Kolaran The Kolarans were a humanoid pre - warp civilization native to Kolarus III . They lived in isolated pockets at an early stage of industrial development , comparable to mid - 20th century Earth . In 2379 , a Kolaran band encountered an armed away team from the that was salvaging the android B - 4 . The Kolarans attacked the away team with machine guns mounted on motorized wheeled vehicles , and chased them away from the planet . ( ) Background information . Although not identified on screen , the name " Kolarans " is derived from production notes , call sheets in particular , during the making of " Nemesis " . John Logan ' s script of " Star Trek Nemesis " didn ' t include much detail when describing the Kolarans , merely referring to them as " a nomadic tribe of desert aliens . " This allowed Michael Westmore a wide parameter to design their look . He felt the " natural way to go " was to base it on lizards . Since he had designed many aliens on lizards before , Westmore avoided a repeat by basing the Kolarans on turtles . " " You ' ve got these little , slow interlopers , " " he observed , " " but the coloring and texture and skin tones work so great that it was the animal of choice to base the exterior shapes and coloring on . " " Westmore directed six makeup artists to paint the Kolaran masks individually , with each artist ultimately painting five masks . " " I just told them what we wanted : base it on a hard shell , with a little bit of turtle coloring to it , a desert group . And we really didn ' t want to make them deep green or anything ; it had to be earth tones , like you ' d see on the back of a turtle . " " As with turtles , since they have different patterns and coloring on each shell , the Kolarans were made to look unique . Westmore didn ' t reveal to the artists what the others were doing , intending each mask to be different . He was pleased with the variances between them , stating , " " You put 10 of them together and you know they ' re from the same race but with different moms . " " ( ) While six makeup artists were developing the Kolaran masks , other makeup artists meanwhile created the actors ' head molds . A crucial detail was accidentally omitted until the last minute . " " We had two major sculptures , " " Michael Westmore explained , sighing . " " We got through the design , and just as we started to make the mold , somebody said , ' Well , you know , all these guys are wearing crash helmets underneath the makeup . " " The makeup hadn ' t been designed to incorporate a helmet underneath , and there wasn ' t enough time to account for this by restarting the process of creating the molds , this time with a helmet . Instead , the makeup team managed to salvage several weeks of work by making changes to the makeup which had already been crafted . " " So we cut it in two , peeled the sculpture off , drilled holes in the plaster head , measured the helmet , and added plaster onto the head to accommodate , " " Westmore concluded . ( ) The hand weapons used by the Kolarans were actually prop replicas of real present - day weapons with olive - colored fabrics wrapped around various sections . As shown by the It ' s A Wrap ! sale and auction , the weapons were modified replica - guns of the Valtro shotgun , the FN Herstal P - 90 , the Glock 17 , the Vickers machine gun - style jeep - turret guns , and other carbines .