Phaser Beam in Blender... A little help?

Polaris 004

I want to do basic next gen phaser beams in Blender, but I haven't figured out how to do it.

My best look is to animate a single edge coming out of the saucer. Looks great, great glow and everything. But I have to animate the edge coming out of the saucer, so I shrink it to hide the beam in the saucer. As it comes out, the distance between the verts naturally changes and the halo effect "thins out." Too bad, because otherwise that method would be a go.

My other method is to animate a thin cylinder in a similar fashion. I give the texture noise, make it a bit opaque, and turn the Emit way up. Not bad, it certainly animates a constant material look, but it still looks a bit too "Solid" to be an energy beam.

Any ideas? Do I have to animate the cylinder, and then give it a glow using nodes or something?