek Into Darkness " . Kirk describes it as a " humanitarian mission , " foreshadowing his later interference on their behalf . Spock also mentions the mission in his log , stating that the captain ( Kirk ) had informed them about the mission , but hadn ' t yet told them any details ; Spock felt it would be a " fascinating experience , " regardless .