Is there anyway that a lanc controller can be connected to the Samurai such that the start/stop function will trigger record and passthrough the other functions from the lanc controller to the camera (such as zoom etc) without having a tape in the camera?

The camera (Canon XLH1 in this instance) doesn't issue the start/stop command over lanc unless there is a tape loaded. Clearly I would prefer not to have to have a tape in the camera. Not really understanding why the samurai doesn't just accept commands from a lanc controller.