Protoculture

In the Japanese TV series "Superdimension Fortress: Macross", a race of highly advanced sentient creatures, who created the giant Zentradi and Meltrandi warrior-races using genetic engineering techniques.

This race mysteriously disappeared from the galaxy eons ago, but ancient relics dug up on earth has led to speculation that Protoculture was somehow involved with the development of humanity. The fact that humans, Zentrans and Meltrans are all genetically compatible for reproductive purposes (although there are issues with size differences), is circumstantial evidence supporting this theory.

In the dubious Macek rewrite of Macross known as Robotech -- and in the Jack McKinney novelizations thereof -- the term "Protoculture" refers to a mysterious force that powers the engines and weapons systems of the SDF-1. The Zentraedi expeditionary force seeks to capture the SDF-1 for its Protoculture-based Robotechnology.

Later, it is revealed that the Protoculture Matrix stems from the control of the Invid Flower of Life, which the Robotech Masters stole from the Invid homeworld. In the McKinney version, at least, the Protoculture is a relatively transparent metaphor for sublimation in the Freudian sense. That is to say, the Protoculture energy is created when the reproductive process of the Invid Flower is artificially suppressed by means of an energy field. Considering the amount of sexual tension going on in the McKinney editions, the metaphor is quite apt.